additional rec letters?

gmemgoch

5-Year Member
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Aug 2, 2013
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my DS has everything submitted for all his MOC nomination packets. In addition to the teachers and coaches who have written rec letters as a part of his packets, a few other people have approached wanting to write letters as well on his behalf. Overkill? not appropriate? or definitely helps the cause?

very proud of ds's persistent dilligent efforts through this process. Has worked steadily since early June to complete applications, essays, etc. Received his official notice of medical qualification, completed CFA, and has BGO interview next week.

Thanks for sharing in put on addiitonal recommendation letters.
 
Call your MOC, however if you don't want to call, I wouldn't do it.

I do not know what state you are from, but if it is even a semi-competitive state chances are those additional letters will go into the circular filing cabinet. Requesting only specific types of rec letters levels the playing field between all of the candidates.

Think about it if they have 300 plus candidates, and 150 people submitted another rec that would take a lot of time to get through. (1 letter a min. and it is 2 1/2 hrs more work). In VA the Sens can have @700+ applications!

Additionally, some MOCs are sticklers. They may see it in a negative way for not following the directions to a tee, i.e. orders in the military world. For one of our DS's MOC, they were stickler even to the point that they informed candidates that the essay had to be 250(?) words or less. That all essays would go through a reader/counter 1st, a line would be drawn at that exact number no matter where in the essay it occurred. Reasons they said were:
A. They have limited time to get through all of the essays.
B. It illustrated that you could not get your position through within the parameters set forth.
 
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I may have to (finally! :smile:) disagree with something Pima has said...

In our DS's case, the extra letters were commented on positiviely by at least one of his MOC boards. We got the impression it certainly didn't hurt and DS went on to recieve noms from all three MOCs.

Now to be fair, we are far from the competitive level of N. VA. So in that sense perhaps Pima is right... If they are swamped with applications, it might not be seen the same way.

Good luck!
 
Here, the MOC's are very specific: 3 letters of recommendation required, you may send up to 5, "but only 3 will be reviewed" whatever that means.
 
I think what that means is the initial selection board will read all of the recs., and they will than select the best 3.

I say initial because some boards have interviews. Not everyone interviews, typically it is whittle down to maybe 20 candidates and than they make the decision on the final 10.

MedB.

Notice I said call the MOC 1st for guidance, but if in doubt than I wouldn't.
I think I wrote it wrong.

~~~ I take this position not only because of what our MOC said, but also when DS was applying to colleges, like Notre Dame, NYU, they flat out stated we just have too many applicants to read the extras, thus the extras get tossed into the garbage can and are never read. Hence, just don't send it, because you are wasting the rec's time, and your time.

Of course it probably won't hurt, but I don't think that if your child is competitive it will make or break them, especially for competitive slates.

Many MOC boards are going to follow the same process as the SAs....Whole Candidate. Their academics, leadership, EC's will count the bulk of the score.
The recs help, but remember even after the nom., the SA's will now use the WCS system to appoint.
 
Thank you. I appreciate the insight. We are in PA.

Sent using the Service Academy Forums® mobile app.
 
In all seriousness, pm Agagles.

His DS is at the AFA currently. Since you did not specify district, he probably can at least help you with how the MOCs worked back when his DS applied. He may have the answer if it is worth it or not.

Additionally, I would still ask for those other recs., because at least for AF, the selection boards for ROTC have different requirements, they do not talk. It can help in the long run.

I.E. ROTC scholarship should be plan B. Some ROTC dets sit on admission boards. Those recs may help him get a ROTC scholarship, and in turn get him to his top choice school.

DS did not apply to UNCCH or NYU, but because he was an AFROTC scholarship in Dec. They both sent him a congrats letter...paraphrasing; We know you didn't apply, but our records show you are the exact student we want.
~~~~ This came from the college itself, and we were dumbfounded when it arrived. At first thought this was a scam. Called the school and they said because he had AFROTC scholarship in hand and a member of the admissions board was AFROTC, they illustrated his stats were on par with admission, hence offered admission.

He did not attend either of those schools, but you get the point....plan B matters too, and since the 1st A/NROTC boards are meeting soon, that rec. can help in other ways than just for the nom.

You need to now be honest regarding the worth of the nom. Do they know your child?
~~~~BS and flowers will equal BS and flowers for any board regardless of what rank/position the author holds in their career field.
~ I.E an 0-10 that states in a rec...I support Candidate gmemgoch. He shows all of the attributes that the SAs look for is different than; An O6 saying candidate gmemgoch as an intern under my supervision did XYZ. Due to his position he was an integral member of the organization that resulted in an Excellent review for their dept.

One is BS and flowers using the author's rank. The other is fact regarding what he has accomplished at a young age.
 
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I served on my MOC's nomination board for several years and have served on other MOC's nomination boards.

I don't pay too much attention to letters of recommendation. In personal opinion is that typical letters of recommendation sucks (no offense to anyone).

Typical ones from teachers are what a competitive his or her school is and grades. I know how to read GPA on the transcript.

Typical ones for people with "influences" are how this kid is great, but doesn't explain how much time the recommender spent with the recommende

Some are not realistic, something along the line of a kid has 3.0 GPA and 1600 combined SATs but he is ready for academic rigor at a service academy.

My opinion, a letter of recommendation needs to establish writer's credential (i.e. SA grad, served in the military, . . .), connection (i.e. I coached her for 4 years, club advisor for 2 years), and highlight or bring out new accomplishments or good qualities.
 
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thanks. NROTC is Plan B; he interviewed for that a few weeks ago.
I appreciate and agree with the input about BS and flowers. The letters he does have are from teachers, leaders and coaches who know him almost better than I know him.

I am very appreciative to have found this forum to help answer so many questions that we have had.
 
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