<p>I was a little nervous opening my letter. I’ve never had a problem, medically, except for my vision, which I was told was ‘moderate’.</p>
<p>Anyways, I opened my letter and it said “Qualified”.</p>
<p>Is that a good or a bad thing? I’ve read around here that older letters received said “Pilot/Navigator Qualified” or “Commission Qualified”. Is just “Qualified” a bad thing?</p>
<p>lol, qualified is a good thing no worries.</p>
<p>Congrats - it is very good to get DODMERB behind you this quickly. My son also was qualified early in the game last year (early Aug I believe). Make sure you finish up your nomination packets before school starts and you’ll be yards ahead of others. Good job.</p>
<p>Thanks, the best advice I got was to get DODMERB done before anything else (besides the PCQ).</p>
<p>I won’t be able to send out my nomination packets until school gets back in because I need copies of my transcripts, and unfortunately there is no administrative people at my school to print/sign them.</p>
<p>That also leaves me to keep several forms unsent to USAFA until school starts, which I hate to do, but there won’t be anyone at school until, maybe, 3 days before the first day back.</p>
<p>1 Q down…2 to go! The other two Q’s being your academic and physical qualification (CFA). Congratulations!</p>
<p>I am not sure if it has changed, but the AFA, at least 2 yrs ago did not send out notices if you are TRIPLE Q, but I do believe the USNA does. You will know that you are triple Q when your packet goes to the board. I believe you are already 2 Q in this scenario since they opened a file in your name, that would mean you are academically qual. Just because you filled out a pcq, it does not mean that they will open a file for you and allow you to move forward.</p>
<p>Once you complete your CFA than you are 3 Q. If they ask you to re-take (you cannot request it) don’t jump to the fact that you failed, sometimes it means the board believes you are a quality candidate, but are concerned about the physical aspect.</p>
<p>Being 3 Q for many is the easy part, the nom is the hardest. There are candidates that are 3 q, and find out that their ride ended before it ever started because you cannot meet the boards without the nom. In areas that are very competitive and where MOCS “talk to each other” to not double up on noms, you might not get a nom. For NC which is not comp. our congressman had 45 applicants for 10 noms, the Sen. had 100’s. I think I read from a PA parent that there were over 300 applicants for their 10. If the MOCs talk that still means only 30, maybe 60 at tops (if they all had 2 slates) can be given a nom.</p>
<p>I am not trying to be a downer, just a realist.</p>
<p>"I am not sure if it has changed, but the AFA, at least 2 yrs ago did not send out notices if you are TRIPLE Q, but I do believe the USNA does. "</p>
<p>USNA did NOT send out letters saying a candidate was Triple Q’d last year. If you asked, they would tell you, but letters were not sent. Letters were sent saying “Scholastically Qualified.” Not Triple Q’d. While son was a CVW last year, he stopped by Admissions at USNA and asked and they told him he was Triple Q’d. They said they “might” send out letters (this was second weekend of Nov.) Evidently they decided not to send out letters.</p>
<p>Also, when they told Son at USNA he was Triple Q’d, he asked if he retook CFA and it markedly it improved, would that be helpful. They said yes, it will add points to your Whole Person Score.</p>
<p>I would take the CFA today if my Cross Country coach could administer it.
I won’t have access to any teacher/administrative personnel until school starts (more than 45 days).</p>
<p>My cross country coach knows my congressman personally. I’m getting a letter from my coach to send in with my nom packet to my congressman.</p>
<p>I’ve already sent letters to the senators and congressman requesting a nom packet (instead of just getting one off the internet).</p>
<p>I plan on calling them to let them know I am sending the packets in (when I complete them and put a stamp on them), as well as calling back in 2 weeks to make sure they got there safely.</p>
<p>If you sent the letter requesting thinking it would highlight your name, you need to realize that MOCs have 2 offices. I hope you sent it to the right one. Also realize that most nom committees do not include the MOC.</p>
<p>If I am correct you can have your ALO administer the CFA</p>
<p>I send it to the right offices, but didn’t address it specifically to the MOC. I’ve also spoken to the congressional office workers on the phone a few times, so they may be familiar with me.</p>
<p>I called my ALO and left a message on the 6th. Haven’t heard back from him yet. I was going to call him again today, but I don’t want to be pushy.</p>
<p>I give you credit for contacting them and please don’t read into this the wrong way, the person who receives the nom is the best qualified candidate. DS received every nom that he was eligible for, he never contacted them accept to make sure they received the nom. I am just not sure that if you have a lower quality app that it will get you the nom. Or conversely if you have the amazing resume that calling them will help either.</p>
<p>Just my opinion. Now throw it in the circular filing cabinet.</p>
<p>Also if you think about it if every candidate called they would be overloaded and not be able to do their job since they would be constantly answering questions.</p>
<p>I would suggest that you complete the applications you can download online. My older son did this, and we were overseas. No interviews, no phone calls and he received two nominations. I think getting everything in, complete, and on time is the top priority.</p>
<p>I understand. I didn’t want to to come off as a kind of person that just wanted a nomination from them. I wanted it to be a little more personal while maintaining professionalism.
I’ll be sending my apps in about 2 weeks. I’ll sit on my essays and think about them for a while to make sure I have them just right.</p>
<p>To change subjects a little, on the CFA I’m confident on all the exercises except the BB throw. I can’t seem to get the right technique down in order to get over 45’ (which is atrocious for my other scores). Any advice on a technique to use?</p>
<p>Place the BBall question on a new thread. DS had no problem with that, it was pull ups so I can’t help you on technique, but it is a common question, just like pull-ups, they seem to be the hardest 2.</p>
<p>As much as it being more personal, people need to remember that typically the MOC has a committee and the people you speak to or write to at their office, are usually not on the committee. Also it is important for highly competitive areas, to realize you might be spinning your wheels fo nothing. It is not uncommon for a senator from VA to have 300+ applications, now multiply that by 4 SA’s and the MOC’s employee in charge of noms, would be processing 1200 people. They won’t remember your name. If they do it might be in a negative way, as in OMG ths kid is calling again? He needs to get a grip, what more can I tell him, besides we got it and the board won’t be meeting until Oct. I have read of kids calling the week before the board re-verifying that they have it and then getting upset because the MOC rep was “short” with them when they asked what were the chances, and how many applicants have applied. You need to balance getting highlighted in a professional way and being highlighted as the squeaky wheel.</p>
<p>What we all need to remember is what works for your area and yourself is not necessarily the “it” reason you got a nom or even helped you get it. Just as our DS never contacted his MOCs, sent in his paperwork Oct 7th with guaranteed signature(due the 15th), and got all of his MOCS noms, it does not mean that this will be true for another candidate in another state. It is anecdotal. We never found this site until he already had 2 noms. We were walking blind.</p>
<p>People start spinning up in fear because they read so and so is calling their MOC, we need to also so they know your name. Michigan is not as competitive as NY, PA, MD, VA, CA or CO. These are factors that need to be placed into consideration. There can be candidates with much better resumes that do not receive noms, because of the competition level and not the fact that they didn’t make it more personal. It is the resume that will be the make or break and nothing else. The only time the personal contact becomes a factor IMHO is when it comes down to a tie for the last slot. IN OTHER WORDS your resume was put into a maybe pile and not the def pile. Appts are given out by the highest WCS, if the MOC took you from the maybe pile into the def because of making it personal, than you should agree its not a big leap to believe that your WCS will be lower than those that were already in the def. pile. CAVEAT: unless you are from NY, PA, CO, CA, VA, MD, i.e. highly competitive…Idaho is a state I would place in my maybe pile example.</p>
<p>I know that sounds harsh, and I really don’t mean to be. I mean to be realistic and stress that your resume is what will get you the nom. If you believe that your resume is great, you have no need to contact them, they will see that too. Many MOC committees have an ALO on the board, the ALO will see that also because he knows what you have is better than his candidates. The ALO is not there to get all of his candidates in, he is there to get the best candidates from the state on the MOC slate. Our MOCs had an ALO, they were not DS’s, but he received the nom. The only one from our congressional district to receive noms, not only from 1 Sen, but from both of them. There were candidates that only had the cong., because our Senators do not speak to each other. There were 16 districts, which meant if they took 1 from ea, 6 districts would have no nom.</p>
<p>I know this was a long post, I just want all of the candidates and parents to start seeing the broader picture when it comes to noms. TRUST and BELIEVE in their resume that is the most important aspect regarding the nom process. No MOC is going to by pass the #1 student out of a class of 800, 34 ACT/2200SAT, 3.85 gpa, 9 APs, Eagle Scout, Varsity Football, NHS president who has 300 hrs of volunteer time with the Special Olympics, and attended SLS because they didn’t personally contact to give the nom to the candidate that is top 10% class rank, 33 ACT/2100 SAT, 3.9 gpa, 5 APs, NHS membber and works at Target in the same school district. They realize that the #1 has a better chance.</p>
<p>BTW several yrs ago I was offered a job at the Pentagon to be the AFA liason to the hill. One part of the job was to brief the MOC staff every fall on how the process works at the AFA in the appt process regarding their slate. This is an all day affair, not a memo sent via email. They are aware that their noms will be appt because of the highest WCS on the slate unless it is a principal.</p>
<p>Wow. Awesome post. Thank you for clearing that up.
I do appreciate you telling me the way it really is.</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>