<p>Neesay, really hard to say in your case. I wound not count on it and it will be a bonus if you make it. You sound like you’re right on the line. Regardless, a 212 is a FANTASTIC score so don’t lose sight of that in this process. If you are planning to stay in state, I think a number of your state schools offer nice scholarships with or without the national merit finalist designation. And if you are asking about commended status, yes, you made that easily. However, you sound like you’re on the border for the semi-finalist designation which I think is announced in September.</p>
<p>@Arkie2014 I didn’t know that high/top scorers were announced. I thought the Semifinalists were just announced next September. Where did you find out about top scorers being notified?</p>
<p>In April, approximately 50,000 students, out of 1.5 million entrants, are named as qualifying for recognition in the National Merit Scholarship Program. In September, the list of 50,000 will be narrowed down to 16,000 National Merit Semifinalists. The other 34,000 will be named Commended Students.</p>
<p>Source: [National</a> Merit Scholarship Corporation - NMSP](<a href=“http://www.nationalmerit.org/nmsp.php]National”>http://www.nationalmerit.org/nmsp.php)</p>
<p>Thanks for the clarification, chucktaylor1.</p>
<p>Thank you @chucktaylor1. @Cbatarseh, I first found out about the April letters from the National Merit Website. I then begin to search through the archives on the CC National Merit Scholarship category to figure out around the exact dates that the letters have been sent out in the past.</p>
<p>I just called NMSC and was informed that NMSC has sent a notification by mail on April 10th to the high schools to let them know the names of students who got high PSAT scores. The high school should notify the students. NMSC has discontinued to send letters to students starting this year. Per NMSC, the commended score is 203 for 2013-2014.</p>
<p>Thank you so much @jlin3513! I’ll ask my high school administrators about that!</p>
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<p>Wow, so if that’s the case, the state cutoffs COULD be higher than ever before! </p>
<p>Previously, the commended cutoff topped out at 202 (two years ago)</p>
<p>Thanks for sharing this info!</p>
<p>You’re right @ROCKFISHDG. I know nobody likes the cutoff scores being higher. Somebody really should do a study and see if there is much of a correlation between the commended score and certain state’s cutoffs. I’m in AP Statistics and I’m becoming very tempted to do that sort of study. I’ll probably do it this summer, after the AP test lol!</p>
<p>BTW, from my daughter’s high school website moments ago:</p>
<hr>
<p>2014 National Merit Scholarship Program</p>
<p>LACES has 22 students who have qualified for the 2014 National Merit Scholarship Program.</p>
<p>With a Selection Index score of 203 or above, LACES had 22 students qualify for the 2014 National Merit Scholarship Program. Each of these students is among the 50,000 highest scoring participants of some 1.5 million students who took the 2012 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Program. </p>
<p>Of the more than 50,000 high scorers nationwide, about 16,000 will be named national Merit Program Semifinalists, representing the top scorers in each state, and approximately 34,000 others will be commended for their performance of the PSAT/NMSQT. Semifinalists and Commended Students will learn of their standing in September. Semifinalists will be the only students who will have an opportunity to continue in the competition for about 8,300 National merit Scholarships to be offered in 2014.</p>
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<p>Happy to say my daughter is among the 22 (out of 220 or so juniors at our LAUSD public school), and is safely a NMSF with a 231 PSAT score :)</p>
<p>I just e-mailed our GC to tell him to be expecting the letter soon…I think my son is the only one in his HS to get 203 or higher…Holding my breath for the always highest NJ cut-off score for semi-finalist…Thanks for the info!</p>
<p>I predict a cutoff of 216 for Oregon. Over or Under?</p>
<p>What a confusing year for scores! High commended cutoff and a large increase in the number of students that seem to be in the 70-74 and 75-80 ranges on each section, yet “lowish” cutoff number for the 99% and 99+% that are the same as last year (211 and 222).</p>
<p>whoops - just did a little a little more reading and found another thing the psat folks changed in this year’s “understanding scores” booklet I had not noticed before. In the past, the percentages they listed (221 for 99+%, 211 for 99%, 205 for 98% etc) were based on a sample of the same year - for example in 2011, they used the language</p>
<p>“Percentiles are based on the Selection Index earned by a sample of college-bound juniors who took the PSAT/NMSQT in 2011.”</p>
<p>this year it actually changed to read </p>
<p>“Percentiles are based on the Selection Index earned by college-bound juniors who took the PSAT/NMSQT IN THE PREVIOUS YEAR”</p>
<p>so they are not even giving us the current cutoffs anymore!</p>
<p>@collegec123 you’re right this is a confusing year!</p>
<p>Hi everyone. I’ve been following this thread for a while now and I’m a little confused.</p>
<p>I thought we’ll know semi finalists in September next year. So, what’s this April 10th thing?</p>
<p>Btw, I scored a 220 in California.</p>
<p>I got a 219 in Cali 
man this sucks</p>
<p>Sent from my SPH-D710 using CC</p>
<p>Atpyical Asian, April 10th deals with the high scorers for the PSAT test. This group will be further divided into semi-finalists and commended students and those are the results we learn about in September.</p>
<p>So it looks like my S with a 218 in Texas will finish out of the money, given that the cutoff for the 2012 test will likely be at least as high as that for the 2010 test, which was 219. Whew, that was a close one! He might have followed the money and ended up somewhere that was a poor fit. Good thing he missed just enough questions to not make it.</p>
<p>Hey, you have to look on the bright side!</p>
<p>Just spoke with Suzanne at NMSC, and the cutoff score this year is 203.</p>