Which Service Academy do I ask each Nomination Source?

parkm2071

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Dec 9, 2014
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Hi, I live in the 7th Congressional District of New Jersey, but this is a general question for any knowledgeable person. I have three sources who I can ask for a nomination (Senator Cory Booker, Senator Robert Menendez, and Congressman Leonard Lance), but I'm applying to both the USAFA and the USNA. The Members of Congress (MOC) only allow you to request for one academy so how should I divide it? I don't have any preference, but I know that there are more applicants to the USNA, so I was thinking this:
  • Senator Booker - USAFA
  • Senator Menendez - USNA
  • Congressman Lance - USNA
Also, I feel that there might be the issue of how many they already have in the academies, because I heard that each MOC is only allowed to have a certain amount of students in at a time. Is that true or is it 5 per year? Thank you.
 
They are allowed 5 there at a given time, slated to them, not 5 per year. So some years they have 1 vacancy, some years they may have 2 or even 3 depending on if they have had appointees leave the Academy for one reason or another. Rule of thumb is that they usually count on 1 vacancy a year. For every vacancy, they can nominate 10 candidates. They will either rank order them or submit an unranked slate and let the Academy select which nominee will get the appointment for that vacancy. Each MOC does it differently, its their choice. If you receive a nom, but are not appointed as the 1 from the slate of 10, you still have a chance at an appointment because you will then go into a qualified pool and will compete with others in the pool nationwide for the remaining slots left to fill the class. This is why you may see some districts with multiple appointees from the same slate, even though the MOC technically only had 1 vacancy. If you search this forum you will find a truck load of info on how the Noms/Appointment numbers are broken down.


Nobody can really tell you how to rank your Academies with each MOC. That depends on your desires. But what you did above makes sense.
 
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Personally I'd figure out which one I preferred and just list that one. There is always some thing that breaks the tie.... focus on what you want to do AFTER the academy. One is just 4 years. The other is 4+ years. Just my two cents.... YMMV.
 
Our congressman's committee will ask why you didn't apply to all academies and why specifically choose the ones you did.

If there are information sessions, or if you want to call the Congressional liaison and ask what they prefer, we have found our Congressman's office to be very helpful.
 
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