SavvyPR - Thanks for all the updated information. I am a PAO candidate for the special selection board held on 1 MAY. My recruiter has been totally hands off. I do not know what to expect or what comes next. Could you briefly give me a run down of what happens if (or if not) I am selected. Then what do I need to do?
Thanks,
Wow, I didn't know they did a special selection board.
What happened to me was a bit different at first because the board I applied for was supposed to happen 02FEB but at the beginning of December was moved up to 15JAN. I was able to submit for that board, but apparently not many people were and many people were left out/packages not completed, etc. So apparently, they also had the board on its ORIGINAL date of 02FEB.
I actually learned on 16JAN that I had been selected but the majority of those who were selected with me weren't notified until the week of 02FEB... probably because they were seen/selected from the second board.
My learning of my selection the day after the board
is not typical so don't expect it to happen to you. You'll usually learn a week or so, but two weeks isn't atypical and 4 weeks has happened before... but is rare.
Since your board was on 01MAY, you should know by now. Start calling your recruiter and asking. Your recruiter is busy dealing with many, many other applicants but this is your life, so contact him/her. Keep on them because sometimes that's what you have to do... just don't call every day and be a nuisance.
Have you gone to MEPS yet? If not, you will have to go if you are selected. I'd do this ASAP. Your recruiter will set it up for you. MEPS isn't fun because it's long but it isn't as bad as some people make it out to be.
After MEPS, you'll find out if you are physically qualified. You might also have to send information into BUPERS (the medical board that has the final say). I needed to do this because I failed my depth perception. Take glasses/contacts with you to MEPS if you have them. The paperwork I received said if you use glasses in your everyday life, to bring them. I have reading glasses and didn't take them because I don't generally need to use them. Big mistake. So I had to submit information from my eye doctor to BUPERS that said I had no ocular diseases.
Then it's the long blue wait. You have to wait for the scrolls with your name on it to be approved by Congress and then be signed off by another person (CNO, maybe?).
You'll notice that active duty who were selected at the same board date as you will not only get their pro-rec but also their final-select. In fact, some active duty are already heading to OCS and I still don't have my final-select letter.
Apparently, you'll get a letter in the mail and your COMDOCs come approximately 10 days after. And I say apparently because my recruiter told me that and now she's saying that she has no idea what I mean by talking about 10 days. Heck, I'm not even sure if we get final select letters. I have actually never received anything official--letters or anything--other than hearing it from my recruiter. She did send me the the letter that had my name on it that the recruiters received.
But that's where my knowledge ends. Because that is where I am right now. I was told (by two others who were picked up in JAN/FEB board) that the scroll with their names on it were approved. I called my recruiter and she said that my name was on the same scroll. So she thinks "it's probably going to be within two weeks" that I get the COMDOCs and can swear in.
Sorry this turned into a novel, but I would have LOVED all this information in one place when I was where you are.
Bottom line, you need to contact your recruiter because you should have heard about a 01MAY board by now. There is a chance that results aren't out yet, but it's rare to go more than two weeks, which is where you are now.
Keep at it and good luck!
