Actually, if your friend's son received a Congressional nomination, it is most likely that his name is on a slate of up to ten names to fill a single vacancy at the Academy for that member of Congress. He still needs to compete among that list of ten candidates to be awarded the slot. If your friend's son happened to secure a "principal" nomination from that MOC, and he is otherwise fully qualified, then yes, he is pretty much a shoo-in. But most nominations are not principal nominations. They can be ranked (1-10) by the member of Congress, or unranked, leaving Academy admissions the decision of who to appoint from that list. A candidate who is appointed from that list - thus, winning the slate- is charged to the member of Congress. Remember that members of Congress are only allowed 5 cadets at the Academy at the same time. This means that in most years, there is only one vacancy to be filled for that MOC. If a candidate does not win his/her slate in this way, then that candidate will go into the national pool of qualified candidates with nominations. From that pool, any remaining appointments are given in various ways - i.e. by order of merit (to the next 150 in the pool which is roughly the top remaining 10%), and then as needed to fill the class as determined by Academy admissions.