<p>I spoke with lovely person at NMC today to confirm my child's score. She clarified info about how boarding schools work and I thought it was worth posting here for future reference. See posts under the Scholarship section for complete details of how National Merit process works.</p>
<p>Boarding schools with at least 40% out of state students have their own cutoffs rather than the cutoff in their state.</p>
<p>There are 4 regions:</p>
<p>New England/Mid Atlantic
East/West/North Central
South Atlantic and Central
Mountain Pacific and Southwest</p>
<p>In each of these regions, the cutoff is set at the highest cutoff for the states in that region.</p>
<p>Yes. Not well explained by the boarding schools. Most people who are misinformed still look at their own states. I think our BS said there was a separate score for boarding schools period–not that it had anything to do with the states in that region where the BS resides. She did say that the private school number/cutoff is higher.</p>
<p>This can be a disappointment. Our state cut-off was 213 (many states are lower), and the Mid-Atlantic and NE BS cutoff 224. So all the students from our state between 213 and 224 “lost” their NMSF status by attending boarding school. Doesn’t seem fair. </p>
<p>Our state is 224 anyway, so it doesn’t make a difference for us. It’s funny, I was looking at a local paper which listed merit scholars from different schools in the area, local and private. The public schools had more scholars than Groton and Lawrence Academy. I think that Groton only had four. That being said, I’m sure the public schools are larger.</p>
<p>Hello - can someone point me to where I can find the cut-offs for each of the regions above? My son is attending a BS and would be good to know what the cut-off score to reach NMSF. Thanks</p>
<p>@sgopal2: I would just assume a 224…which I think is the highest threshold this year.</p>
<p>@Momto4kids: We are in a similar boat…would have been the same if she had stayed at home. What I find amazing is that some local public schools of some size have only a handful while others seem to have dozens.</p>
<p>Clarification: In my post #7 above, I mentioned the 224 cutoff from NJ, which according to Sudsie’s initial post would be part of the New England/Mid-Atlantic region.</p>
<p>For Groton, isn’t it nice to have 4 out of I’m-not-sure-exactly-but-probably less than 80 seniors? That would be >5% when average is ~1%. And 5x over-representation than expected for public school!</p>
<p>@SevenDad: many thanks for your help. I’m still a little confused. Is the BS cut-off 224 for all of the regions, or just the ones in New England/Mid Atlantic? Is there some sort of list where this is published?</p>
<p>The cutoff would be the highest state cutoff of any of the states in the region. There’s a separate thread on CC for the state cutoffs under Scholarships–Outside Scholarships–National Merit</p>