I get why you are saying but it would seem that in order to go to the academy there are so many requirement like leadership, sports, and academics while it would seem that getting a scholarship is more about the academics. I say this however without having any idea what it takes to get a scholarship. I would also add that you should include those who get scholarship while in college and there I have to imagine academics must be a big part of it. No reason to flame you. I have no idea if what you said is true or not, but it makes a lot of sense. Are you basically saying that since each candidate competes against other candidates in his district, that the competition can be less fierce because he isnt competing against everyone else in the country? If so you have a point
Humey -- what PIMA said is true . . . she does have experience on this issue . . .
People are sometimes under the incorrect impression that those selected to go to an SA are "superior" to those that earn a 4 yr (or 3 yr) national ROTC scholarship. To get a 4 yr (or 3 yr) national ROTC scholarship today , it typically takes a "SA-quality" record with all the same varsity letter sports achievements, team captain, club officer, other leadership, physical fitness, good grades and high SAT/ACT test scores. In some cases it is harder to get the ROTC scholarship than the SA appointment. In recent years, the AF was only awarding 300 AFROTC scholarships each year (a mix of 3 and 4 year) while USAFA was still making 1200 appointments each year. For the Army, they usually only award about 600 4 yr scholarships each year while USMA still makes 1200 appointments each year. (Total Army ROTC national scholarships has been around 2500 each year with 600 being 4 yr and 1900 being 3 yr.) I don't have any experience with the Navy.
An SA candidate from a very competitive area like NoVa will earn only one of the 10 nominations from a MOC, but be ranked low on the MOC's slate because of all the great candidates (NoVa will have 200-300 applicants to each senator and each NoVa Representative -- typically 50 get interviews and 10 are seletected by each MOC usually with no duplication). A candidate from a not-so-competive region will get one or more nominations and be ranked high on the MOC's slate. The candidate that is ranked low from the very competitive region will have a record that is way better than the candidate from the not-so-competitive region. In the end, the candiate from the not-so-competitive region will get the SA appointment, and the candidate from the very competitive region will not get an SA appointment, even though they have a better record. Every year there are SA candidates that get an SA appointment, but don't qualify for a national ROTC scholarship -- nationally, they were not competitive -- they "won their MOC slate" for the SA appointment, but compared to the national pool, they didn't make the cut -- and every year there are great SA candidates that don't get the SA appointment (because they didn't win their MOC's slate in a very competitive region) but do earn a 4 yr (or 3 yr) national ROTC scholarship because they did compete well within the national pool.