Have you ever heard of USMA contacting and offering

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Last night a neighbor told me that their daughter received an unsolicited email and phone call from USMA offering to fly her and one parent to USMA for a weekend visit. The student is a minority, two sport athlete (not a recruited athlete). Has any one ever heard of this...
 
LIVEINTHEMOMENT said:
They won’t even have to go through the nomination process.
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WOW!!! :spacecraft:This sounds very strange. At USNA everyone goes through the process. If this is true USMA must really be hurting for quality candidates. I am aware of two other males who have better credentials than this female. I guess there are boxes USMA needs to check. IMHO if a candidate doesn't need to go through the entire process it makes the process open to corruption.
 
Still needs a nomination. Appointment process is prescribed by federal law.

Sounds a bit of a stretch for a USMA paid visit completely unsolicited. Possible since USMA does actively recruit minorities - each region has a diversity officer. But I think there would be some prior contact to establish initial interest. Maybe the phone call screens for qualification/interest.
 
Yes your friends DD will need a nomination. If its not one from an area or state source, they will find another source. Its not "all said and done" yet. An application still needs to be completed and their background (ACT/SAT) will still need to meet the minimum standards. And she may not like the military environment. This is essentially a recruited athlete rolling out the carpet to sell the Army.

Good Luck to you friends DD

Push Hard, Press Forward
 
+1 to tug_boat. The subject was simply offered a paid visit. There was no mention of an LOA or even anything about the admission process, inluding any need for a nomination. Unless I missed it, folks are jumping to conclusions here. Now, it may turn out that all the speculation is ture, but I don't believ e we're there yet.
 
Yes, I am aware of a current Yuk that was contacted after nomination applications had already been submitted. They found that person a nomination without having to apply for one
 
Not the same but when my son applied to Arizona State they offered and he accepted a free trip to visit the college. They paid for his ticket, put him up in a dorm and fed him. He didnt wind up going there
 
It is not unusual for USMA to offer a paid visit, but if I am reading correctly, the OP's point is that the paid visit was offered completely unsolicited.

The candidate was not a recruited athlete and supposedly had not submitted any inquiry or application. That seems out of the ordinary, but not impossible given efforts to increase diversity.
 
USMA has a diversity outreach program where they invite and pay for a multi day visit for minority candidates. I recall when my DS applied, there was another student at his school who was provided a paid visit for the candidate and a guest. I can't recall the name of the program. I would imagine that in this case, they are expanding it to potential candidates that have come across their radar. It had nothing to do with athletics.
 
Not all programs are perfect, and I understand what this program is intending to do, but it was hard for my son not to be frustrated when he was scraping and clawing for any tiny level of communication from admissions and his HS classmate (who came from a well to do family and had test scores, grades and school leadership well below my son) was getting the red carpet rolled out to him.
 
jebdad said:
Not all programs are perfect, and I understand what this program is intending to do, but it was hard for my son not to be frustrated when he was scraping and clawing for any tiny level of communication from admissions and his HS classmate (who came from a well to do family and had test scores, grades and school leadership well below my son) was getting the red carpet rolled out to him.
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The truth of the matter is, 30% of the active duty enlisted soldiers defending our country are minorities. It only makes sense that West Point wants their officers to be representative of that. West Point is pretty much unknown throughout the minority community, the outreach program was made to combat that.

Also to clarify with everyone, I was brought on as a diversity recruit and I had to do the same exact process everyone else did and compete for the same exact nominations everyone else did. :)
 
This program is fairly new ( as in a few years old). It is offered to minorities. WP discovered that if they could get the highly desired candidate to WP WITH a family member, then WP is pretty easy to sell. I mean - how many people visit WP and don't love it. :cool: With the support of the family, it is much easier for the highly desired candidate to say - yes.
They still have to go through the admissions process and will probably receive a LOA. Getting a nom with a LOA isn't difficult. Most MOCs will give a nom to a candidate with a LOA.
 
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