<p>Kaseyditz I would hate to get that letter. It sounds like some of the scholarship rejection letters my kids have gotten in the past.</p>
<p>Here is hope for those whose achievement has not yet lived up to the potential their PSAT scores showed. My son got his finalist letter. He is one of those students with ample brilliance but a lack of motivation to show it in his academic achievements or his commitments to service/activities. On the positive side, he has taken up all the AP and honors challenges available to him. However, poor math performance and school budget problems made those courses available fewer than they could have been and left him with a senior schedule weaker than it should have been. I had genuine worries that he would not make it to the finalist level.</p>
<p>[ size=+1][ color=blue][ b] Decision: finalist[ /b][ /color][ /size]</p>
<p>[ b] Stats:[ /b][ list]
[ *] PSAT: 221
[ *] SAT: 1450/2140
[ *] SAT IIs: 730 lit, 680 biology, 650 math 2 (He got tired with 3 at once and did not care.)
[ *] GPA: 3.44 unweighted, ~ 4.0 weighted
[ *] Rank: middle of class (school does not weight for ranking)
[ *] Other stats: AP European history 3, US history 4, English lang/comp 4</p>
<p>[ /list]**Subjective:[ /b][ list]
[ *] Essays: solid but not brilliant (did not like the topic)
[ *] Teacher Recs: It was perfunctory enough that he did not use the teacher for any college recommendations.
[ *] Counselor Rec: probably good
[ *] Hook (if any): I think his saving grace was that his high school is the magnet for gifted students in Seattle Public Schools, produces a high number of finalists every year, and offers an abundance of honors and AP courses, of which he took advantage.</p>
<p>[ /list][ b]Location/Person:[ /b][ list]
[ <em>] State or Country: Washington
[ *] School Type: public
[ *] Ethnicity:[</em>] Gender: male</p>
<p>[ /list][ b]Other Factors:[ /b][ list]
[ *] Extracurriculars: minimal, only the outdoors club and fencing
[ *] Why I think I was accepted/deferred: Strong test scores on the basic tests and a transcript packed with AP and honors
[ *] Other thoughts: Perhaps the scariest aspect was the timing of his grades. He picked the last semester that would show on his transcript (spring '06) to post the only 2 semester Cs (math and chemistry) of his career. He did rebound with a 3.67 for 1st quarter of this year if it was reported.</p>
<p>I'm in Texas; I finally got my letter today! I'm a finalist!<br>
FYI to any homeschoolers out there: Both the "high school" letter and the letter to me came to my house on the same day, 2/10/2007.</p>
<p>** Decision: Finalist! **</p>
<p>** Stats:**[ul]
[<em>] PSAT: 219 (223 soph yr)
[</em>] SAT: 2150 (700 r 760 m 690 w)
[<em>] SAT IIs: 800 Math 2 770 English Lit 750 Physics
[</em>] GPA: 4.47 w / 4.00 uw
[<em>] Rank: 2 in class of 300
[</em>] Other stats: 5's on AP Physics B, Calc AB, English Lang, and Comp Sci AB
4's on AP World History and Latin Vergil</p>
<p>[/ul]Subjective:[ul]
[<em>] Essays: I define myself as a Transormer. I "transform potential into action, knowledge into comprehension, opportunity into achievement, and compassion into service."
[</em>] Teacher Recs: Really good one from jr English teacher, pretty good one from fr & sr biology teacher
[<em>] Counselor Rec: formulaic but good
[</em>] Hook (if any):</p>
<p>[/ul]Location/Person:[ul]
[<em>] State or Country: Ohio, USA
[</em>] School Type: Public Suburban
[<em>] Ethnicity: White
[</em>] Gender: Male</p>
<p>[/ul]Other Factors:[ul]
[<em>] Extracurriculars: Too many to put here (pres of 4 diff organizations)
[</em>] Why I think I was accepted/deferred: Strong on every criterion
[li] Other thoughts:[/li][/ul]</p>
<p>[ size=+1][ color=blue][ b] Decision: Finalist![ /b][ /color][ /size]</p>
<p>[ b] Stats:[ /b][ list]
[ *] PSAT: 226
[ *] SAT: 2320 (790 M 750 CR 780 W)
[ *] SAT IIs: 770 Biology M, 800 Physics, 790 Math Level 2
[ *] GPA: 95.6
[ *] Rank: 27/630
[ *] Other stats: Wha??</p>
<p>[ /list]**Subjective:[ /b][ list]
[ *] Essays: Mediocre.
[ *] Teacher Recs: N/A
[ *] Counselor Rec: No idea. I assume it was good.
[ *] Hook (if any): Interned at a national lab once.</p>
<p>[ /list][ b]Location/Person:[ /b][ list]
[ *] State or Country: New York
[ *] School Type: Suburban, public, a bit large but otherwise VERY average
[ *] Ethnicity: "Azn"[ *] Gender: F</p>
<p>[ /list][ b]Other Factors:[ /b][ list]
[ *] Extracurriculars: Crew, Odyssey of the Mind, XC Skiing, Math Team, NHS, Key Club
[ *] Why I think I was accepted/deferred: Because most people are.
[ *] Other thoughts: I really did not like how the application was laid out - non-glare tape and whatnot. I accidentally used glare tape and had to fix it.</p>
<p>My daughter is now a NMF. What does this mean???</p>
<p>** Decision: Accepted**</p>
<p>** Stats:**[ul]
[<em>] PSAT: 226
[</em>] SAT: 2300
[<em>] SAT IIs: 800 math IIC, 770 Chemistry, 670 French
[</em>] GPA: 3.93 uw, 4.74 w
[<em>] Rank: n/a
[</em>] Other stats:</p>
<p>[/ul]Subjective:[ul]
[<em>] Essays: horrible
[</em>] Teacher Recs:
[<em>] Counselor Rec:
[</em>] Hook (if any):</p>
<p>[/ul]Location/Person:[ul]
[<em>] State or Country: MD, USA
[</em>] School Type: public
[<em>] Ethnicity: Asian
[</em>] Gender: male</p>
<p>[/ul]Other Factors:[ul]
[<em>] Extracurriculars: math team, JSA, tutoring
[</em>] Why I think I was accepted/deferred: I submitted the application
[*] Other thoughts:[/ul]</p>
<p>MathProfessor,</p>
<p>Congrats to your DD! She is now eligible for several scholarships at some state and public universities. I know that the UCs (University of California schools) give out National Merit scholarships, as well as Arizona State and U. of Oklahoma. Others on here could probably give you a more complete list. A good idea would be to go to the websites of the colleges your DD is considering attending and search "National Merit". To be eligible for most of these scholarships, you have to list that college first on the National Merit application. You can change that with NMSC up until April 25. If she is unsure about what college to list, then she should change her college choice to "undecided" which will give her until May 31 to report her college choice. Here's a link for more information: <a href="http://www.nationalmerit.org/Merit_R&I_Leaflet.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://www.nationalmerit.org/Merit_R&I_Leaflet.pdf</a></p>
<p>If you have any questions, or want to say something else, feel free to post again!</p>
<p>I'm fairly certain that the UCs no longer give out National Merit Scholarships.</p>
<p>MathProfessor, re: full rides -
U. Oklahoma, U. Alabama, U. Arizona, and U. Texas at Dallas all give full rides to NMFs who list the school as their first choice with NMSC. My daughter (NMF) is still being recruited by U. OK, U. AL, and U. TX Dallas, although she has shown absolutely no interest in any of the schools. (She wants to attend a LAC, not a large Univ.) UTDallas actually will <em>PAY</em> NMFs $5,000 per year in addition to the full ride!</p>
<p>Thank you so much for the detailed information. What is the chance that she will get an award if she has already decided to attend Caltech?</p>
<p>Wow! Thank you so much for the information. This is really very helpful!</p>
<p>Mathprofessor...not sure CALtech offers any merit awards based on NMF...didn't see them (or any Univ of Cal schools) on the official list for this year. (see <a href="http://www.nationalmerit.org/06%20Student%20Guide-NMSC%20section.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://www.nationalmerit.org/06%20Student%20Guide-NMSC%20section.pdf</a>) Pays to check the schools' websites, though...some schools do not officially participate so are not on the NMSC website, but if you put "national merit finalist" into search on school's website you may find there are scholarship $$$ available for NMF who apply. That's the way my D's first choice LAC works it...the top scholarship (full tuition) is given to NMF but it's not called a Natl Merit scholarship & they're not on any NMSC list.</p>
<p>D's rec'd offers:</p>
<p>Arizona State U guarantees $12,500 per year In state, $21,500 per year OOS, payable for 4 years to NMF. The letter claims that will "defray nearly all or more than all of the cost of room, board & tuition.</p>
<p>Univ of Okla is even better...they guarantee NMF's $78,500 scholarship package payable over FIVE years and will stack all outside scholarships on top(most places reduce the award by the value of outside scholarships.) In addition,Okla gives a $1500 laptop computer allowance, and allows transferance of any remaining award to graduate hours if Bachelors is achieved without using up the full $78,500 (again, most offers don't do this,) They also may use 100% of the scholarship to study abroad in over 150 different programs in more than 50 countries and they will receive a one-time $1500 travel-study stipend on top of everything else. They can also use scholarship $$ to live off-campus after freshmen year--again, not something most schools allow. (course, I can't talk my D into taking this one--she's stuck on smal LAC instead of big State U...)</p>
<p>If you're looking for a liberal arts college with good support for NMF, check out New college of Florida. They're the #1 public liberal arts college (according to US News) and gives out of state students $17,500/year for four years. This leaves $3000 in tuition to pay plus room and board. I'm not sure what it covers for in-state students.</p>
<p>nebcat: Thank you so much for the useful information. We will look into this!</p>
<p>if it goes as with the bros, she should be receiving several more of these types of offers in the next few weeks...I will try to post the actual offers as they come. It's nice to have the real offer info available: it's one thing to hear "they give full rides" but even better to know how the school defines a "full ride." As you can see from these too, there's a lot of difference between the Ariz & the Oklahoma full rides. I knew this was coming with her due to bros experience, but with the first couple of kids we had not a clue what was really available out there. (You can Google til you're blue and not get straight dope...at least with CC parents you can get some directional pointers.)</p>
<p>BTW--most of these terrific big state U offers do not require much besides the actual NM finalist standing...which is remarkable, but nice. (I.E., most of them require only the application, formal school acceptance -which is not usually an issue at state schools for NMF-quality stats--none or at most 1 essay, rarely an interview. They usually have several occasions with special visit days for NMSF/NMF--some even offer travel stipends for the college visit.)</p>
<p>Unless your kid is set on the Tier 1/IVY league, state schools are definitely the way to go for NMF's wanting a free or very inexpensive education.</p>
<p>I have noticed on the nmf stats everyone has SAT II scores. Is that a requirement of National Merit itself or just something you decided to do for other reasons? I don't remember reading anything about Sat II tests being a prereq.</p>
<p>It's not a requirement to have SAT II scores. It's probably because most kids who are NMFs apply to the top universities and many of those schools require SAT II scores.</p>
<p>I was wondering if a parent works for one of the companies that sponsor NMF's, are you automatically considered for that scholarship instead of the $2,500 one? </p>
<p>I really want the one from my dad's company, as it is 4-year renewable and the NMF one is only one-time. Anyone have any experience with this?</p>