So come Monday, if the status has not changed from candidate to appointment offered, does he start the process over again for class of 2015, or does he wait until the skinny envelope comes? And what is the typical mailing date for the skinny envelope?
I am sorry that I have not made myself clear. 1st thing is: Forget about dates. There is no "Magic Date". It doesn't exist. IF, your son is going to receive an appointment, the offer as well as the online status change could happen today, tomorrow, on the 1st, on the 5th, on the 12th, on the 17th......... April 2nd, 4th, or the 15th, or the 17th, etc... In other words, from 1 minute from now, until the first week of june, your son could receive and appointment. There is no special date. Just that during march and april, the MAJORITY of the appointments will be offered. But it's not a specific date. OK, got that figured out.
Next: If you did have to start the process over, because you weren't offered an appointment, you CAN'T start the process over, meaning the application, until June/July just like you did last year. In other words, applications for the class of 2015 are not available and accessible yet. Just like you had to wait last year until june/july. Same with this year.
Finally; the skinny envelope. That's trickier. There are 2 times the skinny envelope come out. 1st time is for applicants that obviously do not qualify for the academy. Those are usually handed out earlier because they can't get an appointment. It usually follows a status changing to disqualified or something similar. The other type of skinny envelopes is for those who are qualified, but they didn't get an appointment. When you get this envelope is also a situation where there is NO FIRM DATE. I know; frustration. Let me explain. These are ball-park numbers; MAINLY FOR ILLUSTRATION.
10,000+/- Were prospects in the beginning
8000+/- become applicants
6000+/- become candidates
4000+/- become qualified candidates
1700+/- are offered an appointment
<1300-1400 Accept their appointment
additional appointments will be given to reach the 1300-1400 accepted appointments.
So, that means after everyone has been scored and ranked, they offer out about 1700 appointments. The academy knows that 300-400 will turn them down and take other schools and educational opportunities that they've been offered. If more than the 300-400 turn it down, the academy will offer MORE late appointments. The problem is: It gets complicated on who the next person in line can be. If a congressman's primary nominee changes their mind, the academy will most times give that congressman the replacement slot. However, if the person who turned it down was in the pool, the replacement for them could be from a totally different state. Same with the other different nominations. So getting the skinny letter could come any time from today until June. Sorry, but you getting a later appointment could be affected by so many different issues.
I know it sounds complicated. And it is, in some ways. But the complication is because it tries so hard to be fair. The academies are paid for by EVERYONE'S tax dollars. So all districts and all states need to be equally represented. They can't just rank scores highest to lowest and pick 1400 appointments. Anyway, I hope that sort of explains part of the process. mike....