As a parent, I'll weigh in too, inzane99. Don't do much of anything except in response to what USNA asks. That's a dictum any parent needs to remember.
At our girl's BGO interview - he asked to meet with her, AND us, at his home over a family dinner. OK, we had a great time together and at the end, when the real 'interview' questions began, we sat there and said NOTHING, unless directly asked. I suspect this, too was part of his point: to see how much was the young person's committment, and how much the parent was involved in the decision. And with the BGO and my husband both USNA grads, it would have been very easy to wade off into shared stories between them about their common experiences on the Yard. But we made sure that didn't happen.
Second interesting note for you. "Outstanding" ....as you reported your call inferred from your son's NASS report is actually an actual word used by the evaluation of the NASS cadre for their candidates. Last summer our girl was a NASS cadre and in her briefing they were instructed how to do their evals....and they were limited in how to use the term "outstanding" in ranking their candidates. So that is a very good word to hear.
Third....once our girl completed her NASS, we parents got phone calls from USNA admissions. At first I was hesitant to respond - yes, yes, I was thrilled, but also confused. Why are they asking for ME? and not my girl? But the Admissions folk wanted to ask about the DoDMERB process and whether we had an appointment for that yet. Mind you, this is July between Junior/Senior year. But we are always an 'early bird' kind of family, and it had happened that the paperwork, and appt. date was set for mid-July - a fact that I was able to report to the Admissions folk on the phone. "Great", was their cryptic answer, and thanked me, saying goodbye. A tantalyzing sign that already they were reviewing our girl's application - but still one we knew better than to call back and ask more questions about. So there are times USNA wants to hear from parents - but it is always on their terms.
So as a parent, I was always 'in the background', helping with scheduling issues for my girl - and looking for ways to take pressure off her incredibly daunting and grueling days. .....In fact - she was the last of our 5 to make her college plans. As parents we were big on increasing the responsibilities of our kids through their high school years for things like making contributions to the family expenses through their jobs, doing chores that were appropriate, managing finances more on their own, etc. But with this kiddo - she had 18 units of high school, including 5 AP classes, varsity swim with its many hours of pool time before and after school, Civil Air Patrol Command Leadership and all the hours to devote to that responsibility AND did I mention homework? If she got 5 hours sleep a night throughout senior year on the weekdays, that was a bonus. Crazy, crazy and not something I would recommend for every young person. But this was her quest: to land a USNA Appointment and we figured if she couldn't handle the load in her senior year of high school with our support she certainly wouldn't be able to as a Plebe 3000 miles away.
My advice for parents is take all that desire/energy/effort you have to naturally want to aid your child in the USNA admissions process and see how you can channel that energy into the behind the scenes support roles. Here are examples, all of which we did and I must add we did NOT do these with our other children, all of whom went to great schools including UCLA and UCSD....but did not have the need to supply the things USNA's application was looking for in their candidates: Lighten up on their chores, OK, let their room turn into a bomb-went-off-in-it zone without making comments. Don't hassle them about late night homework hours and their need to sleep. Encourage them not to fret about a job right now - and provide them with an allowance. Give them specials like Energy drinks, show up for their sports events, music events, etc. and cheer wildly for them ( in spite of their faces and groans!), and even offer to do their laundry once in a while if you see they really really have worked hard and could use one thing off their shoulders. Wash their car while they sleep in on that rare saturday morning moment of rest. Allow them a time to hang out with friends when you wish they were home with you - but they need to feel still connected to their peers. At one point when my girl had hand written her 12 page essay and got so sick she couldn't raise her head off the pillow I stayed up late and typed it for her so it could be turned in by a friend the next day at school. She did all the heavy lifting - all I did was recopy it for her...Those are the kinds of things and many more like it that we parents can do for our kids in this last year of high school - that gives them the space and time to stay focused on their academics, their sports and their needs for leadership, volunteering, and even church committments. This is not recommended for all kids, or all families, or all circumstances - but in our family's case - it was the best way we found we could support our girl and she could put maximum effort into the things she could - to have a great senior year and strive for a USNA Appointment. Thank God in our case - it worked out great.
May it also happen to your son and your family!!
) and someone who's been a BGO for quite a few years now.