Can I Transfer a Nomination?

USNA84
Wed, 12 Jan 2011 12:17:50 +0000

Choosing which SA to go to is a tough choice, made all that much tougher when your limited frame of reference is based on (maybe) attendance at Summer Seminar (or the WP and USAFA equivalents), a campus visit (not as likely when you live far away), and perhaps talking to grads, current Mids/Cadets, or the BGO/MALO/ALO.

Maybe some colleges ask applicants if their institution is the applicant’s first choice, but I suspect most do not. Sure, Early Action or Early Decision is one way to determine whether or not somebody really wants to go to school at a particular university or college, but no one is likely to pin you down as to whether Harvard or Stanford is your first choice.

The reason Congressmen/women and Senators ask on the nomination packages is to a) make sure they know which school to nominate the applicant for, and b) in hyper-competitive states to “screen out” those who don’t have USNA/USAFA/USMA/USMMA ranked as their number one choice. Our previous Senator in Virginia used to call kids - or have his proxies do it - and ask them if they would consider USMMA instead of USNA. The tactic was to gauge whether or not the kid really wanted to go to USNA. A yes answer to the question “Would you consider USMMA?” would get them removed from the USNA nom list. That’s despicable in my mind.

So, while you might question the “honesty” of an 18 year old (kinda crazy to do so, IMO), I think the better approach is to do exactly what I recommended and go away and think about it.

The “USNA must be your first choice” mentality sounds a lot like USNA69 to me. What do these kids REALLY know about being at USNA at this point? “Nuthin’” (mostly) is the answer. Cut the kid a break. The process is tough enough as it is.

To aglages, true, my frame of reference is 30 years old, but I am a BGO, a parent of a grad (2010), and a current Mid who is soon to graduate. Both were accepted to USNA and USMA (and not with PNOM’s but MOC noms), and we live in one of the most competitive states for USNA - Virginia. Those circumstances and choices happen a lot more than perhaps you know.

So, there’s nothing wrong with wanting choices, but you do have to choose at some point. Maybe we could try a little more carrot and a little less stick when giving advice… ;)

PS - I sit on the selection board for nominations for my Congressman, and we (alumni and retired officers) meet with candidates in November/December. It’s not a panel interview, and we don’t interview all the candidates - we get a list of 8-10 kids and the other two teams interview 8-10 other candidates. We do the interviews in pairs to get more than one perspective, and more often than not, I am teamed with a WP or USAFA guy. So, we interview candidates for all of the Big 3 SA’s, not just the one (or service) we are from. I think it’s a great process, and we often hear from kids that they are undecided on which one to pick, but we do try to get them to tell us which SA is their strongest preference.