<p>Yes I know weather wise San Diego is a no brainer. I am talking about where to apply to a service academy, specifically the Naval Academy. Son is high school sophomore and attends boarding school in DC area. We currently live in NH. Also we are considering a relocation to San Diego, CA. All other things being equal, do you think it is preferred to apply from NH or San Diego, CA? I thought NH would be preferred since there are probably many more applicants from a military town like San Diego. On the other hand, a Naval Academy grad told me that since a majority of West Coast residents apply to the Air Force Academy, the Naval Academy does not receive (relatively speaking) as many applicants from the West Coast. Then there is the issue of getting the congressional nomination… Again my logic thought to go with NH and this grad thought San Diego since you have more representatives to apply to. Anyways, I am clueless and would appreciate the board's feedback and suggestion(s).</p>
<p>Can any MC in the state recommend? San Diego is a HUGE Navy town. There is Marine Corps base Miramar (used to be Top Gun School), SPAWAR, HQ for SEALS/UDT in Coronado, Deep Submergence unit at North Island, Naval Hospital San Diego, and many other nooks and crannies. San Diego (North Island) is one of very few deep water ports in the continental US, so there are always flat-tops in town. Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base is in San Diego. I can’t name one Army or Air Force presence in San Diego. NH has Portsmouth Naval Shipyard and (wait for it…) the USS Albacore. I just can’t imagine that Duncan Hunter isn’t more swamped for recommendations than NH congressmen; especially if you get away from the seacoast. There are more representatives, but representatives are proportional to population, so even if you could go to any CA rep., statistically (with the same demand) it would be a wash. Maybe there are data at the MC offices or at USNA admissions? Better hard facts than our opinions!</p>
<p>I’d agree that NH would be the best choice. I think that NH probably has less applicants than California, although I’ve never seen any stats that would confirm that.
The number of U.S. representatives in a state has little effect on the chances an applicant will receive an Appointment. The number of U.S. representatives are determined by population and therefor more populous states will have more U.S. representatives, but approximately the same number of constituents theoretically applying for Noms from each of them. The benefit of living in a less populous state comes from the U.S. Senators. Each state has only two Senators regardless of population so there is usually less applicants for Noms from each of these Senators than the bigger states like California. I have read that ND has only one U.S. representative and of course two U.S. Senators so just about every qualified candidate will get a Nom.</p>
<p>Bottom line…if you really, really love your son…you’ll move to N Dakota.
Good luck to your son!</p>
<p>Thank you @ItsJustSchool and @aglages. Very helpful. I’ll try to get some hard facts and will follow up if I am successful.</p>
<p>I agree completely with the logic of @aglages – far less competition at the Senatorial level in NH, and about the same competition at the representative level. You can only apply to one representative; your own. It’s not like you can apply to every rep in California. No matter where you live, an applicant can only apply to two Senators and one congressman.</p>
<p>Also, if there is a difference in percentage of applications on the West Coast, I doubt that it is by a wide margin.</p>
<p>• 10 from each state, 5 of whom are nominated by each Senator from that state;
• 5 from each congressional district, nominated by the Representative from the
district; </p>
<p>California has: 38,000,000 people and 53 congressional districts. (+10) = 608452 citizens per nomination
NH has 1.3 million people and 2 congressional districts (+ 10) = 108333 citizens per nomination</p>
<p>Not sure of how you came up with these figures. It seems you are referring to total four year Appointments and not nominations…but still the math doesn’t seem correct… </p>
<p>I am not sure how it works out. The Naval Academy website states there are about 4,000 nominees per year (and about 1,500 appointments). With 535 members of congress (435 H of R, 100 S), and 5 nominations each, that gives 2675 of the 4000 appointments. Not sure where the other 1300 come from (besides the VP).</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.usna.edu/Admissions/FAQ.php:”>http://www.usna.edu/Admissions/FAQ.php:</a></p>
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<p>It is interesting that NH has 650,000 people per Representative, while California has 717,000 per representative, plus the added boost of 650,000 per senator in NH vs. 19,000,000 per senator in CA. That coupled with the larger percentage of those in San Diego’s population that have ties to the Navy (and therefore may be more biased towards seeking an appointment at Annapolis), really makes NH seem like the place to stay.</p>
<p>Just remember… you can only apply to one U.S. Representative. Even if California has 100 Representatives, you only get to apply to yours. Same with NH… you can only apply to your representative.</p>
<p>Where California has a major disadvantage is for the Senators. Both Cal and NH have two Senators, but California has 38.3 million compared to NH with 1.3 million. Simple math says you are almost 30 TIMES MORE LIKELY to get a Senatorial nomination in NH than in California. This in not a close call. It is far easier to get nominated to a service academy from NH than California.</p>
<p>I think a couple posters have confused 5 nominations with 5 Appointments.</p>
<p>Each Congressperson can have a maximum of 5 Appointees attending each of the SAs at anytime. For example Congressman Smith from California could have two freshman, 1 sophomore, 1 junior and one senior attending the USNA at the same time. Not 5 each year.</p>
<p>For each person under 5 that he has (including the senior) Congressman Smith can NOMINATE 10 candidates. There are various methods of choosing these Nominees, and submitting them but the important fact is that each one has a Nomination. So if Congressman Smith had two openings at the USNA then he could submit two slates for a total of 20 Nominees. </p>
<p>Regardless of how many Nominees Congressman Smith submits to the USNA…he can only have 5 Appointees charged to him and actually attending the USNA. He might have more than 5 members of his district attending…but those Nominations will be charged to another nomination source such as Presidential or USNA Superintendent. </p>
<p>When I applied to USNA, one of my Senators said that he had no current vacancies at USNA but did at West Point. So that kind of thing can happen too.</p>
<p>Yep. Fortunately I believe it’s kind of rare. Most MOCs try to pace their Appointments so that they have at least one available each year. Add in the 20-25% “churn” rate at the SAs…and usually your MOC will have at least one. </p>
<p>@aglages and @NROTCgrad Thanks! Did not realize how the nomination/appointee process worked. Regardless, from a purely stat perspective, the math seems to favor NH at least from an appointee perspective. Hopefully the NH Senators have some slots open. I guess this is a good question to ask when the time comes.</p>
<p>@i70sband Having just gotten done with the Congressional interview process I think you might find the explanation from the Academy Nomination Director in our Senator’s office to this exact question interesting. </p>
<p>She said that if you live in an area where there are sometimes NO nominations that you are much better off living there (obviously). I saw a recent interview with a Congressman from Brooklyn who said he doesn’t even get any applications. </p>
<p>She went on to say that if you come from a less popular area or state (she used ND as an example) that it gives you a much better chance of at least getting a nomination. </p>
<p>She then said that the problem with some of those areas is that they only get their one appointee out of the 10 nominations that they send in. With a state like VA she said the odds are lower of getting a nomination because so many people apply (700 this year just to this Senator), and because the candidates are so strong being from military areas (DC suburbs and Tidewater specifically). BUT… .she added that because of that strength there are usually 5-7 kids from the 10 person list that actually get appointments, but, as @aglages said in his post, the ones who aren’t officially the 1 person from the list get picked from this big pool and charged to another nomination source. </p>
<p>@TV4caster: Good luck to your son or daughter!! </p>
<p>@TV4caster Thank you and the best of luck to your son/daughter. </p>
<p>Out of curiosity I wanted to get a feel for the nomination numbers out of NH last year. Here is a link to NH Senator Ayotte’s and Senator Shaheen’s nominations for students entering college in 2014.</p>
<p>Ayotte
<a href=“Exeter Student Nominated for Service Academy | Exeter, NH Patch”>http://patch.com/new-hampshire/exeter/portsmouth-student-nominated-for-service-academy</a></p>
<p>Shaheen
<a href=“SHAHEEN NOMINATES NEW HAMPSHIRE STUDENTS... | U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen”>SHAHEEN NOMINATES NEW HAMPSHIRE STUDENTS... | U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen;
<p>Each article states the Senator nominated over 40 students to attend one of the academies. How is it that they were each able to nominate 40? I thought the available nominations allocated to each representative was a much lower figure (10). I cross-checked each list and while Ayotte and Shaheen had a few nominations that were identical, neither Senator nominated a student to more than one academy. </p>
<p>BTW - I looked at the prior year 2013 announcement and the nominations were 35 (Shaheen) and 40(Ayotte).</p>
<p>Our congresswoman, Shea Porter, nominated 19 this year and 15 last year. She had at least four duplicate nominations for the academies and some of her nominations were on Shaheen and Ayotte’s list.</p>
<p>Thus using last year as a guide, there were at least 80-90 nominations available. Does this sound correct? If so, this more than confirms the previous input from the board to stay in NH. </p>
<p>I believe they are coming up with the number since each MOC can nominate 10 to each of the 4 service academies that require nomination (USAFA, USMA, USNA and USMMA). Thus 40 nominees total per MOC. If they have more than one vacancy open at an academy, then they can nominate another 10 to fill that vacancy, or they may just use the same 10 kids and put them on both slates (or any other combination of nominees).</p>
<p>@i70sband @MidwesternHeart had it pegged. Each MOC gets 10 nominations per opening. With 4 SAs that means at least 40 nominations per year. BUT…since each MOC gets 5 people at any one time that means that on average they get a 2nd pick every 4th year. In years when they get that extra pick they get an additional 10 nominations. That is why the link you provided had 20 nominees for one SA and 10 or less for the others. </p>