BGO Interview

[lelelooloopee]

I contacted my BGO officer back in December about scheduling an interview. He did not respond until my counselor contacted him in early February. He responded saying I needed certain documents submitted, which I promptly did and emailed him a second time. My counselor has emailed him as well but there still has not been a response and I do not want to cut it too close for an interview. What should I do to get a hold of him? Would be appropriate for me to text or call him? Thank you.

 

[Kierkegaard]

Was it your admissions counselor who reached out to him or your guidance counselor?

 

[lelelooloopee]

Was it your admissions counselor who reached out to him or your guidance counselor?

Guidance counselor

 

[justdoit19]

I wonder if it’s a case where the BGO’s portal isn’t showing your items submitted on his BGIS. So he is thinking they aren’t yet submitted? The new system for BGOS’s is also having some ‘communicating’ IT issues, as it is also new. Doesn’t address your ‘I’ve emailed and still not heard back’ piece. Absolutely call him. Perhaps that’s his preferred communication method.

I’ve not heard of a guidance counselor contacting a BGO on behalf of a candidate before. You really do need to take this bull by the horns and drive the application. Including contacting your BGO. More than one method. More than one time. And if you don’t get a response, figure out the next thing to do. Which at the very LEAST would be calling him. Right? And what would you do next if he doesn’t respond to your call? Who would you contact? This is all part of being a problem solver.

But you need to do this, not your counselor.

 

[NavyHoops]

Agree with @justdoit19... I have a candidate who has finished everything but my BGIS portal shows him 50% done. Hopefully your BGO will understand that after a convo.

 

[Kierkegaard]

Guidance counselor

Maybe the BGOs will give their perspective, but I would think you’ll get the best results by directly contacting your BGO yourself. Your guidance counselor’s role in the application is limited to submitting transcripts and verifying extracurricular records. Be your own advocate—after all this is your responsibility. If you continue getting no response I would let your Admissions counselor know to ensure the office is aware of the predicament.

 

[helmsdown]

I started reaching out to my candidates when I wasn't seeing things completed, I asked them to update me when they knew things were completed so I'd know when to schedule their interviews. I finished my last interview last Friday. You should definitely call your BGO and let him know your status.

 

[NavyHoops]

If you can include a screen shot from your portal on completions that may assist also with your BGO to show your progress.

 

[Old Navy BGO]

I’ve not heard of a guidance counselor contacting a BGO on behalf of a candidate before. You really do need to take this bull by the horns and drive the application. Including contacting your BGO.

^ This.. you, not parent, not guidance counselor, should CALL (not text) your BGO.
BGO's are well aware of the issues with the portal, and know parts of the application may not be fully reflected.

 

[OldRetSWO]

Yes, YOU call your BGO. That is the best way to resolve this.

I'm curious about the several documents that you submitted a couple of weeks ago, how many were there? They very well may
have been the reason (number of docs submitted) that you didn't "pop" for an interview before then and from your own post,
its been less than 2 weeks since you submitted them. That is not a lot of time in the world of BGOs who are part time volunteers
getting a time slot for an interview.

 

[usna1985]

This is something I've written about many times as it always comes up this time of year.

First, BGOs are not required to interview candidates until a certain percentage of their application is complete. Especially at the end of the cycle / close to the deadline, some BGOs want to see that most, if not all, of the package is complete. Why? Doing an interview takes time. We want to be confident that our time isn't wasted on someone who will never complete the package. Requiring a nearly complete package to conduct the interview is not USNA policy, BTW, just reality.

Second, there is danger in waiting until the end to complete your package and ask the BGO for an interview. Applications have been open since at least June. That's 8+ months. Asking your BGO to jump because you just now decided to get moving on your application isn't fair to your BGO. You probably have completed all of your civilian college applications -- how high a priority is USNA if you're just now getting going?

Third, the new BGIS system isn't working well, meaning that we may not see status as promptly as in the past. Not the candidate's fault but also not the BGO's fault. As discussed by above posters, being proactive in terms of demonstrating to the BGO that your items were submitted is the better course.

Fourth, YOU should contact the BGO. The original post suggests there was only a single attempt at contact. You should make multiple attempts via different formats (email, text, phone) before contacting your guidance counselor. Emails can end up in spam / junk folders. Some BGOs may not text or may not respond to a text from an unknown sender. Or, maybe they saw the email / text and intended to respond but forgot (I've done that). You've probably not left a great flavor in the mouth of the BGO by running to your guidance counselor.

Finally, despite all of the above, if you have 75% of your stuff done, your BGO should do the interview (my view, not USNA's). If the BGO is a few days late, USNA will still accept the interview. We aren't held to the same deadline as candidates, although we are STRONGLY encouraged to get interviews done promptly and before the deadline.