Multiple SA nomination requests

I don’t understand the primary nom stuff.

Candidates don’t ask for a primary nom as far as I know. MOCs give them sometimes.

My son was not given a primary nom. He was ranked #1 on his slate by the committee.
The MOC's committee?

Yes
I didn't realize that was possible. I thought the three ways to nominate were unranked, principal with ranking for the remaining 9, or principal without ranking for the remaining 9. I didn't realize that a ranked list could be submitted to the academy without a principal nominee. Interesting.
 
I think you are confusing what someone said as #1 nom with primary.

Primary nom is determined by MOC.

Everyone applies to all the noms they can. So for instance, they apply to representative for their first choice of USNA. That isn’t a primary nom. If they get a nom to USNA to their first choice, it is most likely a competitive slate with the other people who got the USNA noms ...

That candidate might also apply to their Senator for a nom with USMA is first choice. Still not a primary nom.

Primary noms get decided by the MOC if for some reason they want a particular candidate to receive the nom.

Smart candidates try to get noms to different SAs. Why? Because at the time of application, they don’t know if they will get offered an appointment to one or more SAs.

If they are lucky to get noms for more than one SA - they have to make the right decision. But they didn’t know they would get more than one offer at application.
 
I don’t understand the primary nom stuff.

Candidates don’t ask for a primary nom as far as I know. MOCs give them sometimes.

My son was not given a primary nom. He was ranked #1 on his slate by the committee.
The MOC's committee?

Yes
I didn't realize that was possible. I thought the three ways to nominate were unranked, principal with ranking for the remaining 9, or principal without ranking for the remaining 9. I didn't realize that a ranked list could be submitted to the academy without a principal nominee. Interesting.

My son was told in his phone call that he was the #1 ranked on her slate. We knew this from another source as well. But it wasn’t principal.
 
One of the key points to understand is if the MOC uses the principal nom method, that pretty much forces the SA to offer an appointment, if the candidate is qualified in every other way, regardless of where the SA would have ranked him or her versus others on the slate, or who had the highest whole candidate score. (I won’t go into the fact USNA’s legal language isn’t the same as other SAs, and technically they could choose not to offer to the principal. They usually do.)

If the candidate is ranked #1 on a ranked slate, the SA is free to do its own ranking and choose whoever they wish to offer an appointment(s). Their #1 could be the MOC’s #5, or the reverse, based on comparative candidate scoring.
 
One of the key points to understand is if the MOC uses the principal nom method, that pretty much forces the SA to offer an appointment, if the candidate is qualified in every other way, regardless of where the SA would have ranked him or her versus others on the slate, or who had the highest whole candidate score. (I won’t go into the fact USNA’s legal language isn’t the same as other SAs, and technically they could choose not to offer to the principal. They usually do.)

If the candidate is ranked #1 on a ranked slate, the SA is free to do its own ranking and choose whoever they wish to offer an appointment(s). Their #1 could be the MOC’s #5, or the reverse, based on comparative candidate scoring.

The ranking of my son is immaterial because he got an LOA. He just happened to be ranked one.

The guy that was ranked two ... he might have had an LOA too.

My son was put through with MOC’s nomination.
 
I'm familiar with the principal nomination, I just didn't realize the MOC could send a ranked list without choosing a principal nomination. I didn't realize that was possible. I was always under the impression that if an MOC does not choose a principal nomination, the only method able to be used is submitting an unranked list, and then the SA does the ranking from that list. I had no idea that an MOC could submit a ranked list without a principal nominee. Thanks for clarifying.
 
I have no idea what all the MOC do, but here our MOC's all have you check off your "first choice" of academy. And as I understand the process, when a candidate receives a "Primary NOM" they automatically get an offer of appointment contingent on being qualified across the board prior to R-day, or I-day. Please advise me if I have this wrong as this our first time with all this? If as you say your DS received 2 "primary or principal" NOMs then in all likelihood he is sitting with two offers of appointment, yes? Then not to be rude, but I would think that by this time he would know where he wanted to go (first choice), and if it was the academy he did not get the "primary or principal" NOM from then I can totally understand his waiting. This was the sole reason for my initial question, why do some candidates do this? I wasn't trying to insult or offend ANYONE, I legitimately just was curious why a candidate would not accept an appointment when offered. Just trying to learn!

You telling me you son's path, and the info you impart help me to understand. I didn't think the academies gave out more appointments than available positions, so that is something I have not seen elsewhere and goes towards explaining that no candidate gets "held up waiting" but that if qualified and wanted by the particular academy they will get an appointment even if the class if full because the academies factor in multiple appointments. So I thank you for all the information your are willing to share.

DS is currently a Plebe ‘22 at USNA. So yes he decided. And NO he didn’t ‘sit with two offers of appointments’.

He had two principal nominations. And a ranked nomination. No he did not have two offers of appointment resulting from two ‘guaranteed’ principal nominations. He had 3 nominations. And one appointment. All that it takes is ONE nomination to get An appointment. So in our case, that unused principal nomination was used for another candidate. So was the ranked slate nomination. And FYI....every MOC that has a candidate receive an appointment will ‘claim’ them from their slate as receiving an appointment. And rightfully so BC candidates aren’t charged to a MOC (or other nominating source) until it’s all said an done. An appointee can request to find out who they were charged to after they are an official Mid. Clear as mud right??

Maybe this will help you look at it differently, Bc I think your focus ‘Is why don’t candidates with a principal nomination accept right away?’ An MOC presenting a candidate as a ‘primary or principal’ candidate to USNA is them saying to USNA “this is the one candidate I want” (for whatever reason. Every MOC can say that if they want, or not present their slate that way if they want). It is NOT the candidate saying “I want xx appointment”. Its the MOC choosing the kid, NOT the kid choosing the SA. So in theory, an applicant could receive a principal appointment to an academy that isn’t their 1st choice. That they don’t want to attend. And not through their efforts, but due to the MOC selecting them as a principal.

The most common way is for the MOC to provide their list of candidates and let USNA pick. Not primary. Yes you are correct that they pick an MOC’s principal choice if they qualify all around (for the most part...there are exceptions).

Since most candidates don’t know if they are principal or not, nor is it posted in the DIY threads, I don’t understand your focus on the method. I feel like what you are really getting at is kids being undecided no matter what method of slate the MOC uses? And that’s a whole topic separate of method.
 
With the exception of USMMA, DD applied to every service adademy. USMMA didn't make the cut because of its limited range of available majors, none of which appealed. DD has been focused on attending an SA for 5 years and her primary focus is to serve and to be a part of a group dedicated to that service. The other wrinkle is that she is also driven to complete at the national level in her sport and each academy has its own pros/cons with regard to that. The advice she has received from multiple sources is to let the admissions process play itself out at each SA and then make her final decision. She is reluctantly following that advice.

She is lucky to have double nominations to USAFA, USMA, and USNA, and has so far received offers of appointment to USCGA, USMA, & USNA. We will see how it plays out with USAFA. This may seem like she is trying to "notch her belt", but it really comes down to maximizing the amount of available data, prior to making a final commitment. There is definitely a favored destination, and has been all along, but sometimes perspectives can change when the goal of "winning" an appointment has been achieved. We just want her to be able to sit back and assess her true desires in an environment that is finally free of the stress of waiting for appointments.

We will see whether her preference changes once all the cards are on the table.
 
@FutureAcademyDad? THANK YOU...that was probably the best explanation of the reason candidates seek multiple appointments. You DD is probably someone who will lead thru her whole career...just the type of Officer the services need.
 
@FutureAcademyDad? THANK YOU...that was probably the best explanation of the reason candidates seek multiple appointments. You DD is probably someone who will lead thru her whole career...just the type of Officer the services need.

Glad you got the answer you were looking for. This doesn’t address principal noms, which is what I thought you were stuck on. Good that you understand now. Keep in mind the reasons people seek multiple appointments are as varied as the candidates themselves. There is no single answer to anything. This isn’t DS’s story. Best of luck to your candidate.
 
I wasn't stuck on the principal NOM thing, I understood how they worked, I just was not sure if having multiple appointment offers caused wait times to increase, candidates get no offers of appointments because classes were full or exactly what happened. Many of you on here know far more than I do, and that is why I asked the initial question because after browsing around some the new class threads I saw a lot of appointments "undecided" and did not know how that effected people without offers of appointment. I was sort of aware that a Presidential, Vice Presidential, or Principal NOM all carried automatic appointments, just didn't understand the reason so many candidates had multiple appointments and were undecided.
 
No.

For USNA there are unlimited presidential nominations to those qualified, but only 100 of them get appointments.

The Vice President is allowed 5 attendees to a SA.
 
Lots of good info above. Another reason these young adults may take the full amount of time allotted to them to decide is that they quite often have amazing offers from civilian schools as well. They could be weighing scholarship offers that take them through the masters level, or some type of unique combined 5-year program. SA candidates are amazing and often have many options in front of them.
 
Many candidates are still "undecided" because they haven't attended admissions events at all the institutions they have been accepted to yet.
They have 10 weeks left to decide how they may spend the next 9 years of their lives.
 
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