Settle in with an open mind to “hurry up and wait,” a military life skill. It’s a good thing you’ve got everything in, but here are some thoughts to help you manage expectations by exploring various permutations.
- USAFA has from now until May, or even beyond, to decide to offer you an appointment. They are winnowing the pool of applicants down to those fully qualified with a nom.
- You may not get a nomination from your elected officials. That means the long-shot VP or noms under the control of the Superintendent. Now, if you have a service-connected nom based on eligibility, you have a nom that meets the criteria.
- Most cadets and midshipmen do not receive LOAs. They are used by the SA in a variety of ways to assure a candidate they want, for whatever reason, they will be offered an appointment if certain conditions are met. If one appears, rejoice and do your best to meet any conditions specified. If it doesn’t, don’t expend any energy on it.
- You will likely not be offered an actual appointment without a nom.
- Let’s assume - yay - you get a nom(s) down the road a bit. Everyone else in play on your slate(s) is your competition, unless the elected official has given you a principal nom. Otherwise, like you, your competitors have to get their full applications in, pass CFA, be found fully qualified, and the SA will choose among you as to who gets the offer of appointment charged to that elected official. That could be you, or not. You’re still in play for a later offer
because the SA is able to appoint additional people off the slate using a different nomination authority and applicable rules. It might be time to refresh on the Sticky post at the top of the Nominations forum.
- “Go before the review board.” It’s not one-stop shopping, board reviews and someone immediately sits down to update your portal with an appointment. There are many steps and many hands on your application. It has to be evaluated/scored. Key to the entire process, you have to be found fully qualified and admissible. Sometime after that, once the nom situation becomes clear, the decision is made whether to offer an appointment.
- Every year, fully qualified candidates with noms do not receive offers of appointment. There are simply more great applicants than there are available seats in the class.
Remain hopeful.
Tend your alternate plans.
PT to manage stress.
Enjoy your friends and family in the here and now, because this could be your last six months living full-time at home.
A better formatting would most likely be asking about a decision from the board.