Are National Merit Finalists Overrated?

<p>Ok, so I'm interested in what other's opinions are of the National Merit Finalists. I've been top of my class since freshmen year, I'm currently a senior applying to top colleges. I took the PSAT and scored well, but not well enough to qualify. A classmate of mine also took the test and scored well enought to qualify. So here we are applying to college, and while I've stressed myself for the past three years to get where I am, he's just gotten through. We recieved the same ACT score and are both pretty involved in school activities. Now he's getting offers of full rides to wherever he wants to go. (not Ivy league or anything, but still) Don't get me wrong, I'm getting scholarship offers and everything, but nowhere near a full ride. The recent honor roll came out and he's not even on it. (our honor roll is B average in every class)
I know, I know, life's not fair, and I'm really not complaining. I've gotten into some good schools so far and I'm hoping for the best with the others.</p>

<p>Anway, now that my venting is done, I'm just wondering what other people's opinions are of the National Merit System? Do you think it's overrated or do most finalists actually deserve the reward?</p>

<p>Actually, very few of the finalists receive a "reward" My son and the other kids in our town didn't even get their names in the paper.</p>

<p>Cheer up, National Merit is not that important to top schools as long as you have top scores/gpa/ec.</p>

<p>National Merit seems to only guarantee a student almost a full ride to some sort of state school. Unless you want to go instate or to other state schools, not being national merit won't affect you much at all.</p>

<p>It's a pretty cool award and those people who get it DO DESERVE IT and at my school they are hailed by the school as our greatest and brightest students.</p>

<p>But no, for top level schools they dont really care since its just the PSAT, and so it doesnt matter. But it's still a very nice and well-deserved unimportant award.</p>

<p>I think it's overrated, but I was in the wrong half of the 99th percentile... </p>

<p>Seriously though, it doesn't really mean much. Colleges see your real SAT or ACT scores, which are the ones that count.</p>

<p>i got nmsf and i think its overrated. some people got it and weren't in top 10% of my class, and i was like ***. i mean its a great award, but its just 1 test</p>

<p>Given the way the process works it is likely that most of the FINALISTS deserve it. Keep in mind the last leg moving from SF to F of the selection requires an essay, school recommendations, consideration of student's curriculum, grades, and SAT scores that are consistent with the PSAT's (indication that it was not a fluke). This cuts the pool down to less than 1%. That's pretty exclusive. Given that high SAT scorers are likely highly correlated with high PSAT scores (and vice versa), it would suggest these folks deserve the honor and there appear to be more than a few of them on CC (whose other stats seem to be amazing).</p>

<p>Having said that, it does not mean that those who have not made commended or higher are not as good. The act of making it "national" means you are pitted scorewise against your state only for get from commended to SF. If you are from MASS, the competition is rough, from other states a lower number makes the cut to SF. Hence, it can be in that sense unfair. The top schools are aware of these differences, hence look at scores.</p>

<p>But the final answer (which I don't have info on but others may) is related to what percent of top schools' admits are National Merit Commended or higher. I have heard it is high at the HPYSM and related schools. But I am not sure what the cause and effect is. Do these people have among the top SAT scores also, so they are "in" because of that (see the forum on 2300 or higher % getting into IVies)? E.g., I believe someplace on cc someone stated that Stanford had 7 or so NMF on their football team. However, it is not likely top schools use NMF since the final announcements are in mid to late Feb, when a lot of the major cuts (rejects) have been made in the application pool.</p>

<p>I am a NMSF... I think it is somewhat overrated, at least as far as the semifinalists go. For some schools, most students don't know much about the program or the test, so they just show up and take the test. I had no idea what NM was all about before I took the test, and I just happened to score well.</p>

<p>In my opinion, there is much more to a student than one short test that they might not have been prepared for. The finalist round does a good job picking people who really deserve it, but I'm not so sure about the practice of excluding people in the semi-finals who just happened to score low one day.</p>

<p>I am a NMSF and it hasn't really helped me so far. I don't think it's overrated either.</p>

<p>Depends on where you want to go and what you want to do. At OSU, they offer full tuition scholarships to NMF, so I'll be happy if I become a NMF. Mostly, though, it's not that important.</p>

<p>I think National Merit FINALISTS are among the very best students (for the reasons in post #7. </p>

<p>But there are also thousands of other equally qualified students who are not NMF. Remember that the sole qualification for getting to be a semi-finalist is a high score on the PSAT -- a single test given on a single day. If a student is not feeling well that day and doesn't do well on that test, or if he/she lives in an extremely competitive state like NY or MA where the cut-off score is very high, he/she is just out of luck and also out of any further consideration by NMSC.</p>

<p>I personally know several unqualified SEMI- finalists -- just like the one that the OP is talking about. A slacker -- or just someone who tests well -- could come through with that one outstanding test score. But they are the ones that get screened out and don't make it to finalist status.</p>

<p>It depends on your objective. DD got a few free applications to fill out(for example, University of Maryland) and a few schools that offer to pay D to visit their school.(Texas A&M). But mostly lower tiered than the top 50 colleges offer scholarship(Baylor, University of Arizonna, etc..). For USC, if you get accepted, you get half-tuition discount and that still counts for something. Not completely worthless.</p>

<p>There's really not much "weeding out" between semifinalist and finalist status. Of the 16,000 semifinalists, 15,000 (94%) become finalists. The requirements for finalist status, listed [url=<a href="http://www.nationalmerit.org/Merit_R&I_Leaflet.pdf%5Dhere%5B/url"&gt;http://www.nationalmerit.org/Merit_R&I_Leaflet.pdf]here[/url&lt;/a&gt;], are fairly rudimentary.</p>

<p>agree with Sarah's dad, in that its pretty hard not to make finalist. </p>

<p>In essence, this (ahem) "National" program based on a two+ hour test trumps 4 years of high school academics. Some colleges offer automatic scholarships for NM students, even if the student only has a 3.7 gpa. But, a 4.0 student from the same HS and completing the same rigorous curriculum would get nada $$ just for missing one more bubble? Is that logical?</p>

<p>So, yeah, over-rated at the highly selective schools since it means little to HYPSM et al-- SAT scores are much more important. But, it can be wonderful source of free money at colleges which are trying to climb the rankings ladder (by attracting high scoring kids).</p>

<p>Of the 15000 finalists only about 8200 receive the distinction of Scholar and are selected to receive a Merit Scholarship award.</p>

<p>Sarah's Dad and bluebayou -- The reason that there is very little "weeding out" from semifinalist to finalist is because most of those who score extremely high on the PSAT are, in fact, excellent students and have the other credentials (high GPA, confirming SAT score, ECs, etc.). It's just the 1,000 who don't make it to Finalist that are the "flukes" -- that score high on that one test but don't have anything else to brag about.</p>

<p>I think it's sad that thousands of otherwise highly qualified students don't get any consideration at all for NM schlarships just because they didn't ace that one PSAT test.</p>

<p>I heard that most of the 1000 who don't make finalist simply didn't apply. Obviously some people probably aren't qualified but I am sure there are many people who just didn't apply...
hah I almost didn't</p>

<p>I may get flamed for saying this, but I think the PSAT is an interesting test, because, unlike the ACT and SAT, it may recognize raw talent. Kids take it in the fall of their junior year and it's often the first test of its kind for them. Around here, kids don't prepare for it at all, so successful outcome favors kids who are well read, and can remember how to do most kinds of math problems through Geometry. </p>

<p>By the spring of the Junior year, and certainly by the fall of Senior year, kids who are college bound and have done their research, are madly cramming for the SAT and ACTs. Are these tests, then, more a measure of who can absorb and apply the study guides, rather than a true measure of intellectual potential? </p>

<p>I wonder how the NM organization sees the differences in the populations who do well on the PSAT the versus SAT.</p>

<p>r-runner: many, many kids in our neck of the woods prep hard prior to the Jr past, so "raw talent" it ain't finding; heck, many kids take it as a Frosh first time, then Soph second time, to guage whether NMSF is within the realm of possibility.</p>

<p>Worried mom: what = an "excellent" student? 3.0 gpa? 3.5? 3.7? I'm not trying to be difficult, but one of my son's friends was a finalist, but also had several Cs and was taking mostly college prep classes in a school where the "excellent" students are all honors/ap.</p>

<p>Many schools use the PSAT to help identify students who could be encouraged to enroll in a more rigorous course of study in HS. The fact that colleges use it for anything beyond that probably speaks to the view that the students who score in the top 1% in their state on this reasoning test probably possess tapped or untapped academic talent. There are undoubtedly quite a few students who test well but are checked out of school and have the potential to do really well once they are in a more engaging environment. They might look "stupid", but they're not. Not every smart kid does well on this test, but I would have trouble thinking that someone who was a NMSF was not bright.</p>