USNA Appointment Distributions by State

NAVYCAPT93

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Does anyone know if there is any sort of attempt made by USNA to distribute Appointments in a way that resembles the population? One could argue that the fact that the number of MOCs resembles this... and that should drive a similar distribution. But I also have been told that USNA has some flexibility in their ability to apply their requirements to build the "class" they are looking for. What does that mean? Is it simply trying to get the highest WCS? If there is an imbalance between States - do they adjust at the State level? Is this something that USNA Considers? Does that matter to them at all?

I have also heard rumor that USNA doesn't have to take anyone from a MOCs slate - if they don't consider a MOC's slate as competitive against the overall WCS. Is this true?

Thanks. Just curious about the process. I am much more familiar with the USMMA process - being from there and involved with them - than I am with the USNA process. Thanks!

As an example - at USMMA - 46 CFR 310.53 specifies the distribution of Appointments to KP which somewhat aligns with the overall population distribution / congressional representation. Taking that as an example... If you were to say that there would be 1200 appointments offered from USNA - based on overall state population the top 5 states would have roughly this distribution: California 146, Texas 103, Florida 77, New York 73, Illinois 48. Do they even look at that? Thanks! Looking forward to the discussion!
 
One could argue that the fact that the number of MOCs resembles this... and that should drive a similar distribution. But I also have been told that USNA has some flexibility in their ability to apply their requirements to build the "class" they are looking for.

Of course. I presume the whole Nomination process is intended to create geographic diversity, representing the cross section of the Country rather than a few areas. There may also be a historical component of trying to diversify the professional officer corps to avoid over concentration from one area of the country, which led to coup d'etat in other countries.

There are other threads here explaining the other pools and nomination sources that allow USNA flexibility to build the class they are looking for, but the MOC nomination is probably the most common route to Admissions. Theoretically, USNA could reject all of a MOC nominees by finding them unqualified (ie. no Q), but I would suspect that that would be a rare event.
 
Geographic diversity comes via, and is mandated by, the nomination process. To my knowledge, if there is at least one qualified person on the MOC's slate, USNA must take that person. And they want to . . . they are trying to increase geographic diversity by ensuring (via outreach) that more people apply from underrepresented districts with the hope/expectation that at least one will be qualified.

USMMA has a different process than USNA, especially when it comes to noms. I don't know much about USMMA's process overall, so won't try to figure out where they are the same or differ.
 
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