Out of curiosity does anyone know what goes on at the board exactly, like how the review process works? Or is this one of those "I'd tell you but then I'd have to kill you" type of questions?
IDK how accurate this is, but based on some search, I found an article that says as so.
Meh whatever, everything’s a black box anyway. :/
Some designators seem to give jackshit about the LoRs while some designators look at everything or just care about degree/GPA.
Board Procedure:
- NRC informs BUPERS-317 of the number of quotas available for selection at each board, by designator, and compiles ALL applications - Fleet and Street - for any given board.
- Each application is recorded and graded by an IWC
Officer Community Manager, and the recorder's comments are stored in a database that all voting board members have access to for voting.
- Once recording and grading is complete, all voting members (one member, from each IWC designator at minimum) vote on ALL applications using a 0-25-50-75-100 confidence score.
- The results of all votes are compiled and listed in order of descending confidence score for board members (i.e. "100%", "98%", etc...)
- Selections are made by each designator based on confidence scores - WITHOUT NAMES LISTED - until allotted quotas are used.
- The board president will review the results, and will sign and forward the results - with all professionally recommended candidates - to NRC for release.
Recorder's comments regarding each applicant's record cover the following GENERAL areas for the IWC:
- General comments: Overview of record and anything recorder decides to highlight
- Personal Statement Summary: message summary, quality, grammar, ability to communicate, individualism displayed, understanding of designators desired, etc
- Clearance: Any flags from the record that could hold up or prevent access to TS/SCI (finances, foreign born, foreign contacts, etc)
- Aptitude scores: OAR score (minimum score is 45)
- Academics: GPA, Degree(s) and level, school atte v
STEM course work completed
- Languages: Any foreign language proficiency, DLPT
7. Interviews: summary of CO endorsement and Interview Appraisals
8. LORs: summary of all Letters of Recommendation included in package
The following outlines what a competitive package looks like based on a few years' worth of statistics:
- Performance: Consistent MP to EP above peers and promoting at or ahead of schedule (for Fleet); consistent employer recommendations of "excellent" and positive characterizations of work history/ethic; qualification in primary warfare area is highly encouraged
- OAR: 50-55 is good, 55-60 is better, 60+ is solid
- GPA: 3.0+ is good, 3.20 is better, 3.4+ is solid
- Degree: STEM degree required with completion of Calculus 1 & 2 (w/grades of C or better) and Calc-based Physics 1 & 2 (w/ grades of C or better)
- School: "traditional" and "classroom" schools tend to fair better than AMU, U of Phoenix, etc.
- LORs: Solid LORs from desired community are helpful
- Personal Statement: well-crafted and grammatically correct
While the above data is a good place to start, the board grades applications from a whole-person perspective.
Sometimes, one 'weak' area can be overcome by other strengths.
There is quite a bit of competition out there for the limited Information Professional quotas. The average selection rate is 8-10% for the year. There have been many strong candidates left on the table.
