Is it possible to progress to national merit finalist in 2019 with these statistics?
What are the chances?
Thank you
If you have a decent recommendation letter and essay then I think so.
Thank you for your re-assuring comments, acapla. Greatly appreciated.
Some people say in other forums in the past that 2 C’s will not progress to NMF especially in bigger state like California an New Jersey. Is that true?
They also say that in smaller states like Wisconsin, Nebraska and Iowa, 2 C’s is not an issue. Is this true?
The C’s aren’t great but I counter that with the fact that you are taking a full load of AP classes which they also care about (difficulty of classes).
Thank you so much Acapla. Your response was very informative and put my mind at ease. By the way, how do you manage to figure out all these minute details?
I believe a good chunk of the 6% that do not advance to finalist fail to meet one of the core requirements: they don’t have a confirming SAT score on time, they don’t fill out the application by the deadline, that don’t have a good letter of recommendation or endorsement from the principal/school, etc. After that some obviously don’t make it because of grades or a bad essay, but your grades aren’t bad. They might be borderline a problem to make it to finalist but I think if everything else looks good you’ve got a good chance, and all those AP classes will help offset a couple of Cs IMO. I know the student at my son’s school that didn’t advance last year was because he didn’t turn in the application (and they had around 20, so that 1 not turning in an application is 5%).
Wow…I am impressed with your response to my question. It is not only logical but also makes a lot of sense. Your son’s school example is an excellent case study where you pointed out that 5% did not make it. This figure closely matches the 6% of those who do not make it as a finalist. Once again, thank you.