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OCS 11AUG25 IWC BOARD // Nerd Thunderdome 2025

Out of curiosity does anyone know what goes on at the board exactly, like how the review process works? Or is this one of those "I'd tell you but then I'd have to kill you" type of questions?
 
rabbitoperator said:
Out of curiosity does anyone know what goes on at the board exactly, like how the review process works? Or is this one of those "I'd tell you but then I'd have to kill you" type of questions?
Click to expand...
IDK how accurate this is, but based on some search, I found an article that says as so.
Meh whatever, everything’s a black box anyway. :/
Some designators seem to give jackshit about the LoRs while some designators look at everything or just care about degree/GPA.


Board Procedure:
  1. NRC informs BUPERS-317 of the number of quotas available for selection at each board, by designator, and compiles ALL applications - Fleet and Street - for any given board.
  2. Each application is recorded and graded by an IWC
    Officer Community Manager, and the recorder's comments are stored in a database that all voting board members have access to for voting.
  3. Once recording and grading is complete, all voting members (one member, from each IWC designator at minimum) vote on ALL applications using a 0-25-50-75-100 confidence score.
  4. The results of all votes are compiled and listed in order of descending confidence score for board members (i.e. "100%", "98%", etc...)
  5. Selections are made by each designator based on confidence scores - WITHOUT NAMES LISTED - until allotted quotas are used.
  6. The board president will review the results, and will sign and forward the results - with all professionally recommended candidates - to NRC for release.

Recorder's comments regarding each applicant's record cover the following GENERAL areas for the IWC:


  1. General comments: Overview of record and anything recorder decides to highlight
  2. Personal Statement Summary: message summary, quality, grammar, ability to communicate, individualism displayed, understanding of designators desired, etc
  3. Clearance: Any flags from the record that could hold up or prevent access to TS/SCI (finances, foreign born, foreign contacts, etc)
  4. Aptitude scores: OAR score (minimum score is 45)
  5. Academics: GPA, Degree(s) and level, school atte v
    STEM course work completed
  6. Languages: Any foreign language proficiency, DLPT
7. Interviews: summary of CO endorsement and Interview Appraisals

8. LORs: summary of all Letters of Recommendation included in package

The following outlines what a competitive package looks like based on a few years' worth of statistics:


  1. Performance: Consistent MP to EP above peers and promoting at or ahead of schedule (for Fleet); consistent employer recommendations of "excellent" and positive characterizations of work history/ethic; qualification in primary warfare area is highly encouraged
  2. OAR: 50-55 is good, 55-60 is better, 60+ is solid
  3. GPA: 3.0+ is good, 3.20 is better, 3.4+ is solid
  4. Degree: STEM degree required with completion of Calculus 1 & 2 (w/grades of C or better) and Calc-based Physics 1 & 2 (w/ grades of C or better)
  5. School: "traditional" and "classroom" schools tend to fair better than AMU, U of Phoenix, etc.
  6. LORs: Solid LORs from desired community are helpful
  7. Personal Statement: well-crafted and grammatically correct

While the above data is a good place to start, the board grades applications from a whole-person perspective.


Sometimes, one 'weak' area can be overcome by other strengths.


There is quite a bit of competition out there for the limited Information Professional quotas. The average selection rate is 8-10% for the year. There have been many strong candidates left on the table.
 
This may be a positive sign

www.navytimes.com

Navy hits historic recruiting numbers with more ads, tattoo approvals

Fiscal 2025 was the best recruiting year for the Navy since 2002. The head of Navy recruiting credited the feat, in part, to streamlining tattoo approvals.
www.navytimes.com www.navytimes.com

"In a roundtable discussion with reporters Monday prior to the end of the fiscal year, Rear Adm. James Waters, head of Navy recruiting command, revealed that the service had achieved surpluses in every recruiting category, including officers, enlisted and Reserve — with enough in the Delayed Entry Program to make up about one-fourth of the recruiting mission for fiscal 2026."

"In total, the Navy brought in 44,096 future sailors in fiscal 2025, the service announced on Wednesday — nearly 3,500 more than its target of 40,600. That’s more than any year since 2002."
 
OceanBlue said:
This may be a positive sign

www.navytimes.com

Navy hits historic recruiting numbers with more ads, tattoo approvals

Fiscal 2025 was the best recruiting year for the Navy since 2002. The head of Navy recruiting credited the feat, in part, to streamlining tattoo approvals.
www.navytimes.com www.navytimes.com

"In a roundtable discussion with reporters Monday prior to the end of the fiscal year, Rear Adm. James Waters, head of Navy recruiting command, revealed that the service had achieved surpluses in every recruiting category, including officers, enlisted and Reserve — with enough in the Delayed Entry Program to make up about one-fourth of the recruiting mission for fiscal 2026."

"In total, the Navy brought in 44,096 future sailors in fiscal 2025, the service announced on Wednesday — nearly 3,500 more than its target of 40,600. That’s more than any year since 2002."
Click to expand...
The job market is in the toilet. When I went to MEPS, I a lot of people were there because they couldn’t find work—some were even re-enlisting.
 
Gaburieru said:
I'm not clear on how the navy recruiting an enormous number of people is good news for us as people now trying to apply
Click to expand...

With the way this shutdown looks like it’s going, you might be attending OCS with a RIF’ed former diplomat who speaks seven languages and has 12+ years of WE! 😂 Someone like that has to have a few study tips to memorize RLP knowledge, I’m sure. Gotta hunt the good stuff, mate…
 
Shod said:
The job market is in the toilet. When I went to MEPS, I a lot of people were there because they couldn’t find work—some were even re-enlisting.
Click to expand...
I'm in tech (kinda) and it yup the job market is in the toilet. My company's had hiring freezes for a prolonged period of time and some folks who stayed in the company for at least 10 years and being 50 years old were given severance packages to retire early.

The Marine Corps Officer Recruiting Office I worked with has an IG account and they've been posting stories with a news article saying how bad the market is with a "Hard to find a job? Start your journey as a Marine Corps Officer!"
 
WhiteShiningTin said:
I'm in tech (kinda) and it yup the job market is in the toilet. My company's had hiring freezes for a prolonged period of time and some folks who stayed in the company for at least 10 years and being 50 years old were given severance packages to retire early.

The Marine Corps Officer Recruiting Office I worked with has an IG account and they've been posting stories with a news article saying how bad the market is with a "Hard to find a job? Start your journey as a Marine Corps Officer!"
Click to expand...
I remember trying like hell to get an internship a couple years ago as a sophomore becoming a junior and it was just constant crickets as well as vague denials. If it was tough to get an internship, imagine how tough it is to get a job. While I've had my eye on military service for a long time, it's completely understandable to want to serve as a recent grad with no job lined up. And frankly, good on the military for capitalizing.
 
WhiteShiningTin said:
I'm in tech (kinda) and it yup the job market is in the toilet. My company's had hiring freezes for a prolonged period of time and some folks who stayed in the company for at least 10 years and being 50 years old were given severance packages to retire early.

The Marine Corps Officer Recruiting Office I worked with has an IG account and they've been posting stories with a news article saying how bad the market is with a "Hard to find a job? Start your journey as a Marine Corps Officer!"
Click to expand...
I’m in tech too - a start up at that. Surprisingly we are (very slowly) back to hiring and growing but I went months without onboarding a new hire until recently. Did lots of offboardings in that time though 😭 it’s a tough/scary job market.
 
I went to college to join the military. Now that I have graduated I can't bring myself to commit to a job that somebody else is willing to commit themselves for their whole life... in that case I am a substitute teacher for the time being. 💀
 
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