USNA Class of 2027 Waitlist: Team Hopeful

Gobears21 said:
TWE :( will be attending USCGA which I am very excited about but was also just curious if you could reapply to USNA while at CGA. Will not even try but curious to see if anyone has?
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This was my son 3 years ago. He is now a 1/C cadet at CGA and is very happy with where he ended up. He's been doing some really cool summer training, and seeing all the things he could do when he graduates. Congrats on your appointment to USCGA!
 
I haven’t visited this wonderful, supportive, positive and informative forum since my DS got his TWE in mid April purge. Everyone was super helpful with detailed instructions on reapplying! After he talked to his BGO and was so encouraged from him and about the process he decided to get right back on the horse and put in his reapplication the minute it opened for 28. There was a chart with dates and plans and milestones and goals! He’s now CP at ODU NROTC and got into NSI for Phase 3. He worked his a&* off and just found out he crushed his 4th SAT; went from 1390 Super score (720E, 670M) to 1510 (780E, 730M). He’s taken the ACT again too and will take it again in mid July. He upped his GPA and class rank just a bit too. My point here is that if you really want this, please do not give up! Get out there and make improvements in every measure-able and reapply! I’m so proud of all of you for doing this and it’s such a hard road but don’t be discouraged!:) Just do one thing each day towards your goals!!! Good luck to everyone! And thanks so much everyone on this forum!
 
Checked my portal today and got turned down after being on the waitlist all this time. I am extremely disappointed and confused. I am a college re applicant who went to Northwestern Preparatory School as a self prepper for the first semester. Excelled on my fitness test, got my act and sat scores up, gained new leadership experience and recommendations. Went to CU Boulder for second semester doing aerospace engineering. I can honestly say I gave it my best and I guess some things aren’t meant to be. My main goal however is to be a pilot for the navy, not to just get into the Naval Academy so I will be going the NROTC route. For those who didn’t get in, remember what your end goal is and about how there is all these different paths to accomplish your goals. Don’t give up; these setbacks just give you more character :)
 
marshland said:
Checked my portal today and got turned down after being on the waitlist all this time. I am extremely disappointed and confused. I am a college re applicant who went to Northwestern Preparatory School as a self prepper for the first semester. Excelled on my fitness test, got my act and sat scores up, gained new leadership experience and recommendations. Went to CU Boulder for second semester doing aerospace engineering. I can honestly say I gave it my best and I guess some things aren’t meant to be. My main goal however is to be a pilot for the navy, not to just get into the Naval Academy so I will be going the NROTC route. For those who didn’t get in, remember what your end goal is and about how there is all these different paths to accomplish your goals. Don’t give up; these setbacks just give you more character :)
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It sounds as though you've got the perfect perspective. Keep up your hard work and get to Pensacola.

My 21' is almost done with Primary and he said no one cares what route you took to get there. MY boss (a Retired/Reserve USMC Pilot) always jokes that my son is going to be a "ring knocker" (not him at all). He always said that USNA was a "waste" of his time since the 4 years at the Academy do not count towards your military service years. It doesn't count until he gets his "butter bars", as he says. He always wanted my DS to go PLC. Then he'd have a "real college experience" AND get those years towards service. Is NROTC the same? Just curious. And if anyone has a good comeback for my boss when he says DS "wasted" his time...I'd love to hear some!
 
Happy2BaNavyMom said:
It sounds as though you've got the perfect perspective. Keep up your hard work and get to Pensacola.

My 21' is almost done with Primary and he said no one cares what route you took to get there. MY boss (a Retired/Reserve USMC Pilot) always jokes that my son is going to be a "ring knocker" (not him at all). He always said that USNA was a "waste" of his time since the 4 years at the Academy do not count towards your military service years. It doesn't count until he gets his "butter bars", as he says. He always wanted my DS to go PLC. Then he'd have a "real college experience" AND get those years towards service. Is NROTC the same? Just curious. And if anyone has a good comeback for my boss when he says DS "wasted" his time...I'd love to hear some!
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Sounds like the opinion of someone who didn’t attend a SA.

There are lots of ways to commission. In the end, it’s all the same. The journey to get there depends on personal preference. My JO (SA) was assigned his job (of the several assigned from the new JO’s after school) by his Captain, once he joined his ship, with the Captains words ‘bc you attended USNA…’. It’s a tough job, engineering, but he is doing great.

Each route has its pluses and minuses. But don’t take the words of your retired boss as the THE word. He also had his own experiences. Best to seek out many perspectives. Visit. See the best fit for each individual.

And in the end, it doesn’t matter. But I will say, the leadership and summer training experiences both of my USNA boys have had and been exposed to, only available to them via usna, are pretty amazing.
 
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Happy2BaNavyMom said:
It sounds as though you've got the perfect perspective. Keep up your hard work and get to Pensacola.

My 21' is almost done with Primary and he said no one cares what route you took to get there. MY boss (a Retired/Reserve USMC Pilot) always jokes that my son is going to be a "ring knocker" (not him at all). He always said that USNA was a "waste" of his time since the 4 years at the Academy do not count towards your military service years. It doesn't count until he gets his "butter bars", as he says. He always wanted my DS to go PLC. Then he'd have a "real college experience" AND get those years towards service. Is NROTC the same? Just curious. And if anyone has a good comeback for my boss when he says DS "wasted" his time...I'd love to hear some!
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Just smile beatifically and don’t engage, as there is always someone who wants to have that discussion, which often turns out to be thinly disguised “some unattractive trait/put down/snarkishness.”

Take the high road. Smile brightly, change the topic, or respond as politicians do, by responding to the question you are pretending they asked. “Thank you for asking about Horatio, he’s doing great, enjoying the challenges of flight school and looking forward to X coming up. What was your favorite memory of flight school? How did you decide on which airframe you wanted? Did you have any jerk instructors? Where did you go on your cross-country flights?” (Inviting a military aviator to share a sea story or war story is a reliable conversational feint.)

Good, mediocre and terrible officers come out of all sources. I find it sad your boss is using tired old tropes to feed something in himself that doesn’t show character, instead of being excited and supportive about your son’s journey, no matter the path. Just sad. So high road it is.

Those 4 years of USNA/USMA/USAFA/USCGA (not USMMA, not AD) AD can count for any federal service down the road, so they are ahead of any commissioning year group peers from ROTC (ROTC is not AD) or other non-AD-time paths. We have 4 USNA sponsor family members now actively serving with some of the big “ABC” agencies, at least two of them doing Interesting Things. Their active duty commissioned officer years AND their 4 solid years at USNA are calculated into good years of federal service for federal retirement eligibility.

Smile beatifically, as noted at the start of my comment. It’s beneath him as an officer to do this. Light-hearted nom-malicious teasing about ring-knockers within the family is one thing. Deeming something a “waste,” “always jokes,” is not the same.
 
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Re: Ring-knocker???

I’m just a caveman lawyer … I don’t understand the ways of the military world, and I am not going to pretend that I do understand it … but I do know that our 1C daughter is working really hard at the Academy, and DW and me support her 100% …. She is eager to graduate next May 2024 and do some really good things … and her class ring looks really nice if that is what you mean by ring-knocker.

Our daughter would have told us already if her time at the Academy was a waste … she would have left … so it can’t be a waste … she complains more that it is not easy … no pain no gain.

And one final thing that is very important, and you must impress this upon your kid … we taught our daughter that you always need to think about ways that you can “add more value” to the places where you spend a lot of time and hard work … whether it’s your school, your Church, your job, whatever … otherwise, all that precious time that you spent there is not worth it …

The Academy is worth your time.
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Ring-knocker.

In DH Times, in Bancroft Hall, the room doors had a glass panel. The OOD or other officers would knock by tapping that big class ring on the glass panel. Not a sound you wanted to hear.

In general, saying someone is a ring knocker can range from a shorthand way of saying they are a SA grad in a neutral way to a negative stereotype about SA grads who let people know where they got their commission and emanate a strong hubris-soaked aura, who manage to work in phrases such as “when I was Regimental Commander in Annapolis.” SA grads are extremely well prepared to become good Navy and Marine Corps officers, and they should be proud of their SA journey, but it does not endow them with water-walking powers.
 
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"good, mediocre, and terrible officers come out of all sources." So true. I'm glad we're all anonymous here. I served for 30 years and I don't want my DS '26 to be subjected to horrible commanders. I've heard him talk about "five and dive" and I'm ok with that. I showed him a Navy Time's article about $100K bonus for SWO and he didn't buy it. So I think he got this figured out as a 3/C. And I'm glad. This is the same two year old who picked up a bowl of peanuts, threw it, and watched my reaction.
Here are few examples:
- lord of chaos. This commander is just chaotic. A good morning greetings can turn into an argument.
- screaming nanny. Screams at everyone and anyone.
- cool hand Luke. Very calm but ruthless.
-Airborne Ranger. West Point grad, fierce, chew snuff while eating a tuna sandwich. Crazy, this commander liked me.
-Napoleonic complex. Only 5'3"... Always trying to prove something of everything and anything.
 
severn said:
"good, mediocre, and terrible officers come out of all sources." So true. I'm glad we're all anonymous here. I served for 30 years and I don't want my DS '26 to be subjected to horrible commanders. I've heard him talk about "five and dive" and I'm ok with that. I showed him a Navy Time's article about $100K bonus for SWO and he didn't buy it. So I think he got this figured out as a 3/C. And I'm glad. This is the same two year old who picked up a bowl of peanuts, threw it, and watched my reaction.
Here are few examples:
- lord of chaos. This commander is just chaotic. A good morning greetings can turn into an argument.
- screaming nanny. Screams at everyone and anyone.
- cool hand Luke. Very calm but ruthless.
-Airborne Ranger. West Point grad, fierce, chew snuff while eating a tuna sandwich. Crazy, this commander liked me.
-Napoleonic complex. Only 5'3"... Always trying to prove something of everything and anything.
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We could have an entire thread on “I had this one CO who…”

I could also make a sizable entry into a thread “I had this great CO who…”.

I made it a goal to learn from the experience not-great COs, learning what not to do.

It mirrors the civilian world, except there, you can give notice and be gone quickly.
 
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Capt MJ said:
We could have an entire thread on “I had this one CO who…”

I could also make a sizable entry into a thread “nn had this great CO who…”.

I made it a goal to learn from the no-great COs, learning what not to do.

It mirrors the civilian world, except there, you can give notice and be gone quickly.
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That Airborne Ranger commander...
I was a young 1LT when I reported to his office... His four company commanders were locked up in attention while he was screaming profanities... for some reason I walked up to him and saluted, "Sir, I'm.... and I'll follow you to hell." For my 3 years there he left me alone for the most part and received excellent evaluations.
 
marshland said:
Checked my portal today and got turned down after being on the waitlist all this time. I am extremely disappointed and confused. I am a college re applicant who went to Northwestern Preparatory School as a self prepper for the first semester. Excelled on my fitness test, got my act and sat scores up, gained new leadership experience and recommendations. Went to CU Boulder for second semester doing aerospace engineering. I can honestly say I gave it my best and I guess some things aren’t meant to be. My main goal however is to be a pilot for the navy, not to just get into the Naval Academy so I will be going the NROTC route. For those who didn’t get in, remember what your end goal is and about how there is all these different paths to accomplish your goals. Don’t give up; these setbacks just give you more character :)
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I am so sorry, it is a long time to wait and to be ready to go last minute to be turned down. My DS got turned down May 26th, although it was hard, I think a bit of a relief after to know where he was going. I do know if he was given the option to stay on the waitlist he most likely would have been in your situation. This was our first time through the academy process and it is much harder mentally than I thought it would be from a parent perspective. I give all those credit who reapplied again. My son is going AFROTC, full scholarship, in hopes to fly and serve. So many ways to get there. I am sure you will be successful!
 
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