<p>D has received the form letter that goes to Commended and above Natl Merits requesting her top two college choices.</p>
<p>As I recall, there is some strategy to this - eg, some schools this has no impact on, and others where it has an impact on either demonstrated interest or on scholarship consideration.</p>
<p>Can anyone who's been around the block on this make recommendations? Assume she's interested in top LAC's and universities.</p>
<p>On one of the forms in NM packet there is a list of schools that give scholarships to NM finalists. If the school your daughter will possibly attend is on that list, make sure you put it as your first choice. If she ends up choosing a different school, there is a card to change it.</p>
<p>Name schools that track demonstrated interest, or name schools which give scholarships to NMF's. Skip the Ivies.</p>
<p>If your D ends up being NMF, she will be able to change these two schools at a later date, so you aren't tying yourself up by naming schools now. At this point naming two schools just shows interest. My kid put Wash U (they track interest) and Colgate (he ended up applying here ED and is at Colgate now). Both schools sent letters acknowledging that he had named them. Can't hurt!</p>
<p>nngmm and jrpar - You are both talking about 2 different things in the NM process. All students who are commended have the option of naming 2 schools which students would like NMSC to contact. All this does is let the school know that a commended student is interested in them. It does not affect the NM scholarship in any way. It doesn't hurt to submit 2 schools, but it is not going to cause a school to rush to your door and offer you a scholarship either :) It doesn't have much more effect than you contacting the school yourself and stating your interest. The only difference is that by NMSC making the contact the school knows you scored at least at the commended level on PSAT. Keep in mind that commended students are the top 5% of scorers nationwide.</p>
<p>Students who are named semi-finalists need to choose a first choice school. It is THIS process that requires some thought. The school that is named as first choice is the only school that can award a student a NM scholarship. Many of the top schools don't participate in the NM program, so even though Yale might be your real first choice, you wouldn't want to name it as a first choice school because they don't participate. First choice schools can be listed as "undecided" or named and changed up until mid April. </p>
<p>Essentially, don't worry about this now. Pick 2 schools that the student is interested in and submit the names. If the student is named a semi-finalist in September, then you can start to stategize.</p>
<p>Thanks for the clear explanations, all.</p>
<p>My d was a commended student too and we did understand that the purpose was to let the college know that there was particular interest in that school- we felt it was "almost" as good as applying ED as you were showing SERIOUS consideration of that school. D designated Brown and UVA as her 2 choices. Didn't help at all- I don't think Brown even acknowledged the designation and UVA sent some type of letter stating that they get way too many applications so do yourself a favor and look at other schools too. So my point is (IMO), I think the designation is wasted on Ivies and may be more helpful for schools that track student interest such as Emory, WUSTL or Colgate.</p>
<p>For that matter, my son "wasted" his designations in spring of Junior year by naming two HUGE OOS Us that showed no interest that he had named them UA & AzSU. He also would have been better served by choosing schools that cared about interest, perhaps. As it turns out, he is not going to either of those schools anyway & USoCal (the school he will attend) does give NMFs a nice 1/2 tuition scholarship.</p>
<p>My dd's score is high enough for Commended but probably not high enough for Semifinalist in our state. I'm interested in opinions on which two schools she should list, since this is likely to be the only benefit she receives from the National Merit program.</p>
<p>She's mostly interested in three schools right now: (1) A reach school that is known for giving good merit aid; (2) A match-safety school that doesn't participate in the National Merit program and that she would likely attend only if she received major merit aid; and (3) An in-state public university where she already knows she would qualify for the honors college and a full-ride scholarship. Beyond these three, there are a handful of others that she would consider if she got major merit aid from them. As you can tell, merit aid is an important consideration for us.</p>
<p>My initial thoughts:</p>
<p>There is probably no advantage in listing the in-state public. She already knows what she would receive there; the letter from National Merit would change nothing.</p>
<p>I don't know whether there is any advantage in listing the school that doesn't participate in National Merit. She does not need an admissions boost at this school, but merit aid is a question.</p>
<p>For the reach school, I can see both an advantage and a potential disadvantage. Although this is her first-choice school, she will not apply ED because of the need to compare financial offers. As someone mentioned above, perhaps sending this letter is "almost" as good as applying ED because it shows serious consideration of that school. </p>
<p>On the other hand, we didn't realize until she received her letter a few days ago that the National Merit program will send her actual PSAT <em>score</em> to these colleges. Is this a potential disadvantage? Her ACT results are better than her PSAT score. For a reach school, is there any chance that the letter from National Merit might <em>hurt</em> her chances by showing scores lower than those she will submit later on with her application? (This is a top-50 school but not in the HYPS range.)</p>
<p>Meanwhile, in the quest for merit aid, how do we identify the schools where receipt of this letter from National Merit might improve her chances for aid, even if she is not named Semifinalist?</p>
<p>I don't think any of the colleges look at the PSAT scores and consider them for admissions purposes - if they get notified that someone is a top 5% scorer, it's noted but I don't think the actual scores are counted. My kid's ultimate SAT scores were much higher and I think that's all that counted in his admission decision. I really think the NM letter is only a boast and can't hurt.</p>
<p>There are a number of schools that give $$ for commended students who don't reach NMSF/F status - I've seen a list of these schools posted on CC before. You might want to do a search on CC for this list.</p>
<p>Rice worked well for me - they granted an application fee waiver for marking them as a top 2 school (although I'm not going there).</p>
<p>How do we know whether a school tracks demonstrated interest?</p>
<p>I do not know if anyone KNOWS the answer, but through contact with admissions office and alot of parent heresay, cc parents sort of have good hunches as to which schools "track" personal contact. I have heard numerous times that schools like Emory and Wustl expect that if you are seriously considering going to that school, you really need to visit the campus. I suggest you start a thread asking other parents to chime in on what schools "track demonstrated interest". IMO- if you live relatively close to one of the schools you are considering, you definitely do need to visit the campus. My hunch is that some of the more competitive LAC's may do this as the # of applicants is less than some of the larger schools like Cornell-U. Mich etc .</p>
<p>We have visited the 3 schools on the short list, but not all the ones on the "also might consider" list.</p>
<p>I wonder whether the reach school might get hundreds of these National Merit letters. Would the letter have more impact at a smaller or less competitive LAC that might not get so many?</p>
<p>IF sending your name to a school through NMSC has any impact (and it is a very big IF) it will likely have more impact at the smaller lesser known school than the bigger more well known one. But any impact is going to be small in any case.</p>
<p>Regarding that deadline for NMF to designate a first choice college. </p>
<p>This year the first deadline is April 19th when the first batch of offers go out from NMSC. If you have designated a school as of that date, an offer for that school would have been mailed to you on April 19th. Once an offer leaves the NMSC offices on that date, you cannot change your designation and receive another offer. </p>
<p>But you can remain 'undecided' until May 31. There are four more batches of offers that are mailed from NMSC between April 19th and early June. After you change your undecided designation to your first choice college, your offer will come in one of those batches. The very last date to move from undecided to your first choice college is midnight May 30. NMSC literally picks up any overnight changes out of the fax machine on May 31st and those are the last changes they process.</p>
<p>My d faxed her change from undecided to UNC-CH this evening...her offer should come in the third batch I believe.</p>
<p>My D. is in the commended pool and she picked Macalester and Dickinson. We knew better than to pick the ivies, etc. as they probably don't even look since they get so many applicants. Does anybody know if Mac tracks interest? She's sent away for info from them and then done this.</p>
<p>Yeah... I'm wondering whether to pick small schools like Washington and Lee, which I hear tracks interest, I really like it, and I'm not sure I could definitely get in (more of a matchy/slight reach school), or safetyish schools that I'm hoping to get merit aid from, like Muhlenberg or Dickinson. My father says to pick the merid aid schools but I really want W&L to know I'm very interested, if it matters. Any thoughts?</p>
<p>My daughter hasn't received a letter yet. She scored high enough on the PSAT for NMSF. Should she just wait, or call someone, or ask at her school? What is the deadline for choosing the two colleges? (She's a high school junior.) Thanks!</p>
<p>My dd's letter says the response deadline is May 17, 2006.</p>
<p>My son's experience was similar to what others are posting - picking the schools really did not make a difference. He picked a small, relatively unknown school (his stats were way above the averages) and a top 20 LAC (here to he had stats over the 75%, great ECs). He was waitlisted at the top 20 LAC and received a small merit scholarship to the other. Neither school acknowledged his NMFS status.</p>