1985... Your comment about "if you are scholastically qualified for USNA, you shouldn't be offered NAPS or Foundation" is not universally true. Over the years, I have developed first hand knowledge of a number of Foundation students who were 3Q'ed, and did not obtain MOC (or other) nominations for USNA (but did for other SA's). The USNA was interested in them, and offered Foundation Scholarships. They spent their year at "prep" school, minded their P&Q's, demonstrated their capabilities, went through the MOC nominatin process again, this time obtaining one for the USNA, and are attending / graduated from the USNA.
My daughter was a Napster (class of 2015) and she received a letter from the USNA that she was scholastically qualified. This year, my son is a USNA Foundation recipient (class of 2017), but did not receive an official letter from the USNA. However, it is safe to assume that he is also scholastically qualified, because he has slightly better grades and SAT scores than my daughter. My son is currently attending a 4 year university (community college is no longer acceptable) and awaiting an appointment. He went to a Prep School last semester and received grades on the high 90's. As I looked at the post of other candidates that received a direct appointment, I believe that my children's stats are up to par and even better than others.
I'm posting a little bit of information about my son just to give you an idea of what a foundation recipient stats looks like.
ACT Scores: Math 34 English 35
SAT Scores: Math 800 English 690
My son's school does not rank, but he received a letter from the state of CA that he is qualified for the (ELC) Eligibility in the Local Context program. ELC, draws qualified students from among the top 9 percent of each participating high school. He got accepted to all 4 CA Universities that he applied to.
These are just some of his accomplishments:
Honor Society
Lifetime member of the CA Scholarship Federation
International Thespian Society (school secretary and had several lead roles)
DECA (won several awards and school's VP of membership)
Community service awards for outstanding community service from the CA State Assembly, City Mayor, Neighbourhood President, and School District.
Student Ambassador to Australia
He can understand 4 languages (he's fluent on 2, the other is conversational (spoken at home) and he took Spanish for a year)
Member of several school clubs
Both my daughter and my son needed a nomination to get an appointment. An appointment is not guaranteed until all the requirements are met in good standing. They did not apply and was directly picked by NAPS and Foundation. Also, my daughter graduated NAPS with a GPA well above 2.2, just saying.