<p>Well, I had my interviews with the three members of congress today. Went very well; they were all pretty laid back.</p>
<p>In Maine, there are only 13 people applying for USNA class of 2012. </p>
<p>So, I'm wondering if the academy has a certain quota they must fill from each state, or if, potentially, there could be a year with 200 people from Virginia and none from some states.</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>Go back through the threads for the full explanation. It has been covered in great detail, but here is the short version.
Each Member of Congress is allowed a maximum of 5 constituents to be in attendance at any given time at each service academy. In general, they nominate a slate of up to 10 candidates for each available "slot", from which a single appointment will be offered by the respective academy. </p>
<p>If none of the nominees meet the admission criteria, no appointment will be offered for that year. It would be highly unlikely that an entire state did not have at least one appointee.
Remember that candidates come not only directly from high school, but also from the fleet, from NROTC, NAPS and Foundation.</p>
<p>No matter how small the number of applicants, the minimum admission criteria (whatever they may be) must be met (academic, medical, and physical), along with having a nomination, before a candidate will be considered for the appointment.</p>
<p>Good Luck,
CM</p>
<p>Simayan: when my dd started her application process, we had a lot of similar questions. Here is the link to that thread. Lots of people explained the issue of allocations of appointments very well:
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/naval-academy-annapolis/371144-question-about-congressional-nominations.html?highlight=slots%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/naval-academy-annapolis/371144-question-about-congressional-nominations.html?highlight=slots</a></p>
<p>Thanks 2012mom.</p>
<p>So, if I understand correctly, so long as they have one of 5 open spots at the academy, each member of congress will have at least one person from their nomination pool attend each year?</p>
<p>In theory, yes.<br>
But if none of the nominees qualifies, (say if none pass DoDMERB) then it is possible that the MOC would not have an appointee for a particular year.</p>
<p>Also, if the appointee accepts the nomination, but does not show for I-day, then it is doubtful the next candidate would be appointed.</p>
<p>Good Luck,
CM</p>
<p>Very interesting thread question:</p>
<p>Maine has 13 applicants to the Naval Academy for 2012.</p>
<p>Based on number of Senators and Reps, 4 is an average number for each year. Anything better than that is a good year for Maine and USNA.</p>
<p>So now, 4/13 = 30.77 chance of getting in from Maine for the next class.</p>
<p>Here's the rub:</p>
<p>If each MOC gives 4 people a principal nomination, they stand good chances of getting in based primarily on meeting minimum requirements such as SAT scores, passing dodmerb, etc.</p>
<p>I know of some instances where each MOC may give his principal nomination to a weaker candidate trying to bank on that he has a really strong who could NOT POSSIBLY get turned down by the national pool. It's a strategy some MOC's use to get more of their constituents in.</p>
<p>Think about this:</p>
<p>Applicant #1 has 1200 SAT, passed dodmerb, solid applicant otherwise.
Applicant #2 has 1450 SAT, hasn't had dodmerb yet, etc...</p>
<p>Applicant #1 is going to get the principal nomination because he needs it more than applicant #2. The academy is not going to turn down applicant #2 as long as he/she gets everything in on time.</p>
<p>But to answer your question, my blue and gold officer gave me some insider info about the class of 2010 for the New England states. Take heed:</p>
<p>State </p>
<p>Maine<br>
15 applied, 4 given principal nominations, 4 principal nominations accepted by USNA, one accepted candidate turned down offer, one admitted from national pool, 4 in USNA class of 2010</p>
<p>New Hampshire
14 applied, 4 given principal nominations, 3 principal nominations accepted by USNA, none admitted from national pool, 3 in USNA class of 2010</p>
<p>Vermont
8 applied, 3 principal nominations given, 1 principal nomination accepted by USNA, none admitted from national pool, 1 in USNA class of 2010</p>
<p>Rhode Island
17 applied, 4 principal nominations given, 4 principal nominations accepted by USNA, one admitted from national pool, 5 in USNA class of 2010</p>
<p>Massachusetts
52 applied, 14 principal nominations given, 13 principal nominations accepted by USNA, 5 admitted from national pool, 18 in USNA class of 2010</p>
<p>Connecticut
32 applied, 9 principal nominations given, 9 principal nominations accepted, 2 admitted from national pool, 11 in USNA class of 2010</p>
<p>New England
138 applied, 38 principal nominations given, 34 principal nominations accepted, 9 admitted from national pool, 42 members in USNA class of 2010</p>
<p>42/138= 30.43% accepted from New England</p>
<p>As you can see, a much better chance to get in from New England than the rest of the nation (15%).</p>
<p>Take into account how hard it is to get accepted from the Metro areas of DC and Baltimore due to interest...</p>
<p>XC can you post the rest of the states? That would be some good info for us all.</p>
<p>Thx.</p>
<p>GoNavyXC - is your BGO saying that NONE of the MOC's in New England use the competitive method?
According to the academies most MOC's use the competitive method and my Congressman won't even tell us which method he uses.</p>
<p>I think your scenario with Applicant #1 and #2 is a very dangerous game for a MOC to be playing. Without an LOA the MOC has no way of being sure that an applicant (even with a 1450 SAT) will be chosen from the national pool.
If the candidate was that good the academy would have issued an LOA.
So, the risk here is that a lesser qualfied candidate gets the appointment - this situation would be bad for the congressional district/state, bad for the academy and bad for the applicant who lost out.</p>
<p>One more thing makes me wonder -
Look at Vermont - 3 MOC's in the state. 2 senators and 1 congressman and 8 total applicants. 3 applicants get a principal and only 1 gets an appointment - this means the other 7 were not triple qualfied. wow.</p>
<p>This is the reason why we have MOC nominations - to ensure that each district and state has an opportunity for representation at our federal service academies. With out the nominations process most of the class would come from Northern Va and other highly competitve areas. </p>
<p>In the National pool all the candidates are competing against each other - admission ranks them using the whole candidate score. SAT's are only part of that score - it is concievable that a candidiate with lower SAT's would have a higher score. Every year there are kids on here with very high SAT's who don't get in.
It is very difficult for a candidate from rural Vermont to compete with a candidate from NOVA - statistically speaking of course.</p>
<p>"If each MOC gives 4 people a principal nomination"</p>
<p>I do not understand this at all. How do you have 4 Principal nominees? It is my understanding that if the competitive method is not used then one of these methods is used:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Principal with numbered alternates: The MOC "nominates" one candidate as his/her principal nominee. The other nominees are in ranked order - first alternate, second alternate, third alternate, etc. If the principal is qualified, that person gets "appointed" and that MOC is charged with that appointment which counts against the MOC's quota. The principal nominee may be actually a weaker candidate than some of the other alternates. But if that person is qualified - that person is in. If the principal does not qualify for any reason (academic, medical, etc), the next numbered alternate gets a crack at admission, and so on. The principal and numbered alternate method is not used very much any more.</p></li>
<li><p>Principal with competing alternates: Same as #1 above, but if the principal fails to qualify for admission, the alternates compete for the slot.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>This link may be helpful:
<a href="https://admissions.usafa.edu/RR/Congressional%20Guide.pdf%5B/url%5D">https://admissions.usafa.edu/RR/Congressional%20Guide.pdf</a></p>
<p>
[quote]
f each MOC gives 4 people a principal nomination, they stand good chances of getting in based primarily on meeting minimum requirements such as SAT scores, passing dodmerb, etc.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>This puzzled me too but I interpreted that to mean that 4 candidates from Maine were awarded principle nominatons. That the MOC's worked together to give principles to 3 q'd candidates thereby ensuring that the academy would have to accept them and the State of Maine would be represented.</p>
<p>Even more puzzling is that from NH even though 4 candidate were given primary noms only 3 were accepted - this means that one of the principle nominations was not either medically, scholastically or academically qualified.
Nor were any of the other 10 candidates - unless the MOC's attempted to "play the game" and really screwed things up. It could also mean that one of the congressional districts in NH had NO qualified candidates at all.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone for your answers. It's cleared a lot of things up.</p>
<p>Now I just have to wait until December 1st to see who nominated me...</p>
<p>I only know about new England.</p>
<p>And each MOC has ONE principal nomination, not four.</p>
<p>MOST MOC's can try to give a principal nomination to a candidate who's not triple q'ed which is often why that candidate is denied.</p>
<p>In most instances, the MOC's who do not use the "Principal Nomination" designation rank the candidates from 1 to 10.</p>
<p>In this case, the candidate ranked first has more or less a principal nomination, in theory.</p>
<p>The only states that use the "unranked nominees" are Massachusetts and Connecticut, and that is because of the number of applicants. Even then, I only believe less than 5 MOC's use the unranked nominee method.</p>
<p>
[quote]
In most instances, the MOC's who do not use the "Principal Nomination" designation rank the candidates from 1 to 10.</p>
<p>In this case, the candidate ranked first has more or less a principal nomination, in theory.</p>
<p>The only states that use the "unranked nominees" are Massachusetts and Connecticut, and that is because of the number of applicants. Even then, I only believe less than 5 MOC's use the unranked nominee method.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Allow me to clairfy that you are only talking about the New England states here. Is my assumption correct?</p>
<p>A candidate does not have to be triple qualified to receive a nomination or a primary nomination. In fact a candidate who is not triple qualified in November may be a better candidate than one who is triple qualified early.
Many candidates have not completed the Dodmerb process, are waiting for remdials or medical waivers. Some will not have taken the CFA and others are not scholastically qualified yet.
Remember candidates have until the end of Jan to take their SAT's and some may become scholastically qualified then.</p>
<p>Ranking the candidates - is designating the primary and numbering the alternates. When the MOC uses this method the academy has no choice but to follow the rankings until they find a triple qualified candidate.<br>
This does NOT mean the most qualified candidate gets the appointment.</p>
<p>
[quote]
MOST MOC's can try to give a principal nomination to a candidate who's not triple q'ed which is often why that candidate is denied
[/quote]
here again I assume you are talking about New England MOC's. A primary candidate who does not become triple qualified is denied an appointment but the academy goes down the list and still attempts to make an appointment off the list.</p>
<p>I wonder where your BGO is getting the information - this is directly from Senator Snowe - Me (R) website:
[quote]
After Senator Snowe submits her nominees, each individual school then selects the candidates of their choice. At any given time, Senator Snowe can have a maximum of five appointees at each academy.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>This implies that the Senator from Maine is using the competitive method - allowing the academy to pick from the slate of ten instead of using the primary method.</p>