Typical Academics for an LOA

Parent opinion post.

The only thing within your control (candidates) is apply to all your sources. You must have a nomination, so whether you have an LOA, blue chip athlete, there is something going on the Academy side once you have that nom, from whatever source. It reminds me of Great Expectations where Pip thinks his benefactor is one person, but was really someone else. You have no idea where you are actually charged.

Think of scrabble tiles and tile holders.
The slate is a tile holder.
Candidates are individual tile pieces.

On Congressional nomination slates, you and 9 others are on that tile holder and submitted to USAFA, USMA, and USNA. The Academy says thank you and is sitting there with their non-Congressional tile holders. A LOT of tile holders. According to page 7 (pdf page 10) of the Congressional Nominatios to US Service Academies (cited in CapMJ's post #12 and elsewhere in SAF), there are 561 possible slates plus an unlimited number for Medal of Honor Children.

Academy's job is to get the tile holders down to 1 tile each. So they start knocking 9 off each slate but they still want some of those, so, they start charging them to other available slates. At the end, you don't know which slate and you don't know if all the Academy's available slates were filled. Not your problem. Just thank whoever gave you the nom profusely, becuase the fact you were ON a slate is most important!

My DD got noms from TX Senator 1 USAFA and TX Senator 2 USMMA. I would think that in a competitive state such as TX, she wasn't the only one with an LOA on the Sentators' slate. So some LOA'ers and anyone else they wanted from those slates were charged elsewhere. Just a guess and parent opinion.
I like the Scrabble tile holder analogy! Good visual. I have been using “nom buckets,” as in, there might be 500 candidates eligible for the Presidential nom in the Pres-nom bucket, and who therefore get one, but only 100 appointments per class can be pulled out of (charged) to that nom bucket (nom source). The SAs control and manage a number of nom sources they can charge appointments to if they choose to offer appointments to fully qualified others on the Sen/Rep slate. Generally speaking, someone on that slate gets their appointment charged to the Sen/Rep; others who are offered appointments get their charged elsewhere. If an LOA holder is fully qualified is on that slate f up to 10 noms from a Sen/Rep, they have a nom, and they are good to go - the SA figures out what nom source the appointment eventually gets charged to.
 
Hello, I’m a HS Junior relatively new to this forum. I was wondering, what is the typical academic background of an LOA recipient? Can you earn an LOA with outstanding athletics, extracurriculars, and essays but mediocre academics? When is the best time to submit the candidate kit in order to maximize LOA chances? Thank you.
For reference, I went to an IB (International Baccalaureate) school which is widely considered one of the hardest high school curriculums. I had a 3.98 unweighted and 4.3 weighted at the end of my junior year. I had also gotten a 1520 sat score with an 800 in math. I had a lot of extracurriculars but excelled in wrestling and robotics having leadership roles in both since sophomore year and being a three-time state qualifier for wrestling and being a part of one of the top robotics teams in the state and world. I received an LOA from both USMA and USAFA. As others have mentioned it is best to complete your application asap as you can get an LOA very soon, for reference I got mine from USMA in September and USAFA in November.

The recipe is simple, do your best, and do your best some more. As long as you continuously try to do your best and push yourself the accolades will follow. You shouldn't think about a simple LOA as defining you, your target should be broader than just trying to receive an LOA you should simply have the mindset of constantly doing your best in everything you do. As long as you continue with that mindset the accolades (like LOA) will follow. Everyone is different with certain accomplishments and backgrounds but I would assume most people who have an LOA have one thing in common, a mindset of always doing their best in everything they do.
 
For reference, I went to an IB (International Baccalaureate) school which is widely considered one of the hardest high school curriculums. I had a 3.98 unweighted and 4.3 weighted at the end of my junior year. I had also gotten a 1520 sat score with an 800 in math. I had a lot of extracurriculars but excelled in wrestling and robotics having leadership roles in both since sophomore year and being a three-time state qualifier for wrestling and being a part of one of the top robotics teams in the state and world. I received an LOA from both USMA and USAFA. As others have mentioned it is best to complete your application asap as you can get an LOA very soon, for reference I got mine from USMA in September and USAFA in November.

The recipe is simple, do your best, and do your best some more. As long as you continuously try to do your best and push yourself the accolades will follow. You shouldn't think about a simple LOA as defining you, your target should be broader than just trying to receive an LOA you should simply have the mindset of constantly doing your best in everything you do. As long as you continue with that mindset the accolades (like LOA) will follow. Everyone is different with certain accomplishments and backgrounds but I would assume most people who have an LOA have one thing in common, a mindset of always doing their best in everything they do.
I agree with everything but I honestly don’t think getting an application in asap changes the LOA.

We didn’t know about LOAs and my son did not rush his application. He did it thoroughly and on time. His LOA immediately appeared after his Package was complete - iirc right after the CFA hit. And he was running in snow for the CFA.

He got the LOA. Fast forward to after the medical dq and waiting on the waiver. He called admissions about the waiver - and they looked up his info. The woman told my son that he got an “early LOA” and not to worry about the waiver - it was sitting on the Superintendent’s desk. In layman’s terms - early means one of the first ones given. When he asked what early loa meant - she said it wasn’t based on when he got the loa. An LOA was given to him based on his completed package. That was what made it early. There are other reasons to give an LOA outside of that we surmise was under the umbrella of needs and wants of the navy.

I guess what I am saying - you would have gotten the LOA if you had submitted it a month later anyway.

I was glad we didn’t know what an LOA was.
 
No one is going to tell you mediocre academics will lead to an LOA. It might, if your whole person concept is compelling. Are a blue chip athlete, have a compelling diversity contribution such as underrepresented area, underreprented background OTHER than surface diversity measures (ie, do you work to pay the light bill? raise siblings? go back through my threads to the example of high schooler testifying about his dad's lawn business in bankruptcy court and getting cross examined.) The question should not be "Am I Competitive?" because that is essentially asking, "Am I like everyone else?" and everyone else = a rectangular lego sweating it out whether they are selected from one or more slates.

Instead, ask yourself what moves you on the continuum from competitive to undeniable? While undeniable is elusive and an idealize goal, asking yourself the hard questions is not. This is where I asked my DDs the 3 So-What's. For every line item in your resume, tell me about it and i'm going to reply, "So what? Every candidate has that/does that. What else have you got?" I'm on swim team. So what? I made states. So what? I am captain. So what? I am allowed to compete on my feeder high school swim team. I had to overcome logistics, established social/clicks, prove myself in the pool, to ultimately be named captain - of another high school's swim team. Ditto for other line items.

Back to academics, if you are on Plan B, ie mediocre or less than stellar academics, then be able to articulate how you improved and finished strong. No excuses. Yes but = yes but your competition did!
Thanks of sharing! I can't wait to start using the "So what?" tool!
 
As others have mentioned it is best to complete your application asap as you can get an LOA very soon, for reference I got mine from USMA in September and USAFA in November.
Disagree with you on “completing the application ASAP.” The best advice given here — constantly and consistently — is to submit the BEST application you can, as EARLY as you can. But NOT ASAP at the expense of thoughtfulness and thoroughness. Each year, we see posts from those lamenting the fact that they left something out or overlooked a detail, or were needlessly sloppy or rushed. It’s not really a race, other than the deadline itself. And to the degree that it is a race, it’s a marathon and not a sprint.

You should feel great about your LOAs. But there’s nothing that says they fit a certain pattern or that your experience would fit others. No one outside of admissions knows the full formula for LOAs, but there’s no evidence that I’ve seen that indicates it’s some riff on “first come, first served.” If you have the makings of an LOA, for whatever reason, you’ll get one. (Simple anecdote: DD received three LOAs — one in February, one in March, one in May. She did not rush to submit her applications. And the conditions for two of the three LOAs were complete surprises.)
 
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