Hello, all. I am currently a junior in high school who turns 17 within the next month. I was recently accepted into the Naval Academy Summer Seminar, and have interest in all the academies, but I still have some questions that I would like an immediate answer to I cannot find on my own.
How early can and should I apply for a congressional nomination? I really want to do this as early as possible, as it seems to be the most difficult part of the nomination process.
As someone who wants to practice law, how much of an uphill climb is that through any of the academies?
How can I get my service be deferred for law school?
How early can I start my overall application?
Thank you to all.
Good advice to read all the Stickies and browse this Nominations forum.
Your primary sources of info on elected officials’ noms will be on their websites. Many host information sessions. They can organize the process any way they wish.
If you haven’t yet read every page, dropdown and link at USNA.edu, I strongly recommend it. That is your primary source, and many answers are there.
The Navy JAG Corps gets most of its officers through direct commissioning programs and civilian colleges and law schools. If you study the USNA website, you will see the focus is on producing line officers for the warfare specialties, a small handful for restricted line and certain staff corps, another small handful for medical school. USNA grads are expected to head to the Fleet or Corps after graduation and start their training pipeline or report to an operational assignment.
You can go to USNA, but it is highly likely you will have to go into one of the usual warfare specialties. After a certain period of time and stellar performance, you can apply to the Navy’s Law Education (LEP) program and compete for a slot, attend law school full-time, returning as a JAG officer. As I noted above, the majority of Navy JAGs attend civilian college and law school; LEP is extremely competitive and much smaller numbers of JAGs commission that way.
Various links below, the LEP program for the competitive program for AD officers, and the programs for direct commission and civilian schools.
http://www.jag.navy.mil/careers_/careers/opportunities_lep.html
http://www.jag.navy.mil/careers_/careers/opportunities_sp.html
http://www.jag.navy.mil/careers_/careers/opportunities_da.html
http://www.jag.navy.mil/careers_/careers/opportunities_ipp.html
If you want to be a Navy or Marine Corps JAG, doing it via USNA is a long and uncertain path. If you’re not finding info on USNA.edu about going JAG, there are very good reasons for that.