OAM Portal

[an654]

Greetings. DS has an email ready to go out to those from whom he's requesting LOR's, and he asked me what to tell them as to how to go about preparing the letters to the senators. Both of the senators in our state use the OAM system for applying for the nominations. You can't really tell what the recommenders are supposed to do in terms of submitting the letters until you start the actual application which he cannot do until this summer. Can anyone out there enlighten us as to how to word what to say to those prospective letter writers? Will they be receiving requests from the senators via email? Does DS send the recommenders links to attach the letters? It's just confusing for him -- and for me -- as to what to say to his teachers when they ask how to submit the letters when it comes to this OAM portal. Hope my question makes sense.

 

[NavyHopefulMom2027]

I would just start with a request and depending on how well he knows them or if they may need a little refresher on why he’s asking them or what makes him so awesome, include those types of things.

For example, I appreciate how your history lessons helped to shape my understanding of ….. These are the traits I hope to build on as a student at SA. (And gently work in the traits that the Academy/Nomination committees will be looking for.) Maybe some brief reasons or examples of why he wants to attend a SA and serve.

Then just tell them if they are willing to write a recommendation for him, he will follow up with specific information when he receives it. I would also include that the information will likely come over the summer and ask if there is an email address other than their official school address they would like him to use.

I think the key is to remember the first contact should be an ask. If he includes too much information on the “how to do it”, it can slide a little more into an expectation.

And for my DS’s senators you entered the email in the portal and that generated a link for the recommender to upload directly to them. He got an email confirmation once a letter had been uploaded.

 

[Academician]

I tell my students to line up the requests, and to ask the teacher simply to create the letter, save it for delivery later (either as a hard copy, an uploaded PDF or even an email attachment). Often a teacher will provide the file copy to the student, so they can upload the letter themselves. Senators use OAM in a variety of ways, but the most prevalent I have seen is that the student places the email address in the OAM application and an email is generated that makes the request for the LOR. If the student has the copy (as noted by one Senator this year), then the student can place their personal email into OAM and respond with the appropriate letter/PDF from their teacher.

I agree with NavyHopefulMom about lining up the requests. Plus, I recommend providing a résumé to teachers when the request is made.

Best of luck to your son!

 

[an654]

Thank you so much for your insight. Both of your responses perfectly answered my poorly-worded questions. Lol. This will be very helpful to our son.

 

[an654]

One more question...is it standard/acceptable for the letter writer to write the same letter to all three nom sources with just the names changed in the greetings, or should three different letters be written for each of the three nom sources? I'm really sorry for all the questions. DS and his parents are total novices here.

 

[NavyHopefulMom2027]

I would say that they would be largely the same for all three.

Your son just needs to be clear with the letter writer if he is applying to more than one Academy (if that is permitted by your MOCs) to make the references in the letter to reflect that. For example he will be a successful service academy student/officer in the military. As opposed to he’d be great in the Army/Navy/AirForce.

Likewise if the MOC choose to allow only one Academy nomination and he chooses to split up, then the letter writer could tweak each one to the specific SA/MOC.

 

[an654]

Great advice. Thank you again.

 

[NavyHopefulMom2027]

No problem. And there is LOTS of info on here from people that have a lot of wisdom so be sure to read through the threads.

Good luck on your DSs journey!

 

[Charlie W]

Sen. Tillis of North Carolina allows either a PDF upload by candidates through OAM or for letters to be mailed to his office. No idea how typical that approach is.

 

[an654]

Sen. Tillis of North Carolina allows either a PDF upload by candidates through OAM or for letters to be mailed to his office. No idea how typical that approach is.

Thank you. We don't really know what they want until we start the application, so we don't know yet.