I know there are many factors that determine how one would rank in A-School. Besides uniforms, inspections, class participation, volunteer opportunities, etc. how do previous units, sea time, and awards stack up, and how can I decifer my DD-214's to figure this out ahead of time?
Does having a seperation in service wipe the slate clean,
I'm certainly not looking for a competition with other classmates, as I am interested in knowing in advance what possabilities I have for getting a good pick from my dream sheet before I get there.
It could have definitely changed from when I went, but there did not seem to be any type of formal process in whom got 1st, 2nd, 3rd, ect. pick. In my class is appeared that all the students whom had come from previous units got first dibs over the students coming from boot, but from I observed this policy varied widely from class to class.
10+ years ago when I went it was based first on your prior unit (if there was one) then boot to "A"'s it depended on your behavior and overall performance.
Now I've heard it's completely different. I'm not even sure if prior "field" experience counts towards anything.
Hopefully one of the staff will pop in and square it away, but last time I asked the question it was a mix of all of the above. Prior experience played a part as did performace at school (academic and general). Like any other unit, do your job all day to the best of your ability and you will get ahead. Have a good attitude, do better than what you are told, don't get stupid, have exceleltn uniforms, etc.
Or what you could do is this... When I was in Petaluma there seemed to be a huge disconnect with what actually counted towards "class rank". Many students in previous classes had a stack of things that would have ranked them higher than their peers i.e. positive page 7s, positive SIFs for uniform and room inspections, as well as excellent test scores and evals from instructors. Not to mention those who came from the fleet carrying sea time and TIS. However, when it came down to it, there were always heated discussions about why they got shafted and multiple attempts to trade billets.
Not to undermine what the A school staff used as their system but my class decided to not leave things to chance and utilize a tier system based on a consensus relative understanding of our class rank. Three people were in the top tier, a few more in the second, third, and though they weren't happy there were a couple that understood they were at the bottom of the totem pole so to speak. So we took our billet list, locked ourselves in a room, and used OUR system in order to decide amongst ourselves where we all wanted to go. Amazingly there was very little conflict and from start to finish it took less than an hour to iron out all the picks. We submitted a letter to the school chiefs with all our names and respective number one picks along with the standard corresponding sheets ranking our picks should the school chiefs not accept our democratic way of making their lives a lot easier. Everyone signed the letter and we submitted it up through our class advisor.
Guess what, everyone got their number one, and no one complained about getting the shaft one bit. It's nice to play nice when you're tucked away with the same people for four months.
