***2018 National Merit Finalist Thread****

Unless they changed it this year, NMSC doesn’t even notify schools of college listed until March 1. So from the colleges’ perspectives every kid is undecided (or at least not picking them).

@suzy100 - are you referring to the national merit app? If so, you just get that one line. We were able fit about 101 characters (including punctuation) & were able to squeeze-in 4 honors. We did use an acronym for one of her entries though; if they don’t know what that means, then I guess we only have 3 honors listed.

Yes, thank you @LMHS73. I’m impressed you got 4 in! One of D’s is kind of a long description, hard to abbreviate. Thank you for the help!

@saillakeerie of course that is the policy. The question was about what the student put in the NMF application, not about NMSC policy or the NMF process. Fair play if you don’t want to participate in the poll but it is only related to how the students responded to that section of the NMF application.

@traveler98 Sorry. Was focused more on responding to questions being asked in the thread about NM issues. I don’t have a kid who is a NMSF this year so no application being completed.

@DiotimaDM - I’d think that mostly any generic “this is a good student” recommendation letter from the GC would be more than enough to allow your S to progress to finalist. His grades are good & he has no disciplinary actions. If he doesn’t catch “senioritis” and continues to keep his grades up in senior year, then he’s in.

I think the quality of the recommender’s essay would come more into play when they go through the process of selecting those kids that already made NMF for the $2,500 NMS awards.

For this award, they look at the academic record, PSAT score, and the items we submitted with the application: extracurricular activities, honors/awards, & employment info.

Then…

“Because every Semifinalist who qualifies as a Finalist has an excellent academic record and outstanding test scores, the school official’s characterization of the student and the student’s essay play an important part in the process of choosing Merit Scholar designees.”

@suzy100 - yeah, hard to abbreviate on the awards line. We settled on more of a bullet statement format & instead of saying “grade 10” like they suggested, we just put 10th:

e.g. Award Name, 12th; Award Name, 11th; Award Name, 11th; Award Name, 10th

If you try to add any kind of explanation of what the award entails, then you quickly run out of room. We just played around with it until we found the right fit for that stingy line!

@3scoutsmom @traveler98 My DS is applying to UTD and Baylor which offer NMS packages. We live in Chicago area and did not visit those schools yet because we learned about the both schools recently. He’ll go to Baylor’s Invitations to Excellence program in early November and we’re debating when and how we visit UTD. I think you both visited UTD more than once. Could you give me advices? We can arrive at Dallas on 11/3(the day before of Baylor’s program) and can have a 1.5hr long regular tour at UTD in the afternoon then head to Waco. Or, we can arrange another visit on Scholar’s Day(9-3, 10/21) or can visit there after being accepted, maybe on National Merit Scholar’s day in February 2018. Which would be the best way to look at both schools?

@3lovingmom, I set up a prospective NMF visit through the UTD National Merit office and it was great. One-on-one meetings with a CS prof (S’s desired major), the head of the Honors program, a McDermott program rep, and a CS advisor, plus lunch in the dining hall (excellent) and a group tour of the dorms (also excellent). If you can’t make one of the Scholars days, I’d suggest contacting the National Merit office to set up a personalized tour on a day that works for you. We went during S’s Thanksgiving break and there were several other families there just on that day; we actually ate lunch with one other family. So it’s definitely something UTD does on a regular basis for prospective NMF. It doesn’t matter that your S doesn’t have NMF status yet…at the time we visited S didn’t even have his junior year PSAT score back yet. See the link below for UTD NM contact info.

https://honors.utdallas.edu/nmsp/contact

@traveler98 and @3lovingmom we got the NMF visit when ds was still in 10th grade! 3lovingmom what is your DS looking for in a school? They are VERY different schools!

@3scoutsmom He wants to do pre med and his major is undecided yet.

@traveler98, @3scoutsmom Wow, it sounds very good. Did they offer a personalized tour during Thanksgiving break? Unbelievably kind of them. My son liked OU when we visited this spring but as you all know they cut the offer significantly and we had to start to do research other schools lately. His twin sister daughter doesn’t want to even consider UTD and Baylor but applying for TAMU with other colleges mostly in Midwest. Thanks to you two.

I found it interesting to read that the $2,500 National Merit Scholarship awards are allocated on a state-representational basis (according to the state’s percentage of the national total of high school graduates) the same way the NMSF designations are awarded.

Definitely undecided here, both as to school and as to major. Applying to one school Restricted Early Action, two state-supported schools Early Action, and a bunch more RD.

My daughter put Miami since she is leaning that way & we have the Benacquisto in play if she makes NMF

So I am a semifinalist this year…just looking at the application for the first time tonight. How long does it take the school administration to complete their end of the application? I want to give them enough time, yet I also want to spend at least this weekend on the essay. Will my guidance counselor feel pressured to get her part done in 10 days?

@cj12345 if you don’t get an answer here, you may ask on the homeschool boards. Other parents and students on here probably can’t give you much insight because we don’t see that side of it.

@cj12345, GC does not have to wait for you to complete the application; she can do her part in parallel. You do have to finish your part before she can hit the submit button to get everything sent to NMSC. Just be sure she is aware of the due date.

The mail and emails are really starting to roll in now, often specifically mentioning NMF and his intended major. S18 doesn’t look at it, at all.

@StillLotsToLearn thanks a lot. i was hoping this would be the case.