<p>mom3boys…while your post is commonly the way it’s done…I discovered much to my surprise AFTER my daughter had her LOA AND her Appointment that the Congressman who had his Board interview the applicants to the Service Academies, Class of 2010 from his District…NEVER LOOKED AT THE LOA if there was one! This came about because I personally thanked 2 of those who sat on those reviews - in late May, one month before I-Day, at the Congressman’s party of congratulations for all his young charges headed to USNA, USAFA, etc. What they told me was that they never looked at those files! They preferred to make their own assessments on the spot during the interview - and AFTER they made their recommendations - if they were still interested, they checked the overall files! This was a huge surprise to me. What they said was that for the most part, since they had been doing this for the Congressman for many years - they had a pretty good feel for how to conduct the interviews to gather any biographical info they needed from the candidate - and the poise of the young person in the process was the factor they wanted to judge. “Every one of these young people is already motivated and outstanding”, I recall one saying. "By the time they get to the interview with us - we know they are all worthy of serious consideration.</p>
<p>So there you have it - there IS some variablility as to how different Congressional Offices handle LOA’s in a candidates file.</p>
<p>On the other side - some offices I know for a fact - don’t even bother to interview candidates with LOA’s - they simply automatically grant the nomination!</p>
<p>Welcome to real world human interactions!
:-)</p>