This is when the candidate realizes the entire application process is a test in itself, requiring perseverance, commitment, attention to detail, patience, time management and many other qualities desirable in a junior officer. Your DS will have to coach himself through application fatigue and stay focused, as the competition is, and as he will have to do in the future, dropping with exhaustion but with mental and physical challenges leading his soldiers either in an exercise or downrange in the combat zone. Not knowing every factor in every situation is also part of military life, requiring a supple personality which can adapt to any situation.
He is in the game until he isn’t, for USMA, but he can be in another game, AROTC, which leads to the same destination, AND could yield an additional nom source if he decided to re-apply. If being an Army Officer is his dream, he should mutter a cheerful hooah to himself and keep putting one boot in front of another.
There is no way of knowing how competitive he is. As is said often here on SAF, learning to focus on what he can actually impact or control is key, along with not looking right or left at the competition, and learning not to stress over uncontrollable elements. These are also valuable junior officer and life skills.
