Candidate with ties to SA versus no ties

Thanks all for responding and the more I read on these posts the more the underlining message seems to be .... patience is your friend and nothing anyone thinks or surmises really matters at this point. Going to stop portal stalking and try to focus on the “big picture”.... whatever is meant to be will be and nothing anyone can do at this point will change it. No sense in getting all tied up in knots over this or that. Some information is definitely good so folks know how to proceed but speculating will only cause more grey hair and ulcers.... thanks for the practical advice!
 
My mom is the same way. That's why I didn't give her my candidate ID :D

Good luck to your DS. If it's meant to be, it'll be!
 
Their is no WCS component for parental service in the military or offspring of other academy graduates. I can tell you stories of classmates who have kids attending and I can also tell you of just as many who were not accepted.

My DD did not get accepted on her first try and was given no special treatment. She picked herself up and kept working everyday to better her chances the next year.

To the OP, you cannot worry about the competition, whether it be a graduate's child, recruited athlete, diversity candidate, national merit finalist. All you can do is put your best foot forward and things will work out.
 
USMA 2019 parent. The only time being a legacy makes a difference (supposedly) is if the parent is retired military, in which case they are eligible for a Presidential nomination.
 
I haven’t met a West Point grad whose children did not get in. Just saying...
 
jl123 said:
Public institution - taxpayer funded. It would be politically indefensible to give legacies an objective advantage. University of California system is the same - no legacy advantage. Some public schools, UVA for example, do give advantage to legacies.

But admissions officers are human and it is possible subjective bias enters the process consciously or subconsciously. That is one of the reasons that after WCS is calculated by the candidate's RC, it must be checked for accuracy by another RC.
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I can understand why some feel it would be unfair to take the legacy piece into consideration, however, I do have to wonder why they still ask the question on the application......
 
lpk5 said:
I haven’t met a West Point grad whose children did not get in. Just saying...
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I have known of Old Grad's children who did not get in. While the class profile tells the number from the class who were children of academy grads, I have not seen any published statistics on the percentage of appointments offered relative to the number who applied.
 
Relying on Legacy is a tricky business so I wouldn’t bet too much hope on legacy. If everything being equal, yes likely legacy wins. But that is one look none of us will have. Some schools place legacy more Important than others. Many schools with legacy pull have financial ties to legacy or very long term dedicated service by mom or dad to the school. If your child comes from a flag officer maybe that can have a strong counter weight via relationship to Supe or Commandant. SAs are no different to CIV schools in this regard.

Better not to put too much hope on legacy. There’s too many out there.
 
GoArmy2022 said:
My mom is the same way. That's why I didn't give her my candidate ID :D
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My DS did not give us any of his candidate login information either, and we didn't ask.
He had an offer of appointment sitting in his portal for nearly a week before he checked his EMail informing him; "your online status has changed".
What I did like however, was that he saved screenshots of each portal update. That way we could read it later.
 
THParent said:
My DS did not give us any of his candidate login information either, and we didn't ask.
He had an offer of appointment sitting in his portal for nearly a week before he checked his EMail informing him; "your online status has changed".
What I did like however, was that he saved screenshots of each portal update. That way we could read it later.
Click to expand...

Haha! I check my portal every other day or so just to make sure everything in there is still good! Want to make sure my dreams aren’t at risk. I did send my mom a picture of my medical qualification when it showed up (I needed a waiver so we all thought it was a huge deal), an update that my ACT scores were in, and a picture of my nominations sitting in there. My dad asks about my status all the time and when there was an obstacle I ran into, he would constantly ask if it was cleared. There was a time when neither of them supported me going to West Point because of the military aspect. They didn’t want their “little girl” joining the Army. This “little girl” isn’t so little anymore... they realized that if they couldn’t stop me from doing it and that if it’s what I want to do, they might as well support me! I really have to thank them for that. It can be as hard for them as it is for me sometimes, and sometimes it can be even harder.

I think we forget to be thankful for our parents and we need to make sure we don’t take them for granted before we go off to college! And a place like USMA, USNA, etc...that’s somewhere parents have an especially hard time sending kids.
 
You won't be admitted to USMA for being a legacy. Everyone gets there based on their own merits. Coming from a military family is beneficial up front because you have a better idea of the culture and the commitment you're getting yourself into, but that is easily learned by people coming in from outside the military just by being around the Army for a little bit.

The only "advantage" that I've seen has been for folks who come from military families is that it opens up some alternative nomination sources. If one of your parents retired from the military or if one of your parents received the Medal of Honor, you automatically qualify for a nomination that comes from a pool of essentially unlimited number of nominations. A nomination is by no means a guarantee for admissions It just means that if West Point, after looking at your packet, wants you, they are able to offer you an acceptance packet. No nomination, regardless of how good your file is, no admittance. Additionally, having the different nomination sources allows West Point to charge different nomination sources if there are multiple competitive candidates in a single area, without having to rely on the limited number of seats a Senator or House Representative can sponsor via their nominations in any given year.
 
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