Southern Arizona resident here. Rural southern Arizona doesn't mean that you are not in a district with half of Tucson because of how the districts are broken up. If you are south east Arizona you are in a district that has a fair portion of Tucson (read DM Air Force Base) and Sierra Vista (Ft. Huachuca Army) so the military is well known and highly competitive in those districts. If you are southwest Arizona, you include some of Yuma which has heavy Marine influence. Even though you are rural, military has a huge presence in those two districts and they are competitive. Are they as competitive as Colorado Springs is for Air Force or Annapolis area for USNA? No. There is influence though so you won't be the only one walking into the office. To give you an idea (and I am dating myself with this info) when I went through the process in 2010 for the class of 2015, the senators interviewed 50 people each. My representative at the time interviewed I think 50-75 for all academies. Not everyone got an interview. Some people got more than 1 nomination though. I ended up with 2 for AF and 1 for Navy. The senators at the time tried not to duplicate nominations for kids to the same academy to spread out state nominations. All this to say, best of luck! You will have competition, but they do their best to recognize talent and spread out nominations to maximize the number of kids presented to the academies from the state.
Arizona, how competitive is it for nominations?
- Thread starter Heatherg21
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Old Navy BGO
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I'm not sure where you get the impression that the role of the BGO is to make a candidate look good, but it is not correct. Your description of the BGO as the "human interaction aspect of the application" is accurate...I often tell my candidates to tell me something about themselves that they don't think comes through in the application, but the BGO is not an advocate for, or against, a Candidate.
The primary role of the BGO is promoting awareness of the Naval Academy (but we aren't recruiters). We serve as field representatives for the Admissions office, sort of the the "eyes and ears" , and are available to answer questions about USNA and the application process. We can answer general questions about how competitive our region is, but the BGO really shouldn't make any representation or comment on how competitive a particular candidate is. Frankly, we don't have enough information to do so.
Finally, the comment about worrying about what to ask is only part true. Contrary to popular belief, there is such thing as asking a stupid question. The BGO isn't there to hold your hand , and initial impressions count. Do your homework first...read the entire USNA.edu web page first, and then, when you have some background knowledge, then call your BGO and ask questions that demonstrate that you have the motivation and initiative to try to do your own research first.
Old Navy BGO
10-Year Member
- Joined
- Jan 5, 2012
- Messages
- 4,614
I'm not sure where you get the impression that the role of the BGO is to make a candidate look good, but it is not correct. Your description of us as the "human interaction aspect of the application" is accurate...I often tell my candidates to tell me something about themselves that they don't think comes through in the application, but the BGO is not an advocate for, or against, a Candidate.
The primary role of the BGO is promoting awareness of the Naval Academy (but we aren't recruiters). We serve as field representatives for the Admissions office, sort of the the "eyes and ears" , and are available to answer questions about USNA and the application process. We can answer general questions about how competitive our region is, but the BGO really shouldn't make any representation or comment on how competitive a particular candidate is. Frankly, we don't have enough information to do so.
Finally, the comment about worrying about what to ask is only part true. Contrary to popular belief, there is such thing as asking a stupid question. The BGO isn't there to hold your hand , and initial impressions count. Do your homework first...read the entire USNA.edu web page first, and then, when you have some background knowledge, then call your BGO and ask questions that demonstrate that you have the motivation and initiative to try to do your own research first.
Oh, and by the way....."those guys" are often women.
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- 6,183
Hi!
Okay...my seventy-nine cents worth. I've been an ALO for USAFA for 25 years (think B&GO). In that time, I've helped put about 110 kids into USAFA from AZ, as well as five to USMA, two to USMMA, and six to USNA. For 10 years I sat on the nomination board of a MOC and a USS. From my perspective...
AZ is a highly competitive state, let no one tell you otherwise. Now, is it as highly competitive for Kings Point as Annapolis? That answer is no. From sitting on those boards, what I saw was there's a LARGE interest in the "big three" academies in AZ with USNA and USAFA "usually" being the most highly sought. How many applicants? That's up and down every cycle and I can only speak accurately for USAFA. This year we had over 230 candidates for appointment. When I sat on my congressman's board, we typically would interview (between the three nom teams he had) 50-70 kids. From that group there'd "usually" be 10 nom's to each academy although some years we saw more to USMA and USNA. The nom's to USMMA were often given to applicants that said that was something they were interested in and would accept. It was not common that we had an applicant that said "my first choice is King's Point."
Now...when I sat on Senator Flake's board...we had something like 20 members that worked in teams of 2 and we'd interview 130-180 kids in a day.
So why am I "saying" all this? Because too many folks focus upon "how competitive is my district, state, etc." and lose sight of the big picture. The thing that matters the most is NOT how competitive your state/district is, it's how solid is your package! This past cycle I worked with 22 young men and women for USAFA, seven of them received appointments. I worked with one that wanted to go to Annapolis, he is now enduring plebe summer. Next year I expect to place another amazing young person into Annapolis (okay, I won't do it, she will, I'll assist her in the process).
Focus on your package, put together a solid all-around "picture" that any academy admissions board would say "this person we MUST have!!"
Steve
USAFA ALO
USAFA '83
("Honorary Dad" to a USNA '16 grad that's a marine aviator and a USMMA '18 grad that's a navy student pilot)
Okay...my seventy-nine cents worth. I've been an ALO for USAFA for 25 years (think B&GO). In that time, I've helped put about 110 kids into USAFA from AZ, as well as five to USMA, two to USMMA, and six to USNA. For 10 years I sat on the nomination board of a MOC and a USS. From my perspective...
AZ is a highly competitive state, let no one tell you otherwise. Now, is it as highly competitive for Kings Point as Annapolis? That answer is no. From sitting on those boards, what I saw was there's a LARGE interest in the "big three" academies in AZ with USNA and USAFA "usually" being the most highly sought. How many applicants? That's up and down every cycle and I can only speak accurately for USAFA. This year we had over 230 candidates for appointment. When I sat on my congressman's board, we typically would interview (between the three nom teams he had) 50-70 kids. From that group there'd "usually" be 10 nom's to each academy although some years we saw more to USMA and USNA. The nom's to USMMA were often given to applicants that said that was something they were interested in and would accept. It was not common that we had an applicant that said "my first choice is King's Point."
Now...when I sat on Senator Flake's board...we had something like 20 members that worked in teams of 2 and we'd interview 130-180 kids in a day.
So why am I "saying" all this? Because too many folks focus upon "how competitive is my district, state, etc." and lose sight of the big picture. The thing that matters the most is NOT how competitive your state/district is, it's how solid is your package! This past cycle I worked with 22 young men and women for USAFA, seven of them received appointments. I worked with one that wanted to go to Annapolis, he is now enduring plebe summer. Next year I expect to place another amazing young person into Annapolis (okay, I won't do it, she will, I'll assist her in the process).
Focus on your package, put together a solid all-around "picture" that any academy admissions board would say "this person we MUST have!!"
Steve
USAFA ALO
USAFA '83
("Honorary Dad" to a USNA '16 grad that's a marine aviator and a USMMA '18 grad that's a navy student pilot)
Heatherg21
USNA '24 Mom BGO Bacon Lover Dog Lover
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- 5,616
Thank you all for the feedback. I think my mom anxiety was kicking in when I posed the question. I have since settled (this may change again) and have made peace with the fact that we do not need to know about competition or district/state competitiveness. We just need to assist our DS when he asks for it, he is a well rounded strong candidate and will see it through, hopeful for a good outcome.