SLE Denials this year

J

JROTCLEADER

5-Year Member
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Oct 25, 2018
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Wow, I represent several strong candidates for 25' appointment who include USMA recruited athletes, prospective Valedictorians, extracurricular studs/leadership galore and high achieving standardized test takers who were all denied SLE opportunity this year. Everyone of them who also applied at USNA Summer Seminar was accepted as I expected, they are stellar candidates. USMA sent portal responses essentially citing "keen competition" but its kind of hard to see these kids getting edged out based on the strength of their records. I have been doing this a while, in past years these kids would have been slam dunks, what gives?
 
As with all the service academy summer experience programs, it is at heart a recruiting outreach tool. While they are certainly looking for those who stand out in the areas you mentioned, they are also keeping an eye on geographic areas that perhaps they haven’t had as many candidates come from in recent years, or they figure the recruited athlete is likely to get invited to a NCAA recruiting visit, or they are confident candidates who apply to SLE are also likely to continue with their application anyway. There are far more top-notch candidates than there are seats available, as happens every year.

One clue from the SLE pages, “West Point selects a supremely talented, geographically diverse student body from all 50 states.” They are in the enviable position of cherry-picking exactly who they want from a large pool of highly-qualified candidates.
 
The SA summer sessions are primarily outreach and marketing programs. No one here, unless they're in SA admissions, knows the exact criteria. What we can gather based on anecdotes posted on SAF over the years is that the criteria is a mix of merit (academics, athletics, leadership) and membership in an under-represented group (broadly defined, including geography and socio-economics). Some candidates fit the former, some the latter, some both.

As has been noted on SAF countless times, it's not a straight rack-and-stack admissions methodology to get Into SLE/SS. And getting into the program does not confer any official advantage to the candidate for appointment. Some but not most cadets/mids attended.

P.S. Cross-posted with @Capt MJ. Mutually reinforcing info. ☺️
 
JROTCLEADER said:
Wow, I represent several strong candidates for 25' appointment who include USMA recruited athletes, prospective Valedictorians, extracurricular studs/leadership galore and high achieving standardized test takers who were all denied SLE opportunity this year. Everyone of them who also applied at USNA Summer Seminar was accepted as I expected, they are stellar candidates. USMA sent portal responses essentially citing "keen competition" but its kind of hard to see these kids getting edged out based on the strength of their records. I have been doing this a while, in past years these kids would have been slam dunks, what gives?
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Unfortunate. Recognizing that SLE is a "recruitment" tool, one can only hope the turn downs for it don't end up hurting USMA's chance to bring in the type of great candidates that you are speaking of. Perhaps USMA's loss will be Navy's gain this coming cycle because of the experience they end up having at NASS. Still, it seems a shame.
 
Great points Gentlemen, these explanations are helpful, appear entirely on point with what I gathered as well. Of course the 100 percent selection rate of these kids to USNA Summer Seminar with essentially the same criteria is concerning. I am not sure the "selectivity" of one over the other is that great, I suspect it reflects the other criteria you mention. Fully understand that selection to the summer seminars do not reflect any advantage for actual appointment but when the denial message states that selection to the seminar is highly competitive and you were not selected, it does send a message that the candidate was "out competed". Let's hope there remains a meritocracy driving these decisions broadly.
 
MidCakePa said:
The SA summer sessions are primarily outreach and marketing programs. No one here, unless they're in SA admissions, knows the exact criteria. What we can gather based on anecdotes posted on SAF over the years is that the criteria is a mix of merit (academics, athletics, leadership) and membership in an under-represented group (broadly defined, including geography and socio-economics). Some candidates fit the former, some the latter, some both.

As has been noted on SAF countless times, it's not a straight rack-and-stack admissions methodology to get Into SLE/SS. And getting into the program does not confer any official advantage to the candidate for appointment. Some but not most cadets/mids attended.

P.S. Cross-posted with @Capt MJ. Mutually reinforcing info. ☺️
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Scary sometimes, down to the same vocabulary.
 
JROTCLEADER said:
Wow, I represent several strong candidates for 25' appointment who include USMA recruited athletes, prospective Valedictorians, extracurricular studs/leadership galore and high achieving standardized test takers who were all denied SLE opportunity this year. Everyone of them who also applied at USNA Summer Seminar was accepted as I expected, they are stellar candidates. USMA sent portal responses essentially citing "keen competition" but its kind of hard to see these kids getting edged out based on the strength of their records. I have been doing this a while, in past years these kids would have been slam dunks, what gives?
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As people noted already, they're primarily outreach events. But more so than that, the explanation for them all getting into NASS is that NASS has three weeks of ~850 Midshipmen candidates per session. On the other hand, SLE has two weeks with ~500 CCs per session. So, there are far more slots for NASS...
 
It also depends on the area -- in our area, NASS is the hardest to get in (likely same USNA )

59% sought a nomination to the U.S. Naval Academy

19% sought a nomination to the U.S. Air Force Academy

20% sought a nomination to the U.S. Military Academy

2% sought a nomination to the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy

DS was "outreach and marketing" by West Point right after his PSAT (sophomore year), his SLE was offered just one week after his submission, and his West Point's LOA in July likely the first batch, and his appointment right after he secured his nomination. On the other hand, he was never "outreach and marketing" by USNA, he was declined for NASS, and he was turned down for USNA.

No bitterness though, he is very happy to join the army !
 
JROTCLEADER said:
Wow, I represent several strong candidates for 25' appointment who include USMA recruited athletes, prospective Valedictorians, extracurricular studs/leadership galore and high achieving standardized test takers who were all denied SLE opportunity this year. Everyone of them who also applied at USNA Summer Seminar was accepted as I expected, they are stellar candidates. USMA sent portal responses essentially citing "keen competition" but its kind of hard to see these kids getting edged out based on the strength of their records. I have been doing this a while, in past years these kids would have been slam dunks, what gives?
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Same for my DS. He is attending NASS. He has no experience or exposure to the military based on where we live. Not sure he will complete his application to USMA at this point. He was leaning USNA anyway as far as the SA he would apply to. He was however subsequently invited to visit West Point during Branch Week and shadow a cadet, so if he decides to attend that then hopefully it may still encourage him to complete the application.
 
Hello, I just found out I was accepted to SLE after originally being rejected. I was also waitlisted from NASS. Does anyone know what the deadline to accept the offer of admission to SLE is? I'd like to wait to see if I hear anything from USNA before making a choice between the two but obviously don't want to jeopardize my opportunity to attend SLE. Thanks
 
Wanted to give my two cents as well. A good amount of current cadets I know, including myself, didn’t get accepted to SLE. Still, they were ultimately deemed qualified and appointed. Who knows exactly what Admissions look for, but don’t get discouraged if you were not accepted to SLE! I wish someone would’ve let me know that when I found out I got rejected from SLE. I was given an appointment later that December, which is rather early in the application cycle, if that’s any consolation.
 
JROTCLEADER said:
Wow, I represent several strong candidates for 25' appointment who include USMA recruited athletes, prospective Valedictorians, extracurricular studs/leadership galore and high achieving standardized test takers who were all denied SLE opportunity this year. Everyone of them who also applied at USNA Summer Seminar was accepted as I expected, they are stellar candidates. USMA sent portal responses essentially citing "keen competition" but its kind of hard to see these kids getting edged out based on the strength of their records. I have been doing this a while, in past years these kids would have been slam dunks, what gives?
Click to expand...
My DS was rejected from SLE, accepted to Summer seminar 2 years ago. Fell in love with USNA! Spent the week there , then attended SEAL ELITE Wrestling Camp the next week. Total expense 1900 in those amazing programs, plus diesel over 6.00 per gallon from KY to Annapolis and back TWICE. We are not rich!

Senior year placeed on NAPS waitlist and TWEd on July 11 2023.

This year TWED by naval academy again, and received and accepted an offer from West Point this week.

It’s a mystery wrapped in a riddle inside an enigma…..
 
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