We just learned that my D21 is a National Merit Commended Scholar. A little late to be getting this information, yes, but she never received any formal notification. She is waiting on decisions from 5 colleges (2 are targets, 3 - including 1 Ivy - are reaches). Is it worth scrambling to get this information to those schools? What impact, if any, may this realistically have on her applications? As an aside, she did not take the SAT, she took the ACT once and scored a 35. Thanks.
In my experience, Commended is viewed as a recognition for hard work and has little if any impact on admissions. Two of my kids earned Commended, applied to Ivy’s along with others, and only in the awards/honors section of applications was it able to be inserted; or on resume. It was never referenced in interviews or at any other time by the Universities.
I would say if you can get back into the application and have a place to include it, then go for it. But I would not feel as if you missed out on a big opportunity.
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Thank you, I’m thinking along the same lines. She has two EA schools (reaches) releasing decisions in the next few days. If she gets deferred, I’ll ask her guidance counselor to submit the Commended Scholar information to those and the Ivy along with her mid-year grades.
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At top schools virtually everyone is either commended or NMF. It adds nothing to the app.
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Not really, and not even close. There are only 15,000 NMFs each year, and about 6,000 of these are attending schools which provide generous scholarships to NMFs, schools which are NOT “top” schools (schools like UAlabama, ASU, U Arizona, etc). Every year, about 60,000-120,000 students start at “top” schools (depending on your definition of “top”). So only about 7.5%-15% of these students are National Merit Finalists.
It doesn’t add much, because A, yes, fewer than 1% of the PSAT takers are NMFs, but it is, at the end, a single, multiple choice, standardized test, and B the prestige of an award not only has to do with how few people receive it, but with who participates in the competition itself. Any junior at any high school can take the PSAT. That means that the “competition” is not as severe as when every other test taker are the top of their school in the field/theme/topic/etc of the competition. Every participant at a national Math competition is a Math geek and one of the best from their school at mathematics.
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You missed my “or commended,” which Is true. Commended only requires around a 1400. That is a typical minimum at top schools. The OP is talking about a commended designation.
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@MWolf @itsgettingreal21 The PSAT and SAT (practice tests) just didn’t work for my D, she had much more success with the ACT. On the one hand NMCS is a nice recognition, another line on the resume, but on the other hand her PSAT score (1390) doesn’t really line up with her ACT score (35) or GPA (3.92 UW - all honors/AP/dual enrollment). My gut was telling me it wasn’t worth trying to get it out there, and I appreciate the confirmations. 
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That 35 ACT checks the “kid can score high on tests” box. The Commended designation doesn’t add any further info.
The only time I would consider sending this update is if your student was test optional, and even then I don’t think it would tip the scales in any significant way. Congratulations though!
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So maybe it was a GOOD thing that I didn’t know about it back in September! 
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I agree with Ocean. And to be honest, Semi are only recognized/rewarded at some Universities. NMF is a feather in the school’s hat and I feel that’s the reason the school makes it a big deal. It’s a way to self-promote (we have X number of NMF) and then they legally reward the student for the academic advertising, if you will.
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There are around 50,000 commended + NMSF + NMF every year, and 34,000 of them are commended.
Based on their predicted SATs, these would mostly be in the SAT range for the top 3%. The top 3% of students, by test score, a year, is about 87,000 total. At “top” colleges, 75% have SATs in the top 3%-8% (the mid 50% + the top 25%), and 25% have SATs under the top 3%-8%. So that means that the number of people who are competitive, test-wise for “top” colleges is higher than 250,000. Also, many NMS, NMF, NMSF, or Commended. score relatively lower than expected on the SATs or ACTs, and may not be in the top 3% by test score.
So maybe 20% of the students of the “top” colleges are NMS, NMF, NMSF, or Commended. Well, even fewer, since at least 10% of the students at “top” colleges are international, and not eligible for the program. So, at most, we’re talking about maybe 17% of the students at “top” colleges are NMS, NMF, NMSF, or Commended.
Since being Commended doesn’t actually move the needle in any appreciable way for “top” colleges, one can assume that, at least the 34,000 Commended aren’t being accepted at any higher rate than the rest of the students who are eligible, test-wise.
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