<p>Luigi59,</p>
<p>Absolutely. I didn’t mean to imply that LOA + nom always means a done deal. My son’s LOA said “… contingent upon receipt of a nomination, medical qualification, and continued excellent work in school.” It also contained the statement (in italics) “This letter will be withdrawn if you are not medically qualified by April 15…” As indicated by the statement above, you could say that all LOAs are contingent on “continued excellent work in school”. Even if already medically qualified, an LOA (even an appointment) is contingent on remaining medially qualified. In my son’s case a medical issue arose after his appointment that would have caused his appointment to be withdrawn if he had not received a waiver. Bottom line: nothing is certain in life. I know you know all this. Just stating it for the record.</p>
<p>USMA_hopeful, not trying to throw cold water but are you sure what you have is an LOA? About this time last year, my son got what I would call an LOE (Letter of Encouragement) “… great potential for gaining a cadetship… send us an updated transcript… pursue nominations…etc”. The LOA (which never used the term LOA or even the word assurance) contained, in addition to the verbiage mentioned above, the words “I have reserved a cadetship for you…”.</p>
<p>The one sure way to know where you stand is contact your admissions officer at USMA. My son always got quick and helpful responses from admissions. All most of us on this forum can do is tell you how things worked in the past.</p>
<p>If you have an LOA, that’s wonderful, but as others have already pointed out, your goal is not an LOA. Your goal is an appointment and making it to R-Day.</p>
<p>One more thing… I am a strong believer that even with an appointment in hand (certainly an LOA), you should still have a good backup plan in place. That means more that just an idea of what you would if… It means applying for other scholarships (ROTC, academic, etc). Apply to other colleges. Visit other colleges. Even pay the deposits. A LOT can happen between now and R-Day.</p>
<p>As a wise man (Larry Mullen, DoDMERB) told my son: “Your goal is not to graduate from high school with the one option you want most. Your goal is graduate with lots of options to choose from then choose the one you want most.”</p>