Highly Recommended Read for a Taste in Admissions
I definitely feel Professor Fleming's comments. However, I will say that even within the Brigade, his opinions are mixed and people find him polarizing. However, he does speak many truths at least about how the Brigade feels. I'd like to qualify that with, as any alum can attest, the rumor mill vs. what is actually going on at the Academy can be two totally different things. Working in admissions, specifically "Strategic Outreach" (read that how you want it to, but it's the name of my office), I can tell you that things are run much different that most people perceive them at least on the recruiting end of trying to get more candidates. And, I can definitely say that "diversity" on the recruiting end of things is certainly more than what people typically think, which is USNA Admissions is going out ant SEEKING African Americans and Latin-American/Hispanic folks. In fact, and I'll be very general here, but they are seeking geographic diversity as well (and as is mandated by Congress) and trying to get the very best from places that have not typically received plenty of applicants. When North Dakota, Montana and New York City are receiving similar number of applicants, there's a problem for sure. You have to get the word out about the Academy, because, despite what we'd all like to think, it's not as well known or well-perceived as many of us believe. The perfect example is Brooklyn Technical High School, where the kids actually pick MAJORS in high school in engineering/science (oh yeah, we need to increase the numbers going into those majors too). They had a truly bad perception of the Naval Academy/ military (i.e.: Vietnam era-distrust) in general and we had rarely if ever received applicants from that high school. So we invite a few teachers down and show them around, tell them about the opportunities and they are impressed. Bam, we finally get access to recruit there. We get their kids to come down for mini-STEM (science, tech, engineering, math) weekends at the Academy, they can claim a partnership with the Academy, and New York State and the Feds are impressed with their STEM efforts and give them more cash. A few of their kids think in the back of their mind, "hey, the Naval Academy is the place I want to study a STEM major at." What do you know? The plan worked and now we get a large number of HIGHLY qualified applicants from their school. The word spreads around New York City and other high-level high schools try to partner with us and we get even more access to kids. Bam, we're on our way to filling Congressional nominations in New York City for the first time in ages, with highly qualified candidates. And oh, by the way, New York City is as diverse as any place, their applicants are every race and talent under the sun, so that makes Congress and big Navy happy too, all the while, all we did is get more folks to know about the Academy, get them to apply and accept only their best ones. Now, take that model and repeat it across the country in places we don't get many people from: Chicago, Houston, Atlanta, the Midwest, etc. And what do you know, we have nearly 8,000 more kids applying to the Academy/year than just 2 years ago. The number will probably be over 20,000 applicants soon, nearly doubling the number of applications for my Class (2010). The metrics are extremely impressive, and Professor Fleming's view of the Admissions side, at least on recruitment is very skewed.
