Getting a nomination?

[Flying Irish]

Getting a pilot slot in the Navy requires you to pass your physical, pass the ASTB's, and get a GPA somewhere in the neighborhood of a 3.0. It's not difficult, I drank my way through college and still managed to nab one out of ROTC.

As for the academies, you need to apply to get an application, and high school counselors should (if they are worth the oxygen they breathe) know how to do that. Then once you get the application, you apply for a nomination from a congressman or senator and interview with some people from their staff. Send in the application, go to the interview and wait. It's a long and difficult process, which I personally began in June before my senior year in high school and got the appointment in April. The biggest obstacle is going to be the physical, just because of the time it takes to set it up and get the paperwork through DODMERB.

That having been said, do not under any circumstances go to the academies if you are not ready to have no life and be told what to do for four years with no real benefit over other commisioning programs while the ROTC guys and the OCS guys go to school with girls and parties and don't have to get permission to leave a 25 mile radius of their school. They really don't have any benefit over getting a slot in any part of the service over the ROTC and OCS guys, and the only thing they do get is promoted a day before every one else who was comissioned in May. So if that is your bag, go for it. Me, I took the life, the girls, and the beer, but what do I know, I'm just a dumb pilot.

 

[HH-60H]

Getting a pilot slot in the Navy requires you to pass your physical, pass the ASTB's, and get a GPA somewhere in the neighborhood of a 3.0.

They really don't have any benefit over getting a slot in any part of the service over the ROTC and OCS guys.

I got much less than a 3.0, and I still got a pilot slot. Are you sure there is no advantage?

 

[Circle K]

Concur with 60. I had a 2.99, and was 82 out of 179 in pilots' slots. Seems it's quite a bit easier to get a billet out of Annapolis. On top of that, everyone who was medically qualified and wanted NFO, got it.

The Academy has no benefits spelled out in instructions. But it's quite a leap to say it has no benefits at all over the other comissioning programs, especially coming from someone who hasn't experienced both.

 

[AllAmerican75]

akajjred,

When you actually apply to the Academies, they will ask for your congressional district on the application. They will then put your name on a list to your congressman and maybe your senator, that will let them know that your are pursuing an appointment to one(or more) of the service academies. Apply first then contact your congressman and senator, letting them know that you would like them to nominate you. I second the idea of a personalized letter. Then submit your application.

That is just my two cents as gleamed from my personal experience. But then again I have had a long, strange trip with the whole USNA admissions process. If you want to read it, you can find my story here: http://www.airwarriors.com/forum/showthread.php?t=14464.

Also, in answer to your question, your Blue & Gold Officer will not help you apply for ROTC or OCS. That is a whole 'nother ballgame and all applications for those programs are overseen by an OSO(Officer Selection Officer?), and at least for NROTC, you will be assigned one when you apply for an ROTC scholarship. If you are interested in the Academies, I suggest you also apply to ROTC as a backup. A commission is a commission is a commission. It doesn't matter where you got it as long as you end up where you want to be. Best of luck with your applications to the USNA and USAFA.

Just my $0.02, your mileage may vary.

 

[The Stinkster]

I guess that I will chime in on this one. I worked in the admissions office at good ol' USNA for a time, so I feel that I can clarify the process for you a bit. Don't get hung up on getting the nomination from your congressman as the be all end all of the process. The nomination is only a step, and you have paperwork and application and SAT scores that you need to get in order first. Talk to your Blue and gold officer to get you started, but the best advice is to get started in your Juior year, as you want to be done with the whole long process as soon as possible. You will need at least a 1200 on your SAT to be considered by the admissions board as a qualified candidate, so they won't even consider you seriously until then. You need to realize that the nomination is not the same thing as getting into the academy. You will need to submit your package, and the B & G officer and the Congressman's staff will help you with that. Then you will need to do an interview, which will be with the staff most likely, not the actual Congressman. After you secure a nomination your package will continue to be reviewed by admissions until complete. When it is you will go to the admissions board (at USNA) where they will review you package and vote yes or no. Each member of Congress is allowed 5 people at USNA at a time, and for each available spot that he/she has, he can nominate up to five people to fill it. If you get the nomination you are competing with 5 others for the 1 available slot from your district. The Congressmen almost always rank the people they nominate 1 through 5, thus specifying to the board which one they hold in highest regard (holds weight with the board). you will not know where you are ranked most of the time. In short, this is a tough process, with a lot of people competing for a limited number of slots. Admissions officers see thousands of packages for people that don't get in. You best bet is to get in touch with the Admissions office and get started, work on making you package as solid as possible and apply for a nomination with your Congressman and BOTH of your US Senators as they have the same options for admissions. You can receive a nomination from all three, and to all of the service academies, but if the admissions office doesn't grant you and appointment out of it, you are right back where you started. Apply to all that you are interested in, use all the Congressional resources, get your package done and keep other options and avenues in mind. Good luck.

 

[DanMa1156]

Stinkster, how does it work for recruited athletes? I'm at a Foundation school and there seemed to be several recruited athletes given appointments without even applying for nominations, one began getting courted by USNA this past march (real late in the admissions process I had always thought). Kind of curious; seemed kind of "back door" to alot of people here. He just last week decided USNA wasn't right for him after taking his appointment and then deciding that the military was not for him.

I hate to sound like a grump, but yeah I guess it pissed me off a little to see how easily his appoinment came to him even though he didn't want to be an officer after I've seen some Foundation and NAPS guys really have to make a push for it or people who have applied 3 times and never get in. I guess I get to see the point the English Professor (Bruce Fleming?) was making about taking in athletes who really aren't qualified. And while I hate to judge him, he just is not a very intelligent guy and is a big partier/drinker/ who knows what else... [/threadjack/rant]

Edit: I'm not saying this is the case for all recruited athletes either; I've met/seen several very intelligent and capable leaders who are recruited... but there does seem to be some sort of "back door" way into USNA by being one...

 

[HOORAH]

Side thought: Why is everyone using email for everything these days...since when did the thought of actually talking to a fellow human being become such a scary possibility?

Because when you call you rarely get a real human being, plus about a million menu options just to find out that there isn't one for what you want and when you hit "0" it tells you that that isn't an option.

 

[rjack14]

There are some issues with recruited athletes. Of course the one sport that seems the most sketchy is football. I know guys that didn't get the minimum SAT scores and got in. They are upheld to the same standards as everyone else when they get there though. There might be some out of the way help for them and what not, but remember that those guys are more or lessly full time midshipmen and full time football players. You get a few that are just there for football, but most are great people. Even the ones that I have ran into that have horrible military discipline are still good people. Then there are those who are star athletes and still manage 4.0s in engineering.

On the other side of the coin you have non-athletes who the biggest dirt bags ever. Being a prior-enlisted I can say there are also the prior-enlisted dirt bags. Some people like that are just going to get in. Some of them even look like gold on paper and only their peers know how crappy they really are. Its just something you learn to work with and overcome. It usually catches up with them in the end.