Vice Presidential Nomination question

JK21

NROTC Midshipman
Joined
Aug 15, 2020
Messages
11
To my understanding, the Service Academies pick who receives the Vice Presidential Nomination. Is there anyway of knowing if the Service Academies want you to receive said nomination? Do you have any indication that you are or will be considered by them for this coveted nomination? Or, does the situation play out like you haven't received a nomination yet, things are looking grim for you, but then all of a sudden you are notified that you received the Vice Presidential Nomination?
 
To my understanding, the Service Academies pick who receives the Vice Presidential Nomination. Is there anyway of knowing if the Service Academies want you to receive said nomination? Do you have any indication that you are or will be considered by them for this coveted nomination? Or, does the situation play out like you haven't received a nomination yet, things are looking grim for you, but then all of a sudden you are notified that you received the Vice Presidential Nomination?
Yes, the latter. It’s usually accompanied by shouts of joy and happy dances when you notice it in your portal.
 
DS submitted the application for a Vice Presidential nomination last night. It wasn't until afterward that he noticed the webpage was specific to the Trump administration and that other administrations had their own application pages in the past. Considering we'll have a new administration today, was this a mistake to do last night? Will his information be forwarded to the academy? He has not gotten any confirmation email that his application was received, etc.
 
@ThunderLizard That’s a great question, but it was not a mistake filling it out last night. It’s a similar situation to when a congressman gets voted out of office, but they still are responsible for nominations in that cycle. You are right, there will be a new administration sworn in today. However, the past administration is the one responsible for nominations for this admissions cycle. The confirmation emails are sent out later on in the process. Last year I got a confirmation email that the academy has gotten my request for a vp nomination on the 11th of February.
 
I wouldn't be surprised if it is just VP in general and not based on who is in office since the discretion is up to the Academies and NOT the actual VP.
I write this as a veteran (non-military type) of a past White House staff and presidential administration. There are, in fact, two parts of the office of the President and Vice President. One part is the political side, serving the President directly (“at the pleasure of the President,” we used to say) and only for as long as he/she is in office. The other part is the “permanent bureaucracy,” charged with running the White House operations regardless of who’s in office.

I don’t know for sure but I have a very strong and educated hunch that it’s the latter that tends to VP nominations. Those nominations are not political in nature, so have no reason to be overseen by the political apparatus. The VP nomination process is surely a seamless, behind-the-scenes system that carries on regardless of who won an election. (That website for Vice President Pence? Think of it as a screen that cloaks the real machinations. The screen may change at noon today, but the machinations will be the same, i.e. VP nominations will be granted as they are every year.)
 
My younger DS applied for the VP Nomination for USAFA, but he never received any letter saying that his application has been received. Should he be concerned?
 
My younger DS applied for the VP Nomination for USAFA, but he never received any letter saying that his application has been received. Should he be concerned?
Confirmation emails tend to come in around February for the VP nomination.
 
My "experience" with VP nominations.

For those of you that don't know it, this is my 26th "cycle" as an ALO; in March I'll have been an ALO for 26 years. In that time, I have personally only seen ONE VP nomination in my state. That was last year and it involved one of MY candidates! She and I were so shocked to see the notice on her portal that we checked it on two computers!

The process works as folks have said above; the academy controls this one, the Office of the VP isn't involved. Who does the academy look for for the VP nomination? I can only use my candidate from last year: AFJROTC Corps Commander at her school, ACT's in the low/mid 30's, 4.30GPA, top 5% of her class of 550, three-sport varsity athlete, STUCO, boatloads of volunteer hours...you get the idea. She had an LOA and no nomination. She did have appointments to USNA and USMA.

Sometime in April if I recall correctly, the VP nom appeared. At that point, cue what CaptMJ said: much dancing, shouting, and happy dances.

And that was how it happened. The one and only one I've seen in all that time.

And my candidate/former student?

She was soldier of the quarter or semester or something...a big feather...at West Point last semester. She's a plebe.

Steve
USAFA ALO
USAFA '83
 
VPRE2 nom just updated to DS USMA portal! He previously was nominated by our MOC & 1 SEN so all 3 now listed. Of course we did not see this as a possibility or understand what it may mean? Our FFR recently informed DS he is on the NWL. I haven't found any threads that touch on this scenario? He is focused only on Army and was awarded and 4 year AROTC on 2nd board which he will do if no appt offer arrives.
 
VPRE2 nom just updated to DS USMA portal! He previously was nominated by our MOC & 1 SEN so all 3 now listed. Of course we did not see this as a possibility or understand what it may mean? Our FFR recently informed DS he is on the NWL. I haven't found any threads that touch on this scenario? He is focused only on Army and was awarded and 4 year AROTC on 2nd board which he will do if no appt offer arrives.
Great news on the unicorn known as the VP nom wandering into your son’s portal.

This COULD mean that they selected someone else off the Senator and Rep slates to offer the appointments that would be charged to those elected officials, and have other plans for their other discretionary noms, and decided to invest a VP nom in your son. If those slates used the principal nom method and didn’t choose your son, it could be USMA’s way of selecting their own choice. Could, could, could. Put a foot on that brain hamster and try to just wait with an open mind.
Good luck!

You know you just shook the hopes of all USMA applicants hoping for that unicorn to wander into their portal. 😱
 
Great news on the unicorn known as the VP nom wandering into your son’s portal.

This COULD mean that they selected someone else off the Senator and Rep slates to offer the appointments that would be charged to those elected officials, and have other plans for their other discretionary noms, and decided to invest a VP nom in your son. If those slates used the principal nom method and didn’t choose your son, it could be USMA’s way of selecting their own choice. Could, could, could. Put a foot on that brain hamster and try to just wait with an open mind.
Good luck!

You know you just shook the hopes of all USMA applicants hoping for that unicorn to wander into their portal. 😱
I thought I would provide an update. Well, IT HAPPENED today. DS notified by MOC.
Thank you @Capt MJ for your advise, although I don't think I did very good the last couple weeks. This forum has been very helpful on many topics. Good luck to all waiting candidates.
 
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