USMA Letter in Portal

emcconnell

emcconnell

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Hello, last night my DS recieved a letter in his portal stating that he will not be recieveing an offer of appoinment to West Point. It was a very sad evening with much disappoinment. He has emailed his menor to find out if he can get any feedback on the reason why. He was 3Q with 2 nominations to USMA and with very competitive stats so obviously we are baffled. Still hoping for USAFA or AFROTC/NROTC/ROTC scholarships but to say confidence has been shaken is an understatement. Any words of wisdom or similar experiences?

Thanks in advance!
 
emcconnell said:
Hello, last night my DS recieved a letter in his portal stating that he will not be recieveing an offer of appoinment to West Point. It was a very sad evening with much disappoinment. He has emailed his menor to find out if he can get any feedback on the reason why. He was 3Q with 2 nominations to USMA and with very competitive stats so obviously we are baffled. Still hoping for USAFA or AFROTC/NROTC/ROTC scholarships but to say confidence has been shaken is an understatement. Any words of wisdom or similar experiences?

Thanks in advance!
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My second child was declined on his first attempt. He found out what admissions viewed as his deficiency, chose a self prep outlet where he could best work on that and applied again. He was successful the second time around. He is now a grad and would tell you that the extra year was a blessing. He wouldn't change it. I'll guess you will hear countless stories like this.
 
emcconnell said:
Hello, last night my DS recieved a letter in his portal stating that he will not be recieveing an offer of appoinment to West Point. It was a very sad evening with much disappoinment. He has emailed his menor to find out if he can get any feedback on the reason why. He was 3Q with 2 nominations to USMA and with very competitive stats so obviously we are baffled. Still hoping for USAFA or AFROTC/NROTC/ROTC scholarships but to say confidence has been shaken is an understatement. Any words of wisdom or similar experiences?

Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...
Every year 1,000 - 2,000 fully qualified candidates do not get offers of appointment. It is a very competitive process.

Assuming your son is a typical candidate, his avenues of appointment were: win a district, senatorial, or VP slate, Qualified Alternate, Additional Appointee. Winning a slate in a competitive district/state is difficult and QA appointments are highly competitive (national competition for only 150 appointments). Additional Appointee's are normally recruited athletes and minorities.

The good news is that 3Q reapplicants have have a significantly better chance the second time around, especially if they follow the standard advice on how to improve their application - get feedback from RC, do well in plebe like classes, join ROTC, etc. I agree with jebdad - that extra year of preparation really helps a cadet succeed once appointed.
 
jebdad said:
My second child was declined on his first attempt. He found out what admissions viewed as his deficiency, chose a self prep outlet where he could best work on that and applied again. He was successful the second time around. He is now a grad and would tell you that the extra year was a blessing. He wouldn't change it. I'll guess you will hear countless stories like this.
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Same here. DS2 was very competitive first time around but somehow did not make the cut. A year of self prep at a MJC was the best thing for him. Second attempt was successful. The extra year of experience was invaluable.
 
jl123 said:
Every year 1,000 - 2,000 fully qualified candidates do not get offers of appointment. It is a very competitive process.

Assuming your son is a typical candidate, his avenues of appointment were: win a district, senatorial, or VP slate, Qualified Alternate, Additional Appointee. Winning a slate in a competitive district/state is difficult and QA appointments are highly competitive (national competition for only 150 appointments). Additional Appointee's are normally recruited athletes and minorities.

The good news is that 3Q reapplicants have have a significantly better chance the second time around, especially if they follow the standard advice on how to improve their application - get feedback from RC, do well in plebe like classes, join ROTC, etc. I agree with jebdad - that extra year of preparation really helps a cadet succeed once appointed.
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I've read a lot about "winning the slate" but I still really don't know what that means. My son received a nomination from our state senator (he asked my DS if he wanted to accept it but we didn't know why anyone wouldn't) and then also received one from our district congressman.
 
SY96 said:
Same here. DS2 was very competitive first time around but somehow did not make the cut. A year of self prep at a MJC was the best thing for him. Second attempt was successful. The extra year of experience was invaluable.
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What is MJC?
 
emcconnell said:
I've read a lot about "winning the slate" but I still really don't know what that means. My son received a nomination from our state senator (he asked my DS if he wanted to accept it but we didn't know why anyone wouldn't) and then also received one from our district congressman.
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Winning the Slate
  • Each MOC nominates 10 candidates - that is a "slate". The qualified candidate ranked number one is offered appointment, thus winning the slate
  • Most MOC's submits the nominations unordered - USMA then ranks the slate in Order of Merit by WCS score. The qualified candidate with the highest WCS score is offered an appointment.
  • A MOC may choose to submit a ranked slate in one of two forms: a slate ranking all candidates from 1 - 10, with number one being the principal nominee; or a principal nominee and 9 unranked nominees (USMA then ranks the 9 by WCS score). If qualified, the principal nominee is offered appointment, even if their WCS score is lower than others on the slate.
  • In some years a MOC may have more than one slate and be able to nominate 20 or more candidates.
  • A MOC may have an unlimited number of appointees from the district/state, but only 5 slate winners may be at USMA at any one time.
  • Qualified candidates that do not win the slate use the MOC nomination to compete for appointment in other categories, such as QA and AA.
  • The process is complex and is not administered as simply and sequentially as described. How appointments are charged may be determined later in the process.
 
SY96 said:
Military Junior College. There are several which have programs specifically designed for service academy applicants. Georgia, Marion, Valley Forge, New Mexico, and I think one other.
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Thank you!
 
These are early times. He might reach out to his Regional Admissions officer to ensure it was not a mistake and get feedback on how to improve.
 
emcconnell said:
Hello, last night my DS recieved a letter in his portal stating that he will not be recieveing an offer of appoinment to West Point. It was a very sad evening with much disappoinment. He has emailed his menor to find out if he can get any feedback on the reason why. He was 3Q with 2 nominations to USMA and with very competitive stats so obviously we are baffled. Still hoping for USAFA or AFROTC/NROTC/ROTC scholarships but to say confidence has been shaken is an understatement. Any words of wisdom or similar experiences?

Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...
I think there is often confusion about what "competitive stats" are. It is much more complex than perhaps looking at the class profile and thinking that being at or near class averages equals competitiveness. At the beginning of our son's journey that was kind of the impression (hope) we had.

Others above have described "winning the slate". That is certainly one 'competition' and the stats needed to 'win' that vary wildly by state/district. In other words, what it would take to win the slate in Virginia, Maryland, or New York can be expected to be quite different than what it would take in maybe North Dakota. In fact, there are some districts, I am sure, that being at the class average could win the slate and therefore truly be competitive stats (for that area). I am pretty sure most would agree that in the eastern seaboard states around the academies, the class averages or even moderately above would not be competitive to win the slate.

If a state/district slate is not won, the NWL is the next 'competition'. This list can be expected to vary less year over year because it is comprised of the national pool as opposed to one state or district. On the NWL, admissions can make a pretty good prediction of where the line will be drawn for offers. From what I understand, as was relayed to my son by admissions, the ACT/SAT score is VERY important for this.

EDIT: I wanted to add that the only thing we knew about our son's competitiveness was that Admissions suggested that if he could raise his Math SAT 20 points from where it was it probably wouldn't be a bad idea if he made it to the NWL. Other than that I have been perplexed by how people are determining competitive stats. I don't know how that can be determined without knowing who all is on the slate in your state. We always advised our son that the competition was with himself. If there was an improvement he could make that he didn't attempt, he has made the choice to not put forth his very best package.

Your son is one of the best in the nation to make it as far as he did. He shouldn't lose confidence. Identify areas he can improve and go for it, I suspect that is the difference between successful reapplicants and unsuccessful ones.

He can do it.
 
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All appointments decided by USMA admissions on a merit basis are based on WCS score - 60% academic, 30% leadership, 10% athletic. Test scores are an important part of the academic score and therefore very important. Getting one of the 150 QA appointments would be a challenge without good test scores.
 
jl123 said:
All appointments decided by USMA admissions on a merit basis are based on WCS score - 60% academic, 30% leadership, 10% athletic. Test scores are an important part of the academic score and therefore very important. Getting one of the 150 QA appointments would be a challenge without good test scores.
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Based on what you say, yes I would say he has good test scores. But of course, I don't know what other kids have.
 

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Your son should ask himself how bad does he want to go to West Point. If it is what he is committed to, then going through the re-applicant process after a year of college, or better yet a year of ROTC or MJC, is definitely a viable option. If his real goal is to simply serve, and principally to be commissioned as an officer, there are quite a few roads that all lead to that point. The Academy is just one road.
 
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