Nomination Process

Mom-in-PA

5-Year Member
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Oct 23, 2011
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I posted a couple of days ago about my DS receiving his LOA from USMMA. I am now just trying to understand the nomination process. FYI, DS is also applying to USNA but to date has not received an LOA. His MOC interviews are now underway. How many nominations can the MOC's give out? I've heard conflicting info about this. If he does not receive a nomination from one of his MOC's, is there still hope that he will get a nomination? Is there anything else we can do proactively to make it happen?
 
The USNA first (review) boards are usually not until November. Your son can check with his Blue & Gold rep for details. Nominating authorities are your Congressman, two Senators, the VP, the President, and the Superintendents of the DOD academies. Superintendent nominations are generally used for recruited athletes. Your son could apply for a nomination from other congressmen from your state as not all use everyone of their available nominations. He should contact their offices first and act quickly as deadlines are approaching.

Keep in mind that having a LOA is the hard part, and generally the MOC will grant the nomination to those with an LOA. MY DS's experience was that he received multiple nominations to MMA and had made sure that the MOC was aware of his LOA.
 
For USMMA, the nominating authorities are your 2 US Senators and any MOC in your state. The locality boundary for nomination by a MOC is the state in which your district lies rather than just the District itself. Each Representative and each Senator may nominate ten candidates each year to compete for USMMA admission.

There are no VP or Presidential nominations for USMMA, nor any service-connected ones (MOH, DAV, POW, etc) either.
 
Thank you for your responses. We certainly didn't realize that for USMMA he could apply to all congressmen in the state. Not sure if there is time at this point to reach out to any others. A quick search reveals that most of them had Oct deadlines. And we thought we had done our research!
 
If you have copies of the letters or recommendation you could pull it off. fedEx the packet.
 
Lynpar, in your experience, will they accept it if it is after the deadline? I guess I could call them...
 
Not trying to be rude here but are you applying or is your son? That being said, it would look much better if your son were the one asking the application questions to congressmen/women. By all means, point him in the right direction, but let him do the talking.

Lynpar, in your experience, will they accept it if it is after the deadline? I guess I could call them...
 
Sorry only experience we have is with 2 senators and one congressman. One of our senators deadline was moved up 30 days because he was retiring. We overnighted that application to be there on the due date. The other two were sent regular mail. I think, can't believe I can't remember every detail now. Also we are on the trimester system and we wanted to include DS first grades for senior year. Again, I think that is why he waited until the last minute. He had everything else done weeks earlier. Good luck! Go back and reread all the nomination posts under their own thread ( look further down on main page) or use the search thread tool on the Merchant Marine Academy page we are on. Did that make sense? With LOA in hand for 3 interviews, I would imagine his chances are very good to obtain a nomination. That said, I have no inside track either but it doesn't hurt to try to cover as many spiraea as possible. We were notified early again from retiring senators staff he had the nom. Once he (DS) got that information confirmed via a letter he called the other congressmens office to say he was pulling his request thus freeing up that nomination. There was much discussion if that was necessary or stupid but it worked out for DS. He also recieved the nom from the other senator as well.
 
Lynpar, in your experience, will they accept it if it is after the deadline? I guess I could call them...

My Congressman's SA coordinator has stated categorically that if it arrives 1 minute late it will go int he trash can.
 
Thank you for your responses. We certainly didn't realize that for USMMA he could apply to all congressmen in the state. Not sure if there is time at this point to reach out to any others. A quick search reveals that most of them had Oct deadlines. And we thought we had done our research!

That's one of those little known oddities about the USMMA process. In fact, some of the MOC's SA coordinators don't know that it is allowed. If your son decides to pursue noms from other Congressmen, do be sure that he is the one making the phone calls to inquire.

Good luck to your DS.
 
My DS has not received a LOA in the mail, but his app. status says "conditional." Does that mean he will receive an appointment if he gets a nomination?
 
Yay! For you! Conditional is the weay they phrase it. It is essentially a LOA! Now you will get the letter that states if all "conditions" are met DS will be offered an appointment! :band:


All done jumping around and dancing? Now make sure all the conditions are met and kiddo doesn't do anything stupid between now and July! In my DS's case it was:A get the nom. B keep grades and behavior up to stNdards. And,,,,I can't recall the third condition. It may have been the physical test or etc.....
But congratulTions!,,,

And KEEP up the good work!
 
Yes, the third one was the physical fitness test. I think it was called CFA.
Congratulations :thumb:
 
In our case I also vetoed skiing, snowboarding, sledding,etc..
Buy a big, big roll of bubble wrap!

When I took the letter to the school for Plebo I had him pulled put of class. I then proceeded to stick a tape measure on him. I told him I was measuring for his bubble wrap suit and handed him the letter!
 
For the record, each MOC has 10 nominations to the USMMA each year ( http://www.usmma.edu/admissions/facts/terms.shtml ). Also our son called our MOC Coordinator when he received his LOA from USMMA. She stated that the committee would meet in late November but the Congressman had never not given a Nomination to a USMMA Applicant that had received a LOA from the Academy. Good Luck!
 
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