Does admissions staff ghost anyone else?

U

USMC Crayons

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Don't know why this seems to be a recurring problem. Request information, admissions responds with an available day to discuss, response sent that the day proposed works...and then they disappear. This is like the 3rd time. Anyone else running into these problems??
 
Yeah, same thing, and not just USNA. Sometimes I get a response in a few days, sometimes nothing for a week or nothing at all. Happening with USAFA and USMA also. I am just going to assume they are all overloaded with emails.
 
gck105 said:
Yeah, same thing, and not just USNA. Sometimes I get a response in a few days, sometimes nothing for a week or nothing at all. Happening with USAFA and USMA also. I am just going to assume they are all overloaded with emails.
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I get it, they are busy. Can't compare to USAFA, but at least with USMA they eventually get back to you. It's amazing with all of the technology tools available to us now that people still can keep track of things anymore (or they don't care).
 
I don't think it is malicious at all. The Admissions Department is most likely understaffed compared to the demands they have. And most of them are AD Navy/USMC officers. They might have military duties in addition to their Admissions duties. They are not career/dedicated enrollment personnel. Plus, during the summer, they are program managers for things like STEM and NASS. That requires a lot of out-of-office time. Lastly, while USNA seems to have better technology than what I have seen in the Fleet, the military focuses on having a product that works adequately, not the newest, most advanced thing. Not saying it is right to ghost by any means, but I suspect there is more to the story than Admissions Officers being aloof or playing hard to get.
 
Following up on Navy2019 comments, this is the time that many are away from office for other collateral duties and or leave....That said, the scenario described when they don't respond after proposing a time for a call is not normal. Admissions is understaffed, but I've found them very responsive when I have a question for them.

If the issue you need to discuss is something that a BGO can handle, reach out to your BGO. One of our objectives is to take some of the load off Admissions. (Of course, I recognize, BGO responsiveness is a whole nother issue ..some are great, some are not).
 
As we went through the ROTC scholarship application and various admissions processes last year with DS, I heard the following phrase many times from those more experienced than us. I will repeat here, as it seems appropriate to anyone considering a military career. You must learn to embrace this and accept that it will be a BIG part of your life, should you choose this path:

HURRY UP AND WAIT.
 
pa-outdoorsman said:
As we went through the ROTC scholarship application and various admissions processes last year with DS, I heard the following phrase many times from those more experienced than us. I will repeat here, as it seems appropriate to anyone considering a military career. You must learn to embrace this and accept that it will be a BIG part of your life, should you choose this path:

HURRY UP AND WAIT.
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No truer words have been spoken. It will not just stop with SA admin. DoDMETS, DoDMERB, Admin, dates for summer training, location of summer training, summer training dates and location changing, etc, etc.

and then you get into BIG Navy/Army/Air Force and have the same thing said over and over. Hurry Up and Wait!!

Understand that your application and questions are the most important to you, and you want it done ASAP. ADMIN is dealing with thousands and thousands of these same applications and questions every day. Not saying it should be this way or it doesn't suck. Just saying that patience will be your ally in this case. It will also help to make sure your questions are not answerable in another way.

Is the answer to my question on the SA website or somewhere else? That should be your first question before going to Admin for answers for any school in my opinion. If not, then ask and be patient.

Good luck
 
Until just last year, the Navy was using the same shady piece of software from 1998 to create and process performance evaluations. And those things have social security numbers on them. I wouldn't assume there's fancy technology in play here.

Also, Admissions isn't exactly career-enhancing, many of those O-3s are terminal. I don't think any of them are keen to work overtime to answer public emails--likely they fit in what they can when they have time.
 
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nuensis said:
shady piece of software from 1998 to create and process performance evaluations.
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Originally created by a reservist because up until then, ships/units were basically hand typing them with no database at all so
it was all manual.
 
IronmanDaremo said:
No, Windows 97. :p
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Count me in the group that prefers Window 97, Word and Excel 97, and Quickbooks pretty much any early year.

The old stuff worked perfectly. But they don’t make money if they don’t roll out new stuff.

Don’t get me started on my conspiracy theory that the companies like McAfee and Norton are the ones that put “threats” that need to be destroyed on your computer for $$$. 😂
 
We have missions that were launched in '99 - '02 that were developed during the late 90's that are still operational (Terra/Aqua/Aura). Even with updates and software changes through the years, there are still some stand-alone systems they use for testing scripts and such that use Windows 97. If it ain't broke (and there are no potential vulnerabilities from bad actors), don't fix it!
 
puzzler said:
Does the Navy still use Windows XP?
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Not in the way that you think that they might. For regular user interface type applications, the Navy and DoD in general move with the outside (Commercial ) world in terms of Software and actually Hardware as well.
However, there are specialized niche applications that the Navy creates or pays someone to create that, once they exist and are fully tested, they do not get changed. Sometimes, that means that what seems to be antique hardware such as older processors and even peripherals such as printers can be kept in use.
For an example, I used to be part of a team that made a VERY key system that goes on many units across DoD and allies. One of the ways it gets integrated onto an airplane involves significant coding in the Main Mission Computer. Making even a teeny tiny change to the Mission Computer software can require EXHAUSTIVE and EXPENSIVE testing on every model of aircraft involved. Essentially, you have to prove that sending a piece of sensor data into the mission computer does not cause the aircraft to do ANYTHING other than what is intended. This was found to cost literally hundreds of Millions of Dollars for just one aircraft type. To get around this the government/industry team made the system stand-alone for some aircraft with its own processor and display. The kernal of the software that ran the application was pulled from Windows XP and the display and all of the processes are managed within that XP kernal. It works well and has no growth issues and no history of "freeze-ups" or other faults so why would you want to toss out the very large installed base to redesign/recode for no improvement at all?
 
Ihavenoidea said:
Is the answer to my question on the SA website or somewhere else? That should be your first question before going to Admin for answers for any school in my opinion. If not, then ask and be patient.
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Your primary source of information should be the USNA.edu website..that has almost everything you really need. The next step is to ask yourself whether you really need the information sought, or whether you are just asking to make yourself feel better. Don't bother Admissions with questions that you don't really need the answer too. You may want to ask your BGO, and they can either answer the question or ask Admissions if they don't know.

SAF can be informative and is fun at times , but really is not a definitive source. Yes, there are some long time participants who have a very good base of knowledge and are very reliable sources of information, but caveat emptor -- I frequently see well intended but cringeworthy false information. It is often quickly corrected by those with knowlege, but unless you are a regular who knows the background of the sources here, the casual observer may not be able to distinguish good gouge from bad gouge.

OldRetSWO said:
Originally created by a reservist because up until then, ships/units were basically hand typing them with no database at all so
it was all manual.
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We had one Zenith computer in our squadron in the mid-late 80's....we literally had to run a night shift Yeoman to keep up with all the squadron paper work/evals. Fast forward, my next tour was a Wing Staff with a very tech oriented Special Projects manager (with a healthy budget), and we each had a computer on our desk.
 
USMC Crayons said:
I get it, they are busy. Can't compare to USAFA, but at least with USMA they eventually get back to you. It's amazing with all of the technology tools available to us now that people still can keep track of things anymore (or they don't care).
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USMA was much better than USNA in that regard. The explanation I gleaned from here is that Annapolis doesn't pour as many resources into admissions as the others do (perhaps because they don't believe they have to). West Point definitely works at it though. AFA was good also, but not as proactive as WP.
 
Old Navy BGO said:
Following up on Navy2019 comments, this is the time that many are away from office for other collateral duties and or leave....That said, the scenario described when they don't respond after proposing a time for a call is not normal. Admissions is understaffed, but I've found them very responsive when I have a question for them.

If the issue you need to discuss is something that a BGO can handle, reach out to your BGO. One of our objectives is to take some of the load off Admissions. (Of course, I recognize, BGO responsiveness is a whole nother issue ..some are great, some are not
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For two examples (for the sake of brevity, I will leave the last one out), this is a breakdown of how the interaction with admissions went:

1. Candidate emails admissions with question or issue.
2. Contact from admissions responds generally within a reasonable turn time.
3. Contact from admissions indicates they are available for a zoom call at XX date, typically about 3-4 business days out.
4. Candidate responds that this fits perfectly within schedule and accepts.
5. Admissions never responds confirming time/date or to any follow ups regarding said date. No zoom call occurs.

On the second go around, another staffer picked up the ball after a couple of weeks, and the exact same thing happened again.

In both scenarios, a question had to be addressed by admissions, it was not something that a BGO had the info, nor is it addressed on the USNA website.
 
I think it's unfortunate that USNA Admissions doesn't show up when they indicate they will. Tend to agree with the others that it's a staffing issue. USNA has moved more toward civilian folks in Admissions, and there are some real benefits to that approach. However, civil servants are paid for X hours of work per day. Most can't work OT without permission and getting paid for it. As for the military members of the Admission staff, there is a lot of turnover . Thus, my sense is that some of these calls are falling through the cracks. It shouldn't happen and is obviously discouraging to candidates with questions that cannot be answered by anyone else.

Keep persevering.

The OP's issue aside, as a general rule, there is more desire and expectation today for "hand-holding" than there was in the days before the Internet. When I was applying to grad school, I received an acceptance letter from my top school in early March. After that, I didn't hear from anyone at the school AT ALL for months. No call. No letter. No information on showing up (when, where), housing, etc. I actually pulled out the acceptance letter again just to make sure I hadn't misread it (not kidding). I finally received a "welcome" packet in late July for a mid-August start date. And I showed up and all was fine. That's just the way it was. It's different now -- I get it.
 
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