Competitive district question

T

thecda

Member
Joined
Jun 29, 2023
Messages
19
Hello, i’m from Minnesota and was wondering if anyone had any insight on how competitive the state is. I have already received 2 nominations but just wondering how competitive the state is/ how many people can be appointed in one year for my state.
 
Each MOC and Senator has 5 slates in four years. You might be able to find out how many slates your district and Senators have this year. Usually it’s one, occasionally two.

Every slate is competitive if there is one good candidate on your slate.

You can’t worry about things not in your control.
 
Expect to wait until the end of February. Really depends on which District.
 
A1Janitor said:
Each MOC and Senator has 5 slates in four years. You might be able to find out how many slates your district and Senators have this year. Usually it’s one, occasionally two.

Every slate is competitive if there is one good candidate on your slate.

You can’t worry about things not in your control.
Click to expand...
It also depends on the year. Sometimes a really uncompetitive slate can get really competitive depending on the year. I'm sure that there is a really competitive district that isn't as competitive once every 50 years.
 
It only takes one other more stellar candidate to beat someone out. So, pretty much every slate is "competitive." But, if you are going against 300 other kids competing to get on a slate, that is next level of competition. I would find it hard to believe that would happen in your state.
 
IronmanDaremo said:
It only takes one other more stellar candidate to beat someone out. So, pretty much every slate is "competitive." But, if you are going against 300 other kids competing to get on a slate, that is next level of competition. I would find it hard to believe that would happen in your state.
Click to expand...
My senators had over 300 applications this year...
 
To answer OP a bit more directly. MN SA applicants typically are more likely to seek USAFA noms than USMA and USNA - a lot having to do with proximity. MN is usually very competitive in terms of applicant qualifications but has less total applicants. They tend to be on the right end of the ACT bell curve compared to other states. In recent years they had the number 1 grad and a brigade commander. 3rd district is always very competitive, as is 6th. 1st can be very competitive because of Rochester and 8th because of Duluth. 5th has fewest nom applicants but very strong for those that do apply.

MN has no bases and the fewest AD per cap of any state, so that’s a big factor. Far from an ocean. Very strong employment. Private schools are some of the best in the nation and some extremely strong public schools. Your competition will have ACT over 34, multiple sports, possibly D1 hockey recruit (men and women).

Don’t let ANY of this info or other about your “competition” discourage you. You don’t know your competition and you don’t know how anyone is going to fit in a class. 3 years ago, there were 22 appointments-MN had 2 senators and 8 congressional districts.
 
Last edited:
thecda said:
Hello, i’m from Minnesota and was wondering if anyone had any insight on how competitive the state is. I have already received 2 nominations but just wondering how competitive the state is/ how many people can be appointed in one year for my state.
Click to expand...
I can tell you that MN 05 and 07 have averaged less than 12 applications each over the last 3 application cycles.
 
thecda said:
how many people can be appointed in one year for my state.
Click to expand...
This is not really limited/controlled.
While the number of "slots" allocated to Senators and House Members can be easily estimated, this does not account for Presidential, Secretary (Enlisted Noms) or Qualified Alternates. The non Senatorial/Congressional numbers can be substantial as can be seen in my (non Minnesota) district which has seen 10 or more to a single academy in a year in the recent past.
 
OldRetSWO said:
This is not really limited/controlled.
While the number of "slots" allocated to Senators and House Members can be easily estimated, this does not account for Presidential, Secretary (Enlisted Noms) or Qualified Alternates. The non Senatorial/Congressional numbers can be substantial as can be seen in my (non Minnesota) district which has seen 10 or more to a single academy in a year in the recent past.
Click to expand...
Does SA build class with LOAs playing into slots or appointments ? For example, if there are 10 LOAs in one state and all 3Q’ed with nominations, the SA will take those, correct?
 
dberkeley said:
Does SA build class with LOAs playing into slots or appointments ? For example, if there are 10 LOAs in one state and all 3Q’ed with nominations, the SA will take those, correct?
Click to expand...
We don’t know. If there are other candidates on a slate they want, they will assign them elsewhere. If the slate is weak, they will assign the LOA to that slate.
 
An LOA is a guaranteed offer of appointment if all conditions are met. Assuming there are 10 from one area, and they have all satisfied conditions, then the Noms and Appointments team has their work cut out for them to assign their appointment to for a nom bucket! Yes, they would offer an official appointment if all conditions are met as requested for each one. I'm sure that all goes into their calculus for filling out the class.

In other words, I would seriously doubt anyone here can give you a definitive answer. ;)
 
I am from Southern California, I already turned in my APP for USNA… now just need to wait for a response. I hear that California as a whole is a competitive state, by chance does anyone know how competitive the Southern California region is?
 
Let's simplify this.

First, because USNA is obligated to appoint only one qualified candidate from each MOC slate, it takes only one -- ONE -- candidate with better credentials than you to make it a competitive district. So unless you're positive that you're credentials are better than anyone else's, you should consider your district competitive.

Second, USNA knows that some districts have far more qualified candidates -- and far higher interest -- than others. For example, Northern Virginia and parts of Texas and North Carolina. So it's common for those districts to have multiple qualified candidates be appointed (with the appointments being charged to different sources). This largely mitigates the issue of competitiveness. Yes, qualified candidates in "competitive" districts are left out. But that happens to qualified candidates in "non-competitive" districts as well.

Third, none of this really matters in the end, because there's nothing you can do about it. You're not going to move or otherwise change your residency. Your district is your district, so instead, focus on what you control and otherwise let the chips fall where they may.
 
Academyprep100 said:
I am from Southern California, I already turned in my APP for USNA… now just need to wait for a response. I hear that California as a whole is a competitive state, by chance does anyone know how competitive the Southern California region is?
Click to expand...
None of us know unless one of sits on the moc panel for your specific district. Typically Southern Cali is competitive overall.
 
MidCakePa said:
Let's simplify this.

First, because USNA is obligated to appoint only one qualified candidate from each MOC slate, it takes only one -- ONE -- candidate with better credentials than you to make it a competitive district. So unless you're positive that you're credentials are better than anyone else's, you should consider your district competitive.

Second, USNA knows that some districts have far more qualified candidates -- and far higher interest -- than others. For example, Northern Virginia and parts of Texas and North Carolina. So it's common for those districts to have multiple qualified candidates be appointed (with the appointments being charged to different sources). This largely mitigates the issue of competitiveness. Yes, qualified candidates in "competitive" districts are left out. But that happens to qualified candidates in "non-competitive" districts as well.

Third, none of this really matters in the end, because there's nothing you can do about it. You're not going to move or otherwise change your residency. Your district is your district, so instead, focus on what you control and otherwise let the chips fall where they may.
Click to expand...
To give an example of this - I live in Northern Virginia. While some of these were probably other nom sources as well, my district sent over 20 students to the different service academies last year.
 
So. Cal. has San Diego and Long Beach, two of the biggest naval bases for the U.S. as well as large Marine contingents and home to the BUDS training. So, yeah, lots of Navy brats who want to follow their parents into service (I know, those are where a lot of my ship experiences took place as a kid. My little sis was born in Long Beach while Dad was stationed there). I would imagine it is pretty "competitive!"
 
IronmanDaremo said:
So. Cal. has San Diego and Long Beach, two of the biggest naval bases for the U.S. as well as large Marine contingents and home to the BUDS training. So, yeah, lots of Navy brats who want to follow their parents into service (I know, those are where a lot of my ship experiences took place as a kid. My little sis was born in Long Beach while Dad was stationed there). I would imagine it is pretty "competitive!"
Click to expand...
Of interest is that one of the congressional districts in San Diego, and 3 in the Long Beach area are currently listed as under-represented for Annapolis, including the one I used to live in (CA-44 which is parts of LB, Lakewood and San Pedro). I was frankly shocked to find out that information. If I had known that information, we may have moved back a year or so ago. :)
 
Wow, that is shocking! I would have thought there would be a lot of kids going for it from there!

Our Naval housing was in San Pedro (dating myself there ..... it would have been around 1982).
 
USMC Crayons said:
Of interest is that one of the congressional districts in San Diego, and 3 in the Long Beach area are currently listed as under-represented for Annapolis, including the one I used to live in (CA-44 which is parts of LB, Lakewood and San Pedro). I was frankly shocked to find out that information. If I had known that information, we may have moved back a year or so ago. :)
Click to expand...
How do you see whether a district is under-represented?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top