Order of Merit

osdad

5-Year Member
Joined
Feb 10, 2010
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When does OOM get figured? Is it per semester or just yearly? Also, how is it calculated? GPA? + Military proficiency? + ???

And, for a Plebe, does it matter much? Perhaps for summer assignments?
 
Virtually all the time! lol

It's a constant ...after each semester and during ...Grades, PT, professional, peer and CO rankings ...

It always matters. Much is determined by rank. And it's not always "fair." Often the CO doesn't really know his/her Mids. But it is what it is. Important concept to get down too ...Always competing while concurrently building team. Perhaps one of the most challenging contradictions to be mastered.

Mids are re-ranked each semester.
 
Try reading USNAINST 1531.51A, which gives some explanation on how OOM is calculated. I have never seen the magical equation, but the reference is a good starting place to understanding what matters (hopefully this is the latest and greatest -- since this hasn't been updated since 1996!!!).
http://www.usna.edu/AdminSupport/Instructions/1000-1999/1531.51A CH-1.pdf

OOM (Academic, Military, Overall) is officially calculated once per semester, but sometimes there are small "adjustments" (i.e. someone's grades weren't correctly entered or changed).

As Whistle Pig hints, performance is ALWAYS being judged. Aptitude for Commission Rankings, which factors into the military QPR and military OOM, is very subjective and normally requires visibility since you are ranked by your peers and seniors (both, MIDN and Company Officer).

Academic OOM is strictly based on Academic QPR (GPA).
Military OOM factors the Military Multiples (Table II)
Overall OOM factors everything (Table I)

As for summer training assignments, it sometimes can factor (i.e. a tie breaker, which will be based off the Fall semester OOM calculations)
 
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If it's done like it was in the good old days, academics is the most important contributor to OOM. In my day, it was about 70%, if memory serves. Thus, the other parts don't make a huge amount of difference, unless your marks are significantly higher or lower than your grades (i.e., if your academics put you in the C range and you have As in conduct and PE, etc., your OOM will go up a bit; the reverse is also true).

As Jadler03 says, OOM is very important. In my day, it was basically THE determining factor in service selection other than subs and even there it was a very important factor -- I believe that's not as much the case today.

One item of note . . . if you apply to grad school, etc., the rank on your transcript will be your academic class rank, not your OOM.
 
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