Can someone explain the significance of the PSAT score for becoming NMF. I imagine the OP could be unaware of this scholarship opportunity.
If student is able to study before taking PSAT, it could open up more college choices.
Agreed! Figure out a budget first!! Remember that the tuition/book/housing/misc. totals posted on college websites doesn’t accurately reflect all extras (travel, clothing, eating out, dorm room items, parking, mailbox, greek life, clubs, etc.) So keep the “extras” in mind. For example, if you child goes out of state - flights, rides to/from airport, etc. Three best pieces of advice from the college guidance counselor we paid to help us: 1) College costs impact the whole family - one child should not bankrupt everyone else in the family. 2) Find a School that will basically pay you to attend. Some schools provide a lot of merit aid! 3) Better to pay less for undergrad and spend more on graduate/law/med school.
The 11th grade PSAT score is compared to a state-specific threshold for National Merit Semifinalist. Such students can advance to National Merit Finalist (see https://nationalmerit.imodules.com/s/1758/images/gid2/editor_documents/merit_r_i_leaflet.pdf ). This can open up additional scholarship opportunities, such as those listed at http://nmfscholarships.yolasite.com/ (check college web sites because some have changed).
This depends. Some students’ career plans do not call for graduate school, so undergrad is the only thing they need to consider.
Some kids aspire to PhDs. You don’t pay for those in most instances. You get supported by a teaching or research assistantship (which pays enough to allow you to live in a form of poverty acceptable only to graduate students, but hey, everybody else is doing it, too).
Other kids aspire to law, medical, veterinary, or business school. You do pay for those, and they are staggeringly expensive.
If you have the good fortune that your kid knows which category he/she falls into, that might help with your decisions. Unfortunately, most kids don’t know this at the time when they’re applying to college.