An Overview of Applying to the United States Naval Academy

Applying to the United States Naval Academy is not anything like applying to a regular everyday civilian college. Most colleges one applies to you pay an application fee, fill out the application, and maybe do an interview for. You will probably end up going for a visit and taking a tour of the school to see if you like it.

The Naval Academy is unlike any normal civilian college you may be looking at and the application process is unlike nay other. The application process is long and tedious and designed to be a pain. I say it is designed to be a pain because the Academy only wants people who are fully committed to the Academy to apply. By making the application process long and hard the hope that candidates that are not fully committed will not finish the application process and thus will not be looked at for entry into the United States Naval Academy.

Applying to the United States Naval Academy usually starts early in your junior year of high school. For the purpose of this guide I am going to break the application process down into a few simple steps:

1. Contact Blue and Gold Officer

2. Apply to Summer Seminar

3. Preliminary Application

3. DODMERB Review

4. CFA

5. Nominations

6. USNA Application

Contacting your Blue and Gold Officer

Your blue and gold officer will be the first person you will want to find and contact before you start the long journey of applying to USNA. Your blue and gold officer will be there by your side the whole way to aid and guide you throughout the whole application process. You will want to contact your blue and gold officer early, make it your first step and yes first impressions are everything.

You will want to make a good first impression with your blue and gold officer not only because they will be guiding you through the application process but also because they will be conducting their own interview of you to submit to the academy which is part of your application so you will want to be ready to impress from the start.

When you initially meet your blue and gold officer either in person or on the phone they will probably start by asking you if you have any question about the Academy etc. Don't be afraid to ask the blue and gold officer questions because you will need to become comfortable with the, since you will be working with them for more then a year with your application to USNA.

One tip when talking with your blue and gold officer to to show that you have deep interest in the Academy, by showing them you have done research yourself. By this I do not mean don't ask question and act like you know all the answers, because you don't. What I mean is when you ask questions ask them in a way that shows you have done your research. For example try things like, "while talking with a midshipmen they mentioned blah blah could you explain more?" or while researching/reading a book I read blah blah, could you clarify?" By asking questions like this you are showing great interest in the Academy and the more interest you show toward the Academy the more serious they will take you as a candidate. Throughout the whole application process people will be measuring your motivation to go to the Academy and the higher it is the greater chances you will have to get in.

While filling out the Application for USNA one of the steps will be to have an interview with your blue and gold officer. In my opinion this should be your easiest interview because compared to your others with the congressmen and senators this one will be the one in which you know the interviewer the best.

Applying For Summer Seminar

Summer seminar applications will open online in early February. Many students will stay up past midnight the night before to be the first to send in an application once they open, but this is debatable if it actually helps, so I wouldn't feel the need to do this. With that said I will mention the application for USNA is rolling admissions meaning first come first served so you will want to get your application in as early as possible.

If accepted into summer seminar you will then get the chance to go down to the Academy for one of three weeks in which summer seminar is hosted. During this week you will get to live in Bancroft Hall, go to a few workshops which are like classes and get to see what like is like at the Academy. There will be also a time during the week where you will get a small taste of what plebe summer is like with all the yelling etc.

Summer seminar is a great opportunity to get to really see what life is like at the Academy, and if you get accepted great! Go enjoy it! But if you are not accepted do not take this as the Academy is not interested in you, and continue to truck on and continue to work hard finishing the long application. Being denied from summer seminar is not the same as being denied from USNA. I did not get accepted to summer seminar but I did get accepted into the United States Naval Academy.

Preliminary Application

In essence the preliminary application to USNA is making you apply to be able to apply. If you filled out a summer seminar application then that will act as you preliminary application. The preliminary application is an application which the Academy will review to see if you will be a competitive candidate. If they deem you are a competitive candidate they will allow you to apply to the Naval Academy and give you your candidate ID number which you will use to log in online and fill out the real Naval Academy application.

If they do not believe you are a competitive candidate for the Naval Academy they will not send you a candidate number and you will not be able to apply until you become competitive. For example if you have low SAT score they will not allow you to apply until you raise them to a certain number, then you will be come competitive, and they will send you a candidate ID number.

If initially you are considered not a competitive candidate like I said for summer seminar don't give up this does not mean you are unable to get accepted into the Academy. Just work hard to become competitive. One thing you will hear often when applying to the Academy is motivation to go, which is something your blue and gold officer will be constantly looking for. If you get denied from summer seminar or are said to be a non competitive candidate and you truck on and keep applying you are showing your motivation to go is high, and this is what you constantly want to show.

DODMERB

Department of Defense Medical Examination Review Board, can be a hurdle for a lot of candidates. At some point during your application process you will receive a letter in the mail to start a DODMERB account on line. When you receive this letter go on line and create an account and they will show you doctors near you in which you can get your DODMERB medical exam. You will then have to call these doctors and make appointments asap. One is a Navy Physical and the other is an eye exam. You will have to pass both to be able to be admitted into the Academy. This requires you to fill out a good deal of paper work and then bring the paper work for to the appointments and the doctors will fill out the rest.

If for any reason DODMERB says you are not medically qualified for any reason your next step would be to ask about obtaining a waiver. Not all medical disqualifications are waiverable and some have a limited number of waivers. If you need a waiver keep trying, but depending on the medical disqualification it is not always easy to obtain a waiver and not all disqualifications are waiverable.

CFA

CFA stands for Candidate Fitness Assessment. This is the physical fitness portion of your application to the United States Naval Academy. The CFA is a physical tests which combines, a kneeling basketball throw, pull ups, shuttle run, crunches, push ups and a mile run. For the CFA it is important to know there are no minimum numbers meaning that there are no score for each that if you hit you will be able to get it. In your on line account for your application which you can access once you get your candidate number there will be a section for the CFA explaining what needs to be done and who can proctor it to you. I recommend a gym teacher or coach, but it will state who specifically can. Also on line it will say how each "event" should be conducted. Also on line there is a list of maximums, I think of the CFA to be graded as a test with the maximums giving you an A+ and the lower you get the lower grade you get. For the CFA just do your best, and if you know you are not that athletic definitely spend some time practicing and preparing for it.

If the Academy thinks your scores are to low and you are a competitive candidate they will ask you to try it again. Even if you are athletic I would definitely give the basketball throw some practice before you take your CFA just because it is a little odd and tends to give candidates the most problems.

Nominations

The nomination process is a totally unconnected to your application process. Think of the application process as separate to the nomination process but you need both meaning the Academy has to accept you and you need a nomination to be accepted into Academy. If the Academy accepts you based on your application but you do not receive a nomination then you will not be awarded a spot at the Naval Academy. Or if you receive a nomination and not an appointment from the Academy then you will also not be able to go. But lets also not forget about your DODMERB because you also need to be medically qualified to attend the Academy so in essence you need to be triple qualified to get in. You need a Nomination, a letter of Appointment, and you need to be medically qualified.

There are a number of sources one can get a Nomination from and they differ a little from person to person. You can apply to your states senators and your congressmen for the district you live in. Those are the first three each states has two senators and you can apply to your congressmen in the district you live in. This will ultimately open up even more applications for you to fill out. You should start by going on line to your senators and congressman's websites and seeing how each conducts there nomination process. Most will have you fill out an application, get recommendations, and go in for interviews. You need to make sure you are on top of all three applications to these nomination sources in addition to your Naval Academy Application.

It is very important to prepare for these interviews because the senators could be interviewing a couple hundred kids for only a few spots. Be confident not cocky and express high motivation for attending the Academy. the question most candidates tend to have trouble with is, "Why do you want to go the the Naval Academy" It may seem like an obvious one but it tends to tie up the candidates a lot, so be ready for it.

Also there is one more source for a nomination you should not forget to apply to and that is the vice president. He will not interview you and there is more information on the Academy website on filling out a short application for the vice presidential nomination. So in totally you are applying to four people for nominations

USNA Application

The USNA Application will be available to you once you have received your candidate number after the Academy deems you a competitive candidate. Most of the application will be filled out on line, including teacher recommendations which needed to be from your math teacher and your English teacher.

Conclusion

Applying to the Academy is no simple feat and will take determination and perseverance at times so just stick with it and do not give up. Although I numbered the application steps they are not necessarily completed in that order. Some need to be done before others, like the preliminary application will open up most of the process like DODMERB and USNA Application. For the most part you will be completing the nomination process at the same time as the USNA Appication. Remember the Application process is long and hard to weed out the candidates who really do not want to go.