<p>I've been reading this site for a while and finally thought I'd throw out some of my experiences thus far. I'm a senior in high school, I have an LOA and now just need a nomination. Neither one of my senators does interviews, but since I just had my interview with my congressman I thought I'd tell everyone about it. I got to the office about 15 mins early to find that they were running about 15-20 mins behind. This was the makeup date for interviews (I couldn't make the first one because it was the day after I got my wisdom teeth removed) and only two of us were scheduled. The other guy never showed up and I ended up meeting the congressman just a little after the scheduled time. There was only 10 mins alloted in the schedule for the interview but I think it probably went about 20 mins. It was a strange experience because after reading everything on this board I thought that it was going to be a lot more questioning. My congressman asked all of two questions: the first being had I visited the Academy and the second being if I was considering a career in the navy. He then precedded to tell me that he actually doesn't pick his nominees because he doesn't want to be accused of picking kids because he knows their parents. He just submits everyone he has interviewed and let's the Academy pick his nominations for him since "they know what they are looking for in a naval officer". He did tell me that I shouldn't worry about the nomination much since I had the first LOA he had seen and that since interviewing was almost over there probably wouldn't be anymore. I'd like to say thanks to everyone who posts on this site because it has helped me a lot through the application process.</p>
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He then precedded to tell me that he actually doesn't pick his nominees because he doesn't want to be accused of picking kids because he knows their parents. He just submits everyone he has interviewed and let's the Academy pick his nominations for him since "they know what they are looking for in a naval officer".
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<p>Either your Congressman has fewer than 10 nominees or he doesn't understand the process. MOCs can only nominate up to 10 candidates for each vacancy they have at each SA. If he has interviewed more than 10 people for any one SA (and only has one opening this year), he or someone working for him will have to narrow the list to 10.</p>
<p>MBW2008:</p>
<p>What I infer from your retelling of the experience is that your MOC thinks you're in pretty good shape for an appointment, and that he leaves it to the SA's to rank the list of candidates for nominations. Makes me wonder why he takes the time to do the interview at all, though...</p>
<p>All you need to be is one of the 10 on the nomination list, and then you have your nomination. Sounds to me as if you're the only LOA he's seen, and if that's true, I'd say you were golden. Best of luck.</p>
<p>I think what he was trying to say is that once he interviews people, he picks his 10 people by how the Academy ranks them...kind of like how the Vice President does it</p>
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<p>Obviously 1985 is correct and he submits a competitive list. He told MBW basically that with an LOA, he would probably be #1 on the list. As far as the interview, what is more important than the candidate knowing what he is in for (a visit) and that we aren't wasting our money (a career instead of 5 and dive). Sounds to me like a MOC that has his stuff together.</p>