<p>^^^^^ yes, all those at or above the cut off make SF</p>
<p>Goodbyehello: USC is a good choice as they have half tuition for National Merit Finalists.</p>
<p>ugh please let maryland drop to 219 lol</p>
<p>*AND now I need advice on who to report to, also!
So…Score: 226 and I live in California so I’m thinking: USC, UCB, UCLA, UCSD.</p>
<p>My problems:
-I have no clue which two to choose.
-I heard a rumor that UCs don’t really care as much anymore about this. Does anyone know if this “rumor” is true?
-And if this rumor is true, then I need to choose another place to report to…so any help recommending a good California university/college will make me forever grateful. *</p>
<p>Right…the UCs don’t care much about NMF.</p>
<p>USC gives 1/2 tuition (about $20k), which is great, unless you can’t afford the other $25k per year and you don’t qualify for aid or enough aid.</p>
<p>I can’t think of any other top or mid tier Calif schools that guarantee big merit to NMFs. USD gives some NMFs full tuition scholarships.</p>
<p>You should apply to some OOS schools that give assured big scholarships for NMF as your financial safety schools.</p>
<p>Mom2, thanks for the clarification. I guess I was being too cautious. Now doing the happy dance.</p>
<p>Btw, to answer another question that came up, we did receive a letter addressed to my daughter at home from Natl Merit corp informing her of being in the top 50K. She also got called down to the principal’s office (along with 6 others at her school) the next day, for congrats and review of next steps, so clearly the school was notified at the same time we were.</p>
<p>Oops, daughter just corrected me. The letter was addressed to her, but it came via school. Principal handed it to her.</p>
<p>I came up with a more realistic college list for my son interested in a marketing job in the fashion industry. Any opinions?
UW/Seattle, FIT/NY, Colorado State/Ft. Collins, U Mass/Amherst, Rutgers/Newark, Boston U, NYU.</p>
<p>SAT: 1960
GPA: 3.85 Unweighted</p>
<p>momofsongbird, thanks for the clarification! My son’s high school had spring break last week so maybe that exxplains the delay. I 'll call the GC.</p>
<p>My son came home yesterday with the letter he is in the top 50,000. They sent it to the HS and they were on break last week.</p>
<p>We live in RI and he scored a 211 and last year the cutoff was 217. He’ll be a commended scholar and that’s where it will end for him.</p>
<p>I think any scholarship based on one test is suspect-and the fact that if he lived in 25 other states he’d be a semifinalist based on last years cutoff makes this not a national scholarship at all. My last problem with this is there were two tests given that week-one on Wednesday and the one he took on a Saturday. How can you possibly call this process to winnow down to the most “deserving” students at all fair? If you can hear the bitterness you’d be right-I am right now.</p>
<p>I feel bad for the kid.</p>
<p>^^^ There are a lot of genuine criticisms against the NM selection process. Imagine a student with 222 or even 223 (in some states the I think that the cut off has been as high as 224 in some years) being commended. </p>
<p>The fact is that in spite of the known limitations of this process, National Merit has not changed the system. They are heavily dependent on the College Board, though many students take the ACT and this does not help students who plan on taking the ACT. Hence do not expect any changes any time soon. </p>
<p>However, National Merit is not only scholarship giver and you should now focus on other scholarships.</p>
<p>DD has a friend whose mother likes to say (though not often and not to too many people), “He would have been a NMSF in 47 other states.” It really stinks for the kids in Maryland, Mass., and New Jersey, among others.</p>
<p>DD’s scholarship was not based on her finalist status anyway, and for most of the schools she was interested in, it didn’t make a difference. She gets $1000 per year from DH company.</p>
<p>Pepper, I agree with you completely that it’s not a fair system. I wasn’t even “tuned in” to all this stuff last fall, so my daughter and I didn’t know that the PSAT had this NM scholarship riding (solely) on it. </p>
<p>But let me echo some of the other posts…in looking at the schools, you’ll see that the ones that offer merit $ offer a variety of types, many of which are based on GPA, ACT/SAT score(s), character recommendations, and (in some cases) interviews with scholarship committees.</p>
<p>Your son still has lots of opportunities. I’m sorry this one got by him, but don’t be discouraged. Keep researching the other scholarships to see which ones best suit his accomplishments/stats. Good luck!</p>
<p>KY has been 208 and 209 in recent years. So no sweat on that score. The scores never change by that much. Keep a good high school record and don’t forget to send your PSATs. Also, hopefully you know that if you want to stay in the Commonwealth you’ve got some great scholarship possibilities. UK provides full tuition plus room and board the first year and a nice stipend other years. U of L provides full tuition, room, board, etc. Congrats!</p>
<p>My last problem with this is there were two tests given that week-one on Wednesday and the one he took on a Saturday.</p>
<p>Actually there are 4 test dates for PSAT…2 on one week and 2 on another. Schools choose their test date based on those 4 choices. </p>
<p>But why is this a problem?</p>
<p>With good scores from ACT or SAT, you child has other opportunities. :)</p>
<p>What are his SAT or ACT scores? What is his GPA?</p>
<p>I called S’s GC because he had not received the 50K letter. She said there was no such thing and that the first time a student hears about National Merit would be in Sept. Knowing this is wrong, I called NMSC and asked about the letters and they said my son’s letter was mailed directly to his high school. Today he received it in our mail from NMSC (didn’t go to high school). Very confusing. Just wanted to let you know in case anyone else had this circumstance.</p>
<p>^^^^ was your S ever considered as a home schooled kid. Or did you mention the name of the HS in the form? Normally it goes through the school.</p>
<p>I got mine in the mail as well, not through the school.</p>
<p>mazewanderer, s goes to public high school.</p>
<p>Because it is a one shot deal. If you are setting up a national test and you get one chance to take it it should at least be the exact same test for everyone taking it. It is even worse than I thought-there are four of them!</p>
<p>His GPA and first SAT scores were excellent. </p>
<p>I don’t worry about his future-he is going to be fine. </p>
<p>I just have issues with this test and the whole testing and college process-it’s a big racket and I cannot believe what you need to know to work the system. </p>
<p>My D is nowhere near as book smart as my S and yet I promise you when she takes the PSAT she will get this award because she’ll be prepared for it now that I know what it means. As momofsongbird posted we too had no idea so much was riding on this PSAT so he wasn’t prepped the way he should have been. When the HS doesn’t place a priority on getting students ready for these tests it’s easy to miss the importance of all of them.</p>
<p>Bottom line though-if S got a good enough score to make the cut I would be fine with it-since he didn’t I will pick it apart - human nature, no?</p>
<p>So the letter daughter received said to choose to notify schools “that you would seriously consider attending and that you believe may be interested in you”. Add another wrinkle – she will be auditioning for musical theatre programs that have acceptance rates in the single digits based on auditions. Some schools require that she be academically admitted before audition, some don’t really care. Academically, she should be a fit at most of the schools on her list, but artisically, who knows… (and those notifications don’t tend to come until April of senior year). So…should she notify the infamous dream musical theatre conservatory, which accepted 8 into her major from an audition pool of well over 1500 qualified applicants, or aim for a school with a higher acceptance rate? (Keeping in mind that “higher” is an artistic acceptance of 4-8% of applicants…). And artistic acceptances seem so…whimsical…at times.</p>
<p>Realize that this notification doesn’t necessarily translate into anything but more mail (oh joy, more college mail…) generated by the schools…but she’s unsure which two to notify. (She’s already found the ones on her list that participate in NM awards). And then next year, if she does make finalist, it’s gonna be a whole nother ball of crazy trying to guess which school would be first choice… </p>
<p>Anyone know of schools who really court NM kiddoes who audition for musical theatre programs? Could this be another plus in her file? (After all, one dance call, a minute monologue and 32 measures of a song isn’t a whole lot to base one’s college acceptance on…beyond the usual admission hoops that are also required…but that’s a rant for another thread!)</p>