Medical Wavier - Any Class of 2028’s still waiting?

[Cprice3418]

My DS is a class of 2028 hopeful recruited to play football. He has a LOA and is currently “Under Medical Waiver Review” for an ankle injury suffered during his sophomore year of high school (he played 2 more full seasons after the injury without missing a game and has no issues post surgery other than a nice scar). We have not heard anything from DoDMERB no request for AMI’s or any type of follow up for more than 3 months.

We are basically 5 weeks from INDOC does anyone know if this is a common occurrence or is anyone else currently in a similar situation? The waiting has been the absolute worst…

 

[3Nautiboys]

I'm sorry he is in this situation.

As everyone will tell you here, each injury is different so what happened with one case may not apply to another. I will say that my DS also received a LOA (for USNA) in early fall but then was DQ after sustaining an injury which required surgery.

Has USMMA requested a waiver for him? You must ascertain that first to be able to tell where the delay may be coming from. He will be able to see if USMMA has requested a waiver when he logs into the Dodmerb site. If they have not, considering he has an LOA, it would be worth contacting his admissions officer. My DS had the LOA and was already qualified through Dodmerb when his injury occured. He informed Dodmerb of the injury and went from Q to DQ in his portal. A waiver request from USNA appeared in his Dodmerb portal about 2 weeks after he was DQ.

He didn't wait for an AMI request to come, but instead provided Dodmerb with what he deemed would be the required documentation showing he was fully recovered and fit for service. He could tell what those docs were by looking up his single disqualification code somehow on the Dodmerb site and he requested those docs from his doctor's office. He was 18 by this time so there was a form he had to sign at the office to be able to get those released to him.

For him, along with documenting he had fully recovered, he needed a certain amount of time post surgery. Once that time arrived, he proactively submitted everything to his Dodmerb case manager, who then replied within a day that docs were received and would be sent to the waiver authority (USNA) for review. It was about a week before med changed from DQ to Q in the portal and then the appointment came shortly after that.

If he has gathered the docs needed to show he is fit for service he could submit those to Dodmerb. If he hasn't done that yet, have him start requesting those ASAP as doctor's offices need time to gather everything.

Good luck.

 

[Cprice3418]

I'm sorry he is in this situation.

As everyone will tell you here, each injury is different so what happened with one case may not apply to another. I will say that my DS also received a LOA (for USNA) in early fall but then was DQ after sustaining an injury which required surgery.

Has USMMA requested a waiver for him? You must ascertain that first to be able to tell where the delay may be coming from. He will be able to see if USMMA has requested a waiver when he logs into the Dodmerb site. If they have not, considering he has an LOA, it would be worth contacting his admissions officer. My DS had the LOA and was already qualified through Dodmerb when his injury occured. He informed Dodmerb of the injury and went from Q to DQ in his portal. A waiver request from USNA appeared in his Dodmerb portal about 2 weeks after he was DQ.

He didn't wait for an AMI request to come, but instead provided Dodmerb with what he deemed would be the required documentation showing he was fully recovered and fit for service. He could tell what those docs were by looking up his single disqualification code somehow on the Dodmerb site and he requested those docs from his doctor's office. He was 18 by this time so there was a form he had to sign at the office to be able to get those released to him.

For him, along with documenting he had fully recovered, he needed a certain amount of time post surgery. Once that time arrived, he proactively submitted everything to his Dodmerb case manager, who then replied within a day that docs were received and would be sent to the waiver authority (USNA) for review. It was about a week before med changed from DQ to Q in the portal and then the appointment came shortly after that.

If he has gathered the docs needed to show he is fit for service he could submit those to Dodmerb. If he hasn't done that yet, have him start requesting those ASAP as doctor's offices need time to gather everything.

Good luck.

Thanks for the reply.
Yes USMMA did request a waiver this was confirmed on March 4 by head of admissions. During his initial medical evaluation the injury was disclosed and DoDMERB requested AMIs in regards to the injury which basically included the entire medical file along with including the doctors and physical therapists notes.

We also had to submit a form that discussed his level of physical activity since the injury occurred. He was eventually DQ’d because of the nature of the injury but the school started the process to pursue a waiver immediately following and we’ve been sitting and waiting ever since.

 

[kpmom2013]

Have your DS contact admissions and the football coach today. Squeaky wheel will get attention at this stage. Good luck.

 

[Cprice3418]

Have your DS contact admissions and the football coach today. Squeaky wheel will get attention at this stage. Good luck.

Thank you. Its hard to find the line between advocating for yourself and being a pest. He is in weekly contact with the coaching staff but they are pretty much stuck waiting right along with us.

We have had conversations with academy admissions and his DoDMERB case managers over the past couple of weeks. They have both given the standard answers of "It's a process" "You should hear something soon" anytime he has reached out.

This part of the process has been awful and at this point I think my DS just wants to know one way or another so he can prepare or move on.

 

[kpmom2013]

I get it that the wait feels like torture. My two kids both needed waivers so I understand how awful the wait is. More to come though. The wait to see if they survive INDOC...the wait to see if they get a good ship for sea year...the wait for grades to come out to see if they passed or will have to retake a class during summer or get set back or get disenrolled...the wait to see if they actually pass license exams and actually get to graduate with their class. In my DS's case, the wait to see if he passed his flight physical and to see what airframe he gets. In my DD's case the wait to see if her shoreside job got approved by MARAD. The application and admission process is just the pregame warmup. Good luck to your DS.

 

[Cprice3418]

Update.... still no movement on the medical wavier. I spoke to admissions and they are saying my DS LOA will likely be revoked due to class size and him still waiting on medical wavier at this point. Someone there has really messed up because as of right now they have 300+ accepted and it is only supposed to be in the 270-280 range. Meaning the a LOA isn't worth the paper its written on because they are back tracking now trying to figure out how they are going to accommodate a class of this size. Could not be more disappointed in the way this has all gone. Anyone on the waiting list I would definitely be looking at other options if you are not already.

 

[kpmom2013]

Update.... still no movement on the medical wavier. I spoke to admissions and they are saying my DS LOA will likely be revoked due to class size and him still waiting on medical wavier at this point. Someone there has really messed up because as of right now they have 300+ accepted and it is only supposed to be in the 270-280 range. Meaning the a LOA isn't worth the paper its written on because they are back tracking now trying to figure out how they are going to accommodate a class of this size. Could not be more disappointed in the way this has all gone. Anyone on the waiting list I would definitely be looking at other options if you are not already.

So sorry to hear about your situation. The admissions process is deeply flawed and this is a good example. I wish your DS good fortune in wherever he ends up.

 

[Nytoga330]

Update.... still no movement on the medical wavier. I spoke to admissions and they are saying my DS LOA will likely be revoked due to class size and him still waiting on medical wavier at this point. Someone there has really messed up because as of right now they have 300+ accepted and it is only supposed to be in the 270-280 range. Meaning the a LOA isn't worth the paper its written on because they are back tracking now trying to figure out how they are going to accommodate a class of this size. Could not be more disappointed in the way this has all gone. Anyone on the waiting list I would definitely be looking at other options if you are not already.

That’s terrible and I’m so sorry. I wonder if they purposefully did not push for the waiver due to the over enrollment? I can’t imagine them providing LOAs and then revoking them if applicants are triple qualified.

 

[Cprice3418]

That’s terrible and I’m so sorry. I wonder if they purposefully did not push for the waiver due to the over enrollment? I can’t imagine them providing LOAs and then revoking them if applicants are triple qualified.

Not sure and will probably never know either way. But that did cross my mind as well.

 

[Cprice3418]

So sorry to hear about your situation. The admissions process is deeply flawed and this is a good example. I wish your DS good fortune in wherever he ends up.

Thank you. We definitely have some stuff to figure out getting this news so late in the game. But he’ll land on his feet.

 

[RowingMom]

My understanding is they are bringing in a larger size class for Indoc this year due to the historical setbacks and disenrollments. When we were on campus for graduation, I heard that that number might be close to 300. For reference, 2024 came in INDOC at 280 and graduated 214 last week with about 10-15 that were set backs from 2023.