<p>Hey everyone! I was wondering what all the mids are planning on doing for their service assignments. I was also curious about how competative it is to get what you want...or does everyone get their first choice? Any insight would be great. thanks!</p>
<p>i dont think youll get too many replies from firsties on here telling you what theyre service selecting simply because they probably are not on this site. not everyone gets their first choice but a large majority do. specops (EOD) and specwar (SEALs) are the toughest to get because there are 6 (or 8) and 16 slots respectively, although the last 2 years they have opened about 6 extra slots for SEALs. the other communities basically depend on your AOM (academic order of merit) and MOM (military..) which combine to make your OOM (overall...). just a more complex ranking system like you had with gpa in high school.</p>
<p>Good point about the firsties and thanks for the overview. I was wondering if you knew about the Marines option. I read somewhere that 1/6th go Marines, is this based on the same system, or do only a few choose that route? Thanks for the info.</p>
<p>Per Federal Law, only 1/6 of the graduating class may join the Marines. All available slots have been filled every year since 1969 (which fell short for reasons that I hope will be obvious).</p>
<p>DeepThroat</p>
<p>given the order merit standings, and assuming there are 950 grads in a given year, how far down the line do the marine slots last (ground and aviation), or naval aviation, how about NFO, ....is this even a legit question???</p>
<p>It's VERY competitive to get ANYTHING relating to the air. NFO, Avation, Marine Air, You'll probably need to be top 25% or interview VERY well to get one of those. Marine's are getting tougher to get. I want to say that doesn't have anything to do with OOM though, I think it is based more off your leatherneck scores and what your PRT scores are.</p>
<p>first of all...
-the ranking order is different than any other college..
*there is AOM (academic order of merit... your typical gpa [call quality point rating QPR here])
*there is MOM (military order of merit... everything else [your grade in professional courses, your conduct, aptitdude, physical grades])
*there is OOM (overall order of merit... the combination of these two [im unsure of the percentages but I know it is complicated with academics weighing in over half])</p>
<p>from what ive seen...
-most pilot slots from both communities went in about the top half of the class although some definitely extended past that
-getting marine ground is not as tough in the OOM system as physical standards are key as well
-i know more than a couple SEAL-selects with QPRs right around 2.1 (the lowest allowed being 2.0... this is even more than just basic physical standards... there are plenty of screeners to see who can hack it)
-NFOs are spread ALL throughout the class ranking system</p>
<p>"NFO, Avation, Marine Air, You'll probably need to be top 25% or interview VERY well to get one of those."</p>
<p>It would not take very much research at all for anyone to prove how nonsensical this comment is.</p>
<p>DeepThroat</p>
<p>In case some of you don't feel like doing the research, I will.<br>
<a href="http://www.usna.edu/Catalog/6careerops.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://www.usna.edu/Catalog/6careerops.pdf</a>
As you can see from that catalog, 267 people chose pilot training, and 91 people chose NFO training. 267+91=358. There were 994 members of the class of 2004. 358/994=35.9%. So I guess assuming all people want to be a pilot or navigator, you have to be in the top 36%?</p>
<p>Ah, but you're forgetting, you have to be qualified in all respects and actually want pilot or NFO.</p>
<p>"Ah, but you're forgetting, you have to be qualified in all respects and actually want pilot or NFO."</p>
<p>Which makes the "You must be in the top 25%" assertion even more ridiculous. </p>
<p>DeepThroat</p>
<p>"In case some of you don't feel like doing the research, I will."</p>
<p>I knew at least one person on this board would understand where I was going with my comment.</p>
<p>DeepThroat</p>