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<p>I’d always heard the opposite. It is my understanding that, in the very early years, there were more qualified women applying to USNA than available slots. Thus, women’s records were reviewed separately to ensure too many women weren’t admitted because, in the days before women could be in combat, there was a limited number of billets for them in the fleet and the # of women at USNA was tied to the # of Ensign billets availble to them.</p>
<p>I was told as far back as 10 years ago by the then-head of CGO (my former CO) that USNA had gone to “gender-blind” admissions b/c the number of qualified women applying basically was the same as the number of places for women in the entering class. Thus, women’s applications were no longer considered separately from men’s applications – USNA simply took the number they wanted across both genders and figured they’d get about the number of women they wanted.</p>
<p>That strategy was re-confirmed approx. four years ago at BGO training, when we were told that women were not separately considered for the same reason discussed above. We were told that women received no special consideration. It is possible that this position has changed since I attended training but I’ve not heard that it has.</p>
<p>Based on the above, I see no evidence that women were ever given “special consideration” in admissions – in fact, quite the opposite based on what I know. There has been an effort to increase the number of women at USNA for a variety of reasons, but that does not mean that special consideration was needed to do so.</p>