Although I'm a newbie to all this, it seems to me that getting an LOA this early in the fall is just incredibly random and lucky. So many others will be getting LOAs during the fall. For my kid with the early LOA - no nomination in hand. Working on those applications now! Not completed with medical review. Everything else, including the BGO interview is completed. Attended NASS, STEM, and had a CVW last fall. She is an athlete but not a blue chip as far as we are aware. Her academics are very strong. Very good test scores, incredibly good grades (ranked first with both weighted and unweighted GPAs in a class of over 350 in a highly ranked suburban high school), A+ grades in courses like Advanced Calculus, that she takes at a regional pull-out STEM school. Even attended an Ivy League college summer course this past summer on full scholarship. We do not live in one of those super-competitive districts that I read about!