District Competitiveness

Morey8525 said:
Does anyone know of a way to see how competitive one’s district is for nominations?
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There is no way to tell for a current year unless your RC, FFR, or MOC office divulges that information. The attached file is outdated, but may provide some insight about how district competitiveness can change from year to year and among SA's.

But remember that competitiveness has two components - number of candidates and qualifications of those candidates. A district that has only 5 nominees may be more competitive than a district that provides a full slate of 10 nominations if that full slate is of 10 mediocre candidates.
 

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Depends on a lot of factors. Academically competitive region? Athletically competitive region? High Population? Low population? Do you live near a military base?

But at the end of the day, I would recommend that you don't stress over it. If you can't change your congressman, figuring out that your district is or isn't competitive won't do anything. Your time is much better spent doing the things you love while improving your resume.
 
I am not worrying about it or overthinking, I am just interested in learning. OH15 is my district if anyone has firsthand experience. I am not sure of academic competitiveness but I would say it is pretty athletically competitive. No nearby military bases.
 
jl123 said:
The attached file is outdated, but may provide some insight about how district competitiveness can change from year to year and among SA's.
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I have not seen this table before. Can you shed some light on what exactly we are looking at? My first thought was how many nominations were submitted by the MOC for each the 3 DoD SA across multiple years. If so, it would mean a district submitting a full slate of 10 or 20 suggests they are competitive nominations for that particular school. Some districts lean more to one SA than another.

Where my assumption of what I am reading on the data breaks down is when the number goes over 20. MOC can nominate 20 in 1 cycle every 4 years. This chart has several over that figure and at least one showed 40! I am sure there are cases where an applicant is nominated and then withdraws, but that alone doesn't explain it. Is this a case of NOM being assigned to a MOC from another NOM authority? Still doesn't quite explain the data.

Any added info is helpful to understanding what we are looking at.
 
My thought was number of applicants to the MOC for each particular academy. 40 still seems very high but I think it makes more sense. Another thing I noticed, there are some districts listed like OH62 which do not exist.
 
Morey8525 said:
there are some districts listed like OH62 which do not exist.
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Understand that this is very dated info - like 10 years old and some district lines have been redrawn and potentially resulted in the elimination of some districts.
 
Morey8525 said:
My thought was number of applicants to the MOC for each particular academy. 40 still seems very high but I think it makes more sense. Another thing I noticed, there are some districts listed like OH62 which do not exist.
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OH62 probably Senator
 
Agree with the posters who advise that candidates not focus valuable energy and time to something they can’t control. Except for rare circumstances, you cannot control the district from which you apply.

Yes, there are some regions known for being competitive year in, year out. These are districts near federal government centers and/or military centers and/or areas with strong martial traditions or connections. Think Northern Virginia and North Carolina and Georgia and Upstate New York and Central Texas.

But to really simplify it for a candidate: If there’s just one candidate with credentials better than yours, you should consider your district competitive. Being from a “small” district and/or one that has a history of few appointees can lead to a false sense of optimism. Because it only takes one, then the district may actually be more competitive than others.

So back to the main point: Knowing which are “more competitive” is somewhat interesting knowledge. That and a dollar will get you a cup of coffee. And not much else.
 
I know a few people who are pretty experienced in this field and they've said that it can depend a lot on the specific state/part of the state you're in, and if that region is famous for a lot of military stuff.

This guy grew up in Annapolis. He was in the Congressional District for the Naval Academy. He originally wanted to go to USNA but all the nominations got taken by Admiral's sons. Applied to West Point, got in.

Virginia, New York, etc all tend to have a lot of applicants. I'm from Oregon. My friend who is at West Point right now described me as a "unicorn" because Oregon applicants make up a VERY small quantity of admitted people (less than 1%).

But most importantly, your credentials are important. Don't worry about where you live. Worry about factors inside your control.
 
jl123 said:
There is no way to tell for a current year unless your RC, FFR, or MOC office divulges that information. The attached file is outdated, but may provide some insight about how district competitiveness can change from year to year and among SA's.

But remember that competitiveness has two components - number of candidates and qualifications of those candidates. A district that has only 5 nominees may be more competitive than a district that provides a full slate of 10 nominations if that full slate is of 10 mediocre candidates.
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Are you sure this pdf is correct? I'm looking at my district info and the number of applicants or nominees is drastically low compared to previous years.
 
nomad556 said:
I know a few people who are pretty experienced in this field and they've said that it can depend a lot on the specific state/part of the state you're in, and if that region is famous for a lot of military stuff.

This guy grew up in Annapolis. He was in the Congressional District for the Naval Academy. He originally wanted to go to USNA but all the nominations got taken by Admiral's sons. Applied to West Point, got in.

Virginia, New York, etc all tend to have a lot of applicants. I'm from Oregon. My friend who is at West Point right now described me as a "unicorn" because Oregon applicants make up a VERY small quantity of admitted people (less than 1%).

But most importantly, your credentials are important. Don't worry about where you live. Worry about factors inside your control.
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Excellent advice to focus on factors the applicant controls!

With regard to being told by someone “all the nominations got taken by Admirals’ sons,” because the person lives in Annapolis, ummm, that’s a bit challenging, That would mean 10 of 10 individuals who were sons of admirals were on that Rep’s slate, which is a homogeneous optic I think the elected official’s staff and military evaluation panel (if used) would not let happen. I do agree Maryland/DC Metro can be very competitive for USNA. To get the District nomination, the admiral(s) would have to be legal residents of MD in the District containing Annapolis. Since Annapolis isn’t a major Navy homeport and is a bit of a commute to DC, most active duty flag officers live closer to the Pentagon - and it may very well be the case their actual legal residence is another state, as many AD military members often use a state where they have been assigned that has no state income tax or doesn’t tax military income (FL, TX, etc.) as their legal residence their entire career, regardless of current physical location. There is indeed a good handful of retired admirals who live around Annapolis, which also means their sons and daughters are eligible for a Presidential nomination, which is not linked to place of residence. It is generally true that areas surrounding SAs and military bases can be very competitive, because of relatively higher volume of applicants generated by local awareness.

The SAs each have an algorithm they use to evaluate the whole person. While presumably similar in many ways, I have no doubt there are differences in factor weights. USNA is known for a STEM emphasis. It is not unusual to be offered an appointment to one SA but not another. Somewhere in those formulas is some acknowledgement of military family members or “legacy,” but I suspect it is not a massive weighting factor.

I have only addressed this because of the many new readers/lurkers who find SAF and start soaking up impressions, and you bring up important points about not worrying about where an applicant lives and focusing on what can be controlled. I don’t want folks to take the “Admirals’ sons took all noms” hearsay comment to be taken as a known truth about applying to USNA. If a photo opp of 10 of 10 District nominees on a slate being admirals’ sons ever hit the papers around here (I live just outside Annapolis), there would be accompanying negative stories!
 
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True, maybe I got the city wrong, I don't remember. Whatever he said, he lived in a place that had a lot of Navy brats, so they got most of the nominations.

"Admirals sons" was hyperbole.
 
Control what is in your grasp: putting together the best possible packet.
The competitiveness of your district is irrelevant to the strength of your packet.

Edited to add: You will never know the details of your neighbors and classmates' packets or of their sources for a nomination or of their medical conditions. You really only know what you can see. Do not let fear or worry about the competition keep you from doing everything in your power to submit your best possible packet. Focus on yourself, not on others.
 
nomad556 said:
True, maybe I got the city wrong, I don't remember. Whatever he said, he lived in a place that had a lot of Navy brats, so they got most of the nominations.

"Admirals sons" was hyperbole.
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Most helpful!
Quite true around military bases, more interested and informed community.
 
thechrbru said:
Are you sure this pdf is correct? I'm looking at my district info and the number of applicants or nominees is drastically low compared to previous years.
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Yes, it is correct. But remember the most recent entry on the list is for the Class of 2012, which means it was generated circa 2008.

There has been redistricting since then - some districts no longer exist, there are now new districts, and some may have the same number but the boundaries have changed.

The numbers are the number of nominees, not applicants. More than 10 means there were multiple slates.
 
If you go to school in one congressional district and live in another, you might consider applying to both representatives. The same is true if your parents live in different districts. I've set on several Academy boards and we would frequently receive applications (and provide nominations) for candidates living outside the district but with a close tie (noncustodial parent lives in district, the family is relocating with a trailing parent/child or candidate attends a boarding school).
 
shiner said:
I have not seen this table before. Can you shed some light on what exactly we are looking at? My first thought was how many nominations were submitted by the MOC for each the 3 DoD SA across multiple years. If so, it would mean a district submitting a full slate of 10 or 20 suggests they are competitive nominations for that particular school. Some districts lean more to one SA than another.

Where my assumption of what I am reading on the data breaks down is when the number goes over 20. MOC can nominate 20 in 1 cycle every 4 years. This chart has several over that figure and at least one showed 40! I am sure there are cases where an applicant is nominated and then withdraws, but that alone doesn't explain it. Is this a case of NOM being assigned to a MOC from another NOM authority? Still doesn't quite explain the data.

Any added info is helpful to understanding what we are looking at.
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Yes, you have it right that it represents number of nominations to each SA for classes with graduation dates 2009 - 2012. That means the data is from application years 2004 - 2008.

I can only guess why there would be 3 - 4 slates in a given year. Perhaps candidates turned downed offers of appointment, cadets charged to that MOC left the academy, or none of the the nominated candidates in previous year(s) were fully qualified.
 
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