<p>Pepper03, to keep it in context: most of the students who do make the cutoff don’t receive any NM scholarship money. Yes, there are the $2k? $2500? NM awards that go to some, but by no means all NMFs. And NMFs may get some significant merit aid if they choose to go to a school that offers a large NMF scholarship. Yet many, if not most NMFs end up choosing schools that offer nothing to NMFs. </p>
<p>If your son is interested in a school that DOES offer a significant NM award, then yes, it would be frustrating. The good news there is that many of those schools will offer your son excellent merit aid if he’s got great stats. There’s more than one way to skin a cat. :)</p>
<p>With your D, consider looking at the list of schools that do offer significant NM scholarships. If there’s something of interest, by all means have your D prep. If none of those schools appeal, you can save the effort for the SAT/ACT itself.</p>
<p>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>But each test is normed separately, so that shouldn’t make a difference. It’s not like if you miss X test questions on one test, you’ll get the same score if you miss X on another.</p>
<p>*
His GPA and first SAT scores were excellent.*</p>
<p>If your son wasn’t going go consider any of the schools that give big NMF scholarships anyway, then he really hasn’t missed out on anything. Since his GPA and SAT scores are excellent, then he still can get good merit from various schools.</p>
<p>On the PSAT, sprite67, the applications for National Merit status will come out in the fall–early September. You might call the counselor now and ask whether your sons’ high school has had finalists before–some schools don’t have them very often and the counselors are not experienced. The letter is not too important, but if your son is a semi-finalist and if my memory serves me he might be (the highest cutoffs in the country are usually 220-223), he will need to fill out an application that comes to the school in late August/early September and it has a quick turnaround.</p>
<p>If you don’t have any luck with the school, you could call college board. I would try the school again first because if the counselor doesn’t know anything now, she needs to.</p>
<p>A young woman I know was competing for the Coca-Cola scholarship this year and her paperwork sat on the principal’s desk until someone asked for it.</p>
<p>*
I have one son who’s a sophomore, and one who’s a junior. They both took the SAT last June, and will be taking it again this June.</p>
<p>Junior son got a 222 (WA) on the PSAT, but no letter from National Merit. School counselor says she doesn’t know anything about it.*</p>
<p>Look at your son’s PSAT score sheet. Does his score have an asterisk next to his score? If it does, something is wrong and needs to be fixed. In my son’s case, my son had somehow not colored in the bubble that indicated that he was a full-time student. NMCorp fixed the problem. </p>
<p>If his score does not have an asterisk by it, then he should have rec’d something. Call NMCorp either way. </p>
<p>If I am certain that I will advance to finalist standing and that I have the required SAT minimum can I send in one of my free score reports to National Merit now, even though I’m not officially a finalist?</p>
<p>Fairlights, just wait until you are directed to send it. There are a couple more steps to finalist. You know your PSAT score, you have been told something by guidance, but you will not even be named a semi-finalist until late summer when you are invited to fill out an application. The way the application is worded, I think that it asks you to take the test in November and send those scores (though I know you can send past tests).</p>
<p>Fairlights, I believe that you can go ahead and send one of your free score reports to National Merit now. My now-rising-senior daughter did, after I read the National Merit handbook that is available online and concluded that her January 2010 test date would not be too early. I suggest that you search for the handbook online and see what you think.</p>
<p>When submitting all the pertinent info in the Fall, Does anyone know if Nat’l Merit Corporation “superscores” SAT results? Can you utilize the Score Choice feature when sending them your scores? I am assuming they look at all components of the score, (reading, math, writing) correct?</p>
<p>I have never heard that NMCorp will superscore different sections from various submitted sittings.</p>
<p>Don’t worry about score choice. As long as one sitting is about 1950 or higher, you’ll be ok. You have until the Dec test, so if needed, sign up for Oct, Nov, and Dec tests and send the scores to NMCorp… code 0085</p>
<p>Keep in mind that NMCorp is not carefully looking for reasons to exclude kids. They’re not “hard a$$e$”. They’re not trying to screw deserving people over. So, don’t worry if you have a low SAT sitting score. They’ll take the best one.</p>
<p>Feel free to send scores now. You don’t have to wait. That is just one step of many to get done. But, if you’re going to sit again, then send all scores then.</p>
<p>One time. That is probably the reason that the corporate awards are handed out first–many of them are over four years, but are for varying amounts.</p>
<p>The best NMF money is in the scholarships offered by universities that are trying to attract NMF. If your son/daughter is interested in those schools, it can mean nice scholarships. You might take a look at the thread below. I hope that I did it right.</p>
<p>Absolutely. The NMSC scholarship is a one time payment of $2500. Corporate Scholarships can go up to a maximum of $8000 (over 4 years). College scholarships, on the other hand, can be worth over $100,000 where you get free tuition, room and board plus some extras like at University of Alabama. </p>
<p>That said, not all schools are that generous. Arizona State for example has cut down their scholarships rather significantly. So YMWV from school to school.</p>
<p>Do you mean the two schools that you had mentioned to which they were going to send your interest to? I think you had to respond within a certain time and that was it, you cannot change it after that date.</p>
<p>Once the names are sent to the schools, NMSC is done, they will not resend the names.</p>
<p>It does not matter, do not sweat it, it is not consequential.</p>
<p>Students can change their “#1 choice” rather late during senior year. However, some schools require that their school is named “#1” by a certain date for scholarship consideration. Other schools don’t care if you don’t name them til spring.</p>
<p>I took the question from thankyou4flying to mean the two names that you get to send during April of the year following the year you took the PSAT i.e. the two names that NMSC would send to colleges telling that the student was interested in the college. This is the choice that all 50000 students have, not just the NMF’s.</p>
<p>Those cannot be changed. However, if you mention a # 1 choice in your NMF application, then yes you can change it before the deadlines.</p>