I've been wondering, is it better to have a nomination from a member of congress, or of senate, or does it not matter? I received one from my senator (Senator Specter of PA), so I am very happy, but I was just wondering, and I know of other people that were also wondering.
Any Member of Congress (Senator, Representative, Delegate, Resident Commissioner), the VP, or the President will do. A nomination is a nomination. It does not matter who gave you one. All that matters is that you have one.
Congratulations on the Nomination! Basically, it really doesn't matter where you get your nomination since you only need one for appointment, but being in a more competitive state (I would think PA is because of its size), if you can get a Senatorial nom, it usually means you have really good resume. I think it is a good gauge on where you stand for appointment. Unless, of course, you have an LOA, then you're already in. I'm not sure of the validity of this claim, but I heard that all of the USNA nominees from Sen. Salazar (CO) have a solid shot at appointment. But I don't know how competitive CO is compared to PA.
it does matter... i.e. the USMMA only accepts nominations from congressman and Senators.. so the others will not do ya any good .
JCollins - you're absolutely right. I forgot about USMMA for a moment (no insult to the school - it is a great school). The basic point is still the same. It doesn't matter where you got your nomination (as long as it is from an acceptable source). All that matters is that you have one.
Since any nomination you receive will be for a specific academy - it basically doesn't matter. Since a candidate will never receive a Presidential nomination to USMMA it's a moot point. To the original post - Congratulations from winning a nomination from Senator Specter! A nomination from a US Senator is from a MOC. MOC nom's include US Reps and Senators. When your name is submitted, it's on a list. You compete against others on the list for the top spot. This will either be chose by the MOC or most often, the Academy. If you don't make that cut then you compete Nationally with all others who have a alternate MOC nomination. One could make the case that being on the Senator's list and competing against candidates from across the state will be a stiffer competition that competing only in your Congressional district. Usually, though in a very competitive state like PA, you would already have a very strong candidate package to make the cut to a US Senator's nomination list. Having a nomination from a US Senator vs one from a US Rep doesn't add to your whole candidate score. You just need to wait and see how it all shakes out.
Well as far as competing for the slot charged to your MOC it is generally better to have a nomination from a congressman because the other 9 you will be competing against are from a smaller pool. If you get a nom from a senator that means the other 9 are extremely competitive to have won a nom competing against everyone in the state. This is of course, just my speculation and isn't written in stone anywhere. Just what I came up with after thinking. Don't worry though, your son will be competing with more competitive people but he is also really competitive himself since he also received the nom.
I copied my post from CC on this one...... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Let's think about this for a moment. While the Senator is choosing his/her nomination slate from the entire state.......that may not necessarily mean it is tougher to get a Senatorial nomination or that the slate is more competitive in general than a Representative's slate. Here in Texas, the Senators check with the Reps so they do not duplicate nominations. So, if Senator X checks with the many reps (32) across the state and eliminates those who are going to get a nom from any one of the reps from the applicants under consideration for Senator X's slate of nominees, the relative "competitiveness" of that Senator's slate could be very competitive or not so much. Not so much if the really awesome applicants had already been snatched up by the reps for their slates..........Up to 320 (assuming each rep had ten kids wanting into USNA, which is not the case....probably more like 200) I tend to think the competitiveness of any given slate of nominees is truly "pot luck" from year to year. Some years, the buffet may have lots of goodies, other years, maybe not. Now, if the Senator had first choice of all the applicants in a state, then they would likely have the toughest, most competitive slate of nominees. It is always true that on a competitive slate, you are only competing with nominees from your congressional district with the representative's nomination. For the one slot allotted to that MOC. Then the rest of the slate would go into the national pool. From there, depending upon how competitive each candidate is, there could be multiple appointments. All of this analysis is designed to give us something to think about while waiting. And waiting. And waiting some more!
Yes, that is why I said it was just speculation. It comes down to luck alot more than we would like. There are way too many variables such as the one you mentioned about the senator picking after the representatives and such. Sometimes I wonder how easy it could be to just move somewhere like North Dakota before applying...
As I understand, Florida is fairly competitive. Not to sure how competitive, but my guess is more so than South Dakota, and less competitive than California.
Florida is very competitive for all academies. Competition varies between states, between academies in states and even between congressional districts. While Florida, PA and CA are very competitive states, there may be congressional districts that are less competitive.
thanks, my son has a nom from our state of Florida for USNA! We are very excited. We do not know how many people received nominations and whether it is a primary slate or not.
what does it mean if the state is more or less competitive? does that mean, since I am in PA, that I have less of a chance, or that more cadets are chosen from PA?
xTxMANx - no one can tell you. It's all speculation. Did your US Rep did not give you a nomination because you got a nomination from Sen Specter? Let's start there.....
Some states and some districts within certain states have more people wanting to attend SAs than do others. I can only speak for USNA, but some of the competitive states are MD, PA, VA, NJ, CA, FL, TX. These states border USNA and/or have lots of people in them. Within these states, some districts are more competitive than others. Conversely, a state that is not competitive may still have certain very competitive districts. Often, this is due to the presence of a military base in the district. The good news is that these competitive and populous states also tend to send the most candidates to USNA. So, your chances aren't necessarilly better or worse if you live in MD as opposed to living in, say, TN. It is fair to say that certain districts/states occasionally have more openings (nominations) than they have qualified candidates. Those tend to be the least populous states, such as ND, SD, WY, MT, etc. However, that does NOT mean that the candidates are any less qualified; there are just fewer of them in certain areas because there are fewer people. Where you live is generally something you can't control (at least at this point in the process). So, rather than fret, just do your best to make yourself as strong a candidate as you can. Control what you can control and don't worry about what you can't control.
No, it means you're competing with more people for the nomination because alot of people from that certain state want to attend a SA.
ok, well, i already received the nomination, I was just wondering if it affected my chances for an appointment to the AFA thanks for the info
SR MOST nom letters state how they handed the slate in. I.E. DOle stated her list was entered in alphabetical with no principal nom. Butterfield stated he used the comp. method. Burr said the same thing. All that means is they are giving the SA the chance to select the appt using the WCS. The letter might state how many they have on the slate. I do knw that there was a kid on this site or CC from FL and we needed to warn him, because he announced he was the only one from his area selected by the MOC for the AFA, thus there is a list out there somewhere showing the selections for at least 1 MOC. You can typically find the list in press releases for the MOC. CONGRATS on the NOM
