How to Get Into The Naval Academy

Last Updated on October 19, 2023

There is a lot of information on Service Academy admissions on online forums and various websites, and our goal is to ensure you focus on the right areas. Understanding the admissions process will help you apply effort to the areas that matter most in your application. We use the terms The Naval Academy, USNA, and Annapolis interchangeably in this guide. For a brief summary of this article, see the below video.

Here is an overview of the major sections in this guide:

• Part 1: The Annapolis Mission and Why You Would Make a Good Candidate
• Part 2: Basic Requirements: The Type of Candidate Annapolis is Looking For
  • Academics
  • Fitness
  • Leadership
• Part 3: The Admissions Timeline – What to Do First
• Part 4: How to Get a Nomination

The Annapolis Mission

The Mission of the United States Naval Academy is to develop midshipmen morally, mentally and physically and to imbue them with the highest ideals of duty, honor and loyalty in order to graduate leaders who are dedicated to a career of naval service and potential for future development in mind and character to assume the highest responsibilities of command, citizenship and government.

Why You’d Make a Good Candidate

With 5 Service Academies to choose from, it’s important to research and understand why you are choosing the Naval Academy. With the mission above in mind, think about your reasons. Above all, a desire to become a Naval or Marine Corps Officer should be amongst the top reasons. Passion about leadership and service is a must. Deciding to attend the USNA is a career choice, not just an educational one.

Basic Requirements – Who The Naval Academy is Looking For

There are both legal requirements and additional requirements for admittance into Annapolis. Legal Requirements:

• 17-22 years old
• U.S. Citizen
• Unmarried
• Not pregnant; with no legal obligation to support a child

While there is no perfect answer as to what to do to get an appointment to Annapolis, midshipmen excelled academically, athletically, and sought leadership opportunities during their high school careers. The Naval Academy publishes a class portrait that provides statistics about each class, which can be helpful in understanding the typical candidate profile.

Academics

The USNA admissions team recommends the following classes during your high school career. If available, taking Honors, AP, and IB classes are recommended.

• Required
  • Math – 4 years of mathematics with geometry, algebra, and trigonometry
    • Pre-calculus and calculus are also highly encouraged
  • Science – 1 year each: chemistry and physics
  • English – 4 years with a focus on writing and an emphasis on English and American literature
• Optional but highly recommended
  • Foreign language – at least 2 years
  • History – U.S history and European or world history
  • Computer and typing courses

What GPA do you need to get into the Naval Academy?

USNA admissions looks at much more than just a candidate’s GPA. We often highlight the importance of the “scholar, athlete, leader model”.  However, proving that you’re capable of exceling in the difficult engineering-based curriculum at the Naval Academy is important. Admissions looks at your transcript to determine your chances of maintaining acceptable grades at USNA. Multiple C’s are unacceptable. Most appointees are in the top third of their class. The vast majority of USNA appointees have above a 3.5 GPA, with many at a 3.75 GPA or above.

USNA Admissions recommends striving to be in the top 20% of your high school class to receive an appointment.

USNA and the SAT/ACT

Approximately 45% of whether or not you will earn a Naval Academy appointment is determined by your SAT or ACT score alone. These tests are an incredibly important factor in the Naval Academy admissions decision. We strongly recommend continuing to test, even if you are satisfied with your score. There is always room for improvement.

This is the type of attitude the Naval Academy is looking for: midshipmen who push the envelope and pursue excellence. We challenge you to adopt this mentality throughout your application.

Re-taking the SAT or ACT 5, 6, or even 7 times is tedious, we understand. However, if you are right on the edge of earning an appointment, and a 20 point increase could have made the difference, you are the only one who will be living with the consequences of a decision not to continue to improve your score. When it comes down to the numbers, 45% of your application score (Whole Person Multiple) is too big to take this portion of your application lightly. 

If you have below a 34 ACT or 750 SAT in any category, keep testing. Aim for the 75th percentile in each test.

Testing early and often with the SAT and/or ACT is a great way to determine if you should retest again during your junior year or even your senior year. Here are scores from a recent class showing what 50% of the class scored between. Scoring in these ranges could indicate you are competitive, depending on the rest of your application. If you are not within these ranges, we recommend retesting!

If you do retest, make sure to submit your scores each time as USNA takes the highest scores into account.

Naval Academy SAT Score Statistics

If you do not meet these standards, don’t give up. Your chances of earning a Naval Academy appointment are closely related to the competition within your Congressional district.

Academic Recommendations

Recommendations for those who don’t meet the standards above:

• Apply for an appointment and seek a nomination, even if you feel you aren’t qualified, applying shows the Naval Academy you are serious about serving as a Naval officer.
• If you had poor grades: take a year of challenging college courses and re-apply to the Naval Academy the following year – show USNA admissions that you are capable of succeeding academically.
• If your SAT or ACT scores could be higher: continue to take the test until you can’t anymore (usually December of the application year). Prioritize your SAT/ACT over most other aspects of your application. (ie: if there is a choice between taking the AP version of a class or taking the regular class and spending more time preparing for your SAT/ACT, take the regular class!) Work on your test taking skills, take practice tests, consider working with an SAT/ACT tutor.
• If you’re turned down by USNA: join NROTC or a Senior Military College with a Service Academy Prep Program, and re-apply next year, taking steps to improve your application academically. Get excellent grades, take classes similar to what you would take plebe year at USNA, and improve your test scores.

Fitness

Fitness is a major part of the application process. The physical test, known as the Candidate Fitness Assessment, is a series of 6 exercises that you can practice before the test, and we highly recommend doing just that! Here are instructions for the fitness assessment. 

Naval Academy maximum fitness test scores

You can calculate your estimated CFA score using our Candidate Fitness Assessment Score Calculator.

Unlike the other service academies, USNA admissions does not post average scores. The admissions team will let you know if you fail though. You can take the test again and re-submit scores through the Jan 31 deadline — but keep in mind that your new scores (even if they are lower) will override your old scores.

The good news is that this test is the same across all service academies, so if you are undecided about which service academy to apply for you can still prepare for all and only test once. The test can be administered by any physical education teacher, coach, an active-duty commissioned officer, JROTC instructor, or your Blue and Gold Officer.

You’ll also want to make sure you meet the height and weight requirements for the Naval Academy.

Leadership

Since the mission of the Naval Academy is to produce leaders, demonstrating an aptitude for leadership in your high school career is important. We recommend finding something you love to do and getting involved in a way that will allow you to showcase your leadership talents. Take a leadership role in extra-curricular activities and staying consistent with those activities will also demonstrate commitment.

If you enjoy a sport, become a team captain. About 90% of the Annapolis class participated in sports in high school. If you enjoy clubs, become the President or Vice President of the club. Understand that this is more than just a title. Getting involved and leading means taking an active role in the organization. Be ready to explain how you lead your group and what difference you made!

Teacher Evaluations and Letters of Recommendations

One of the requirements for getting into the Naval Academy is for an English teacher and Math teacher to rate you and write comments (a letter of recommendation) via the online portal. These teachers must be either Junior or Senior year teachers. Develop relationships with your chosen teachers early. Make sure your teachers know of your intention to apply for USNA and ask them early for evaluations and letters of recommendation. They will likely be writing multiple (especially for Congressional nomination applications). Use our Naval Academy Recommendation Letter Samples to get started.

Personal Essays

Another portion of the admissions process is to provide writing samples. The key here is to learn more about being a Naval officer. Asking serving or retired Naval officers about their experiences is a great way to do this. Visiting NROTC programs and Reserve units will help you exponentially. Emphasizing selfless service and putting others before yourself will help you with the following prompts:

(1) Describe what led to your initial interest in the naval service and how the Naval Academy will help you achieve your long-range goals, and

(2) Describe a personal experience you have had which you feel has contributed to your own character development and integrity.

For more information on how to craft successful personal essays, read our article on Naval Academy Essay Example with Commentary: How to Get Into Annapolis.

Admissions Timeline

Here is a brief overview of the admissions timeline. We recommend starting the process in the second semester of your junior year of high school. 

Freshman-Junior Year 

• Summer
  • Take the Summer STEM experience to get a feel for life as a midshipman
  • Focus on getting good grades in school and taking challenging academic classes

Junior Year – get the application process started

• Summer-Fall
  • Prepare for the SAT/ACT
• Winter
  • Take the SAT/ACT for the first time
  • Get in contact with your regional Blue and Gold Officer as soon as you receive your official candidate letter
• Spring
  • April – start a preliminary application with USNA admissions
  • Apply for a Congressional Nomination with your Representative and both Senators

Senior Year – finish up any application items

• Summer
  • Take the physical fitness test (Candidate Fitness Assessment)
• Fall
  • Complete all USNA forms
  • Get your high school counselor to mail an official transcript to USNA
  • Complete your medical exam (DoDMERB) and any follow-up requirements
  • Complete your Blue and Gold Officer interview
• Winter
  • You have until December 31st to begin an application, but we recommend starting much earlier!
  • Sometimes the admissions team will ask for 7th-semester grades – be sure to turn them in on time!
  • If trying to improve your SAT/ACT scores, take them by February 1st to have scores accepted by the USNA admissions team
  • The deadline for all application item completion is January 31st

Letter of Assurance from Annapolis – Recieve “Pre-Approval”

A Letter of Assurance is a reservation of an appointment to a Service Academy contingent upon medical qualification, physical qualification, Height/Weight and continued excellent work in school, and file Completion.  Letters of Assurance are conditional and subject to review throughout the entire application process.  Candidates receive Letters of Assurance based upon excellent scholar, athlete, leader credentials at noted in this post.

How to Get a Nomination

If you are seeking a Congressional Nomination, the process is similar across the 3 main service academies. Understanding how the nominations process works will help you plan accordingly.

Nomination vs. Appointment

First let’s discuss the difference between a nomination and an appointment because they can be easily confused!

A nomination gives the Service Academy admission teams the legal authority to consider a candidate for an appointment. The appointment itself is the offer of admission from a Service Academy. So you need a nomination first in order to be eligible to receive an appointment.

You are required to receive a nomination from a nominating authority in order to attend the Naval Academy. The majority of midshipmen receive their nominations through Congress – either a State Senator or their local Congressional Representative. There is also a Vice Presidential Nomination, although this is incredibly competitive. If you have a parent who was active duty or retired, you are also eligible to receive a Presidential Nomination.

Who are you eligible to receive a nomination from?

Typically you are eligible for at least your U.S. Congressional Representative, your 2 U.S. Senators, and the Vice Presidential nomination.  These usually increase in competition as you increase from the local to national level.

Each Member of Congress is authorized to have 5 candidates at any one-time. Typically Senators and House Representatives will have 4 candidates and 1 open slot. They will usually use one open slot per year. Each slot can be filled by up to 10 nominations from the Senator/House Representative.

This chart depicts the nomination slots that each Senator/Representative has:

Although the class years have different designators at each Service Academy, we simplified them to make the chart easy to understand.

Bottom line: You are competing for one of those 10 nomination slots. There are different methods for the Member of Congress to use for nominations, but typically the 10 nominees are not ranked by the Member of Congress. The nominating authority will usually leave that up to the Service Academy to decide who is the most qualified.

You should apply to every nomination source you are qualified for in order to increase your chances of selection for nomination.

Additional Nominating Sources:

• Presidential: children of military personnel
• Regular Army & Reserve Components
• ROTC & JROTC schools
• Children of deceased and 100% disabled Veterans
• Children of Medal of Honor Winners

Find your Senator or Representative here.