Academy Enrollment Math

[crymsonwynters]

So, as I understand it, each member of the House and Senate, and the Vice President each can have five cadets at USAFA at one time. That's 2680 cadets. The Presidential, Honor JROTC, Enlisted/Reservist vacancies, and Children of Disabled/Deceased Vets add another 350-375 cadets to the total. So in total, that's around 3000-3050 cadets after addition.

There are 4100 or so cadets at USAFA. I'm sure that there are not 1000 children of Medal of Honor recipients, so where does my math fall apart?

 

[kinnem]

Your math falls apart with the MOCs. Yes, they are allowed 5 at one time, but that's not a 1 class year number except in extremely rare and non-occurring circumstances. Instead they can have 5 at one time in the entire student body. The other area where it falls apart is that the categories you mention are 'required by law' so to speak. It does not include the appointees who are at their discretion to round out the student body.

Finally, what number are you trying to get at?

 

[Capt MJ]

@crymsonwynters

NWL or “the pool,” as well as Superintendent’s discretionary noms, and college ROTC noms.

The SA is allowed to fill out the class by choosing from those with noms from an elected official’s slate who were not offered an appointment. That’s very general and there’s a bit more to it, but you get the idea. Let’s say just 2 are offered an appointment from Senator Kissbaby’s slate of 10. The remaining 8, if fully qualified, still have a shot in the national pool.

The SA Superintendents have some discretionary noms, not many, through the authority of the Service Secretary. These cannot be applied for, and are used judiciously, perhaps for a candidate they really want, but was unable to obtain a nom. In states that are hugely competitive and the elected officials collaborate to not duplicate noms or only nom to 1 SA, many top candidates can end up with no nom to their first choice.

Noms from college ROTC, self-explanatory.

What @kinnem said.

 

[jl123]

The limiting number is the authorized strength for each service academy - that number determines the projected class size and therefore the number of appointments available from the national pool. Unexpectedly high/low attrition of current classes affects the class size of incoming classes.

Before you think you've stumbled onto a piece of useful information, take heed: the math of authorized strength is just as confusing as the math of nominations - would you expect anything else?

 

[NJROTC-CC]

Correct me if I am wrong, but I think this illustrates that it is more difficult to get selected by admissions, than it is to get a nomination. What I believe is that if a service academy really wants you, based on your outstanding application, it can ,and will, find you a nomination. So, the message is: focus on building a strong application and don't worry so much about the nomination. Most MOC's use the "competitive process" and nominate 10 per academy and let admissions pick the best candidate. Do the math, it's 10 times harder to get the appointment than the nomination in these districts.

 

[jl123]

Correct me if I am wrong, but I think this illustrates that it is more difficult to get selected by admissions, than it is to get a nomination. What I believe is that if a service academy really wants you, based on your outstanding application, it can ,and will, find you a nomination. So, the message is: focus on building a strong application and don't worry so much about the nomination. Most MOC's use the "competitive process" and nominate 10 per academy and let admissions pick the best candidate. Do the math, it's 10 times harder to get the appointment than the nomination in these districts.

Correct. Many more nominations available than appointments.

Other than putting forth the best package possible, the only item an applicant can control with respect to nominations is to understand the MOC's process and act accordingly. MOC's with more applicants than nominations available will often only nominate candidates to their top choice. In that case it is important to clearly decide on the top choice beforehand - "finding" a nomination does happen occasionally, but an SA probably won't look too hard for a candidate that put them #2.