USNA's Third Evaluation/LOR

A new requirement in 2026 for an additional Letter of Recommendation!

The Naval Academy added a new requirement this year: a third evaluation in the form of a Letter of Recommendation (LOR). Specifically, the instructions state:

"In addition to the recommendation forms completed by your Math and English instructors which document your performance, engagement, and interactions in the classroom, you must also request a letter of recommendation from a faculty member who serves in a leadership position over the sport or activity that you consider to be your primary non-classroom extracurricular activity. This letter should be submitted by a head coach, a JROTC Instructor, a music department director, or any other faculty lead over your primary non-classroom extracurricular activity. If you have any questions regarding the source of this letter, please consult with your assigned candidate guidance counselor."

Let's explore the details of this required LOR and discuss your approach to fulfilling this requirement.

As I discussed in this LOR blog, candidates will be collecting LORs from different mentors, teachers, coaches and others to fulfill requirements for your Members of Congress (MoCs) nomination applications. Consequently, requesting this letter ideally would be part of your planning. The same letter written for your MoC may be repurposed for the Naval Academy's requirement.

As noted in the USNA instructions, the LOR must be a faculty member of your high school who lead a sport or activity. Coaches, JROTC instructors, club sponsors, music directors and other advisors will be able to fulfill this requirement.

Here's some advice:

• Use a faculty member who knows you well and has witnessed your leadership role(s), if possible. As noted by the written USNA guidance, this person supervises an activity or sport, such as your baseball coach, the NHS sponsor or similar school official.

• Ask permission and coordinate delivery of the request and then place their email address in the USNA application. Also, confirm with the recommender that the email request has been successfully received. You may also want to remind your recommender that s/he will upload a PDF file using a unique URL (address) to deliver the LOR to the Naval Academy.

• Provide guidance to the recommender, such as a résumé and other details along with some expectations for the LOR, if you feel comfortable providing this guidance. The good news is most school faculty members are familiar with writing LORs for colleges and scholarship programs.

As we discussed, the third recommendation for USNA is quite new, but it should be straightforward for your recommenders to fulfill and submit to Admissions at the Naval Academy. Ideally, this LOR will be collected along with the ones required by your nomination sources and the other service academies. Your good planning and execution will ensure success – good luck!

[I would welcome a chance to discuss details with you. I offer coaching services to pace and prepare you (and your parents!) for the entire Academy application process . . . including counseling and coaching for USNA's third recommendation! Contact me at chris@cbbrechin.com and/or 503.515.7406 -- my contact form is here]