<p>Our congressman nominated several students to the USAFA. Can more than one of them receive an appointment? If my son receives an appointment and then declines it (to go to another school), will his appointment be offered to another nominee from our congressional district? We’d feel bad if there was only one appointment for our district, then our son turned it down and the others didn’t get a chance at it. Anyone know?</p>
<p>Here's my understanding.</p>
<p>Yes, more than one candidate from a congressional district can get an appointment. This could happend in a couple of ways.</p>
<p>First, the other candidates could receive an appointment based on a nomination from a different souce(senatorial, presidential, vice-presidential). Also, unless the candidate gets a principal nomination from a MOC, candidates with letters of assurance are not counted against a MOC's allotted slots at USAFA. In theory, all ten of a MOC's nominated candidates could get appointments if they had strong credentials.</p>
<p>Yes, assuming there are other qualified candidates, if you son declines his offer of appointment, the offer will pass to the next highest ranked candidate in that district.</p>
<p>So, could all 10 go even if none of them have LOA's?</p>
<p>Yes. They could be very strong candidates from a populous state with a strong educational system who would float to the top of the NWL.</p>
<p>Our congressman had 5 out of his slate of 10 show up for the USMA class of 2008 (don't know how many more received appointments).</p>
<p>KateLewis-
Are you positive about that? Everything I have read has stated that a congressperson may I have a maximum of five people at congress at a time.<br>
Tyler</p>
<p>a congressman is only allowed to have a maximum of 5 nominees at an academy at one time. this does not include people who recieved loa's or people in that congressman's district who recieved nominations from other sources ie. senator, vp, or presidential nominations.</p>
<p>This applies to USAFA too.</p>
<p>You can be admitted without being charged to your congressman's 5 cadet limit as long as you are not the principle nominee.</p>
<p>We've covered this before on this forum, too, under the subject of "qualified alternates." The admissions folks fill all of the legislatively mandated slots from the nominee lists but that only takes care of about 1/2 of each class. They fill the rest with "qualified alternates"--those that meet standards but did not get THE slot for their congressman or senator. This allows USAFA to bring in a high-quality class that meets their requirements academically, demographically, and athletically.</p>
<p>(Just checking in from the Marshall Islands. Isn't the internet a wonderful thing? Kwajalein is really a cool place--lots of radar sites, a German cruiser wreck, great snorkeling, beautiful beaches, old Japanese fortifications, lots of history. the AF takes you to a lot of great places in your career!)</p>
<p>Tyleroar, I'm sure. I doublechecked the MOC's list against the "Cadets of West Point" web page to make sure they were all attending. One of those was charged to him; the rest were qualified alternates (although it's impossible to know which had LOA's).</p>
<p>KateLewis-
Wow that site is really cool. Is there anything out there like that for the Naval Academy?</p>
<p>This is good to know. My ds is a nominee and also has a friend who is a nominee from the same MOC. (This MOC nominated 10 students to USAFA.) My ds is a strong candidate. If he receives the appointment, then decides not to take it, I was concerned about him having "taken" an appointment that might have gone to his friend.</p>
<p>Tyleroar, the WP site is essentially a labor of love by an alum. I haven't seen anything similar for USNA.</p>