When you are applying to your congressmen for the required congressional nominations, you will be able to choose an order of preference for service academies of your choice. This is an optional step. When I was applying for West Point, I was so set on the Military Academy that I didn’t want to be appointed to any other service academy. So I did not select backups.

This was a big mistake on my part. In retrospect, if I had applied to West Point and didn’t get in, my dream of defending and serving our nation would have been over as far as attending a service academy goes.

Obviously, West Point is not the only path to duty and honor. And the same applies to the other academies like the Naval Academy and the Air Force Academy. Each academy should be interchangeable within the outlook of your goals. Do you want to become a leader in the United States Armed Forces? How bad do you want it? If you were determined enough, you would grasp the opportunity to attend any of the service academies.

Securing a spot on the congressman’s list for a congressional nomination is an extremely competitive event. No matter how confident you are about the caliber of your candidate status, you cannot afford to overlook the order of preference when you apply for the nomination.

A congressional nomination is required by the service academies. You may be qualified from the standpoint of the Admissions office to get into your first choice school, but if your home state has such fierce competition for a certain academy that other candidates beat you out of a nomination, then your journey is over. Instead, if you select a second and third choice school for a nomination, then you will still be in the game even after an unfortunate elimination from the first round.

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