<p>No facts, just a lifetime of observation and discussion. Back in your day, I am sure submarine selection for a non-technical grad was not even an option. With the end of the cold war and before USNA developed their sophisticated ‘volunteering’ tactics, they began accepting non-technical majors into subs. The class standing ‘cutoff’ has been closely monitored and adjusted as necessary. A non-technical grad whose technical courses were less stringent than those of his fellow technical-major classmate, a non-technical major who probably had his GPA inflated by his major course load and somewhat deflated by his required engineering courses are the Academy grads to which TigerDude was probably referring. A problem which USNA addressed several years ago by increasing the percentage of technical grads and which they just addressed this year by allowing women to select subs. How deep they go for ‘volunteers’ in the non-technical majors, I don’t know. I do know several ‘poly sci and dive’ grads who have had difficulty in nuc power school. And another question remains, will a ‘drafted’ indivual perform to the standards of a volunteer? I suppose how severely they had their arms twisted might have something to do with it. (Did they ‘draft’ anyone this year who had subs listed lower than 2nd on their preference cards?)</p>
<p>Your son was definitely not the subject of my comment. Congratulations. Wish him good luck for me.</p>