<p>Since it’s in their guide for this year, isn’t there something wrong with them just discontinuing it? Am I missing something?</p>
<p>Class of 2014 students from our local high school were notified and the word was disseminating this morning.</p>
<p>Momof2017,</p>
<p>Could you give a bit more detail? Which students were notified, i.e., what were they told? Was it an offer to have their scores sent to colleges that might want to recruit them?</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>P.S. Tried responding to your message, but I don’t have enough posts yet to enable private messaging. I know that, based on prior years’ cutoffs, my son will likely just miss the cut for Semifinalist status, but he should still be in the less select group that is offered the opportunity to have their scores sent out to colleges that are interested.</p>
<p>Asleep at the Wheel, I had to contact our GC to confirm school got notification my kid was a high scorer. School did get notification and we’ve gotten no other info from school or NM board about sending kid’s scores out to prospective colleges. From what people are posting here, NM apparently no longer does this. We have gotten some updated mail from schools since the high score results were released.</p>
<p>ctl,</p>
<p>Thanks. I find this a bit confusing, as they still note in their most current student guide that they will offer to send scores to interested colleges. Not really a big deal, but I can’t stand sloppy work, i.e., failure to edit their guide to correspond to their current practice. I may give them a call.</p>
<p>Just spoke to the National Merit people. As apparently reported earlier on this thread, this service has been discontinued by NMSC. That change in policy will be noted in the next iteration of the guide, to be published this fall.</p>
<p>And there you have it.</p>
<p>I called DS’s GC to ask about NMS and he said that the school would be notified in the fall about NMS status. Right now all the school knew was that DS would either be commended or above.</p>
<p>Given the 215 in Maine, it’s likely it’s above commended, but found it interesting what the GC reported.</p>
<p>This is the wording our high school used and then it was followed by the names of all 12 students. Of these students, I know of one who scored a 240 and one who scored a 203 so this is the entire list that was sent to the school in April. Our school placed this on their website.</p>
<p>“Congratulations to the following
juniors who are being considered for the 2014 National Merit Scholarship Program:”</p>
<p>I got a 203 in Mississippi and I’m so nervous. I just barely made the commended cut-off so I don’t think I’ll be making the Semi-Finalist cut-off. Right now I’m just trying to hold onto the fact that Mississippi consistently has one of the lowest Semi-Finalist cut-offs. The one thing that I hate is that all of the teachers, principals, counselors, etc. at my school keep on talking about how I’m a “National Merit Semi-Finalist” when I know that that’s not yet the case and might not end up being the case. . .</p>
<p>Asleep- Thanks for checking into this. I have Jr son in OR with a 210. Not high enough for semi finalist, but we were wondering about that high score college referral service in the PSAT guide.</p>
<p>Hello! I got a 223 in Wisconsin- do you think that will be enough for semi finalist status? And if it is, what do you think my chances are of being a finalist?</p>
<p>Stats:
2380 SAT (only taken once)
35 ACT (only taken once)
1st in class- valedictorian- (99%- translates to 4.00 unweighted)</p>
<p>Other EC’s (varsity golf, varsity chess, won violin awards, etc.)</p>
<p>lastspartan…Congrats on your fantastic stats!! You will definitely be named a NMSF with your 223 score (WI’s highest state cutoff in the last 6 years has been 210). Your HS should receive a letter in September notifying you/them that will include login information for you/them to accomplish the steps necessary to progress to NMF. You’ll have to write a short essay (very easy, don’t sweat it) and send your SAT score to NMSC (code #0085 I believe) and your school will need to supply an official transcript, a letter of recommendation, and confirm you have no disciplinary issues of note in your record. Assuming you get the paperwork done within the time constraints there should be no reason you won’t be selected as a NMF. A few SFs got tripped up this past year by having some Cs on their transcript, but I’m guessing with your grades that probably isn’t an issue.</p>
<p>Has your school had NMSFs in the past? Are they familiar with the process for completing the application packet next fall? In any case, I recommend that you read through the sticky thread at the top of this forum as it will explain a lot about the process as well as provide links to some of the outstanding scholarship opportunities that NMFs have available to them. </p>
<p>If your goal is to attend Ivys, near Ivys, or some of the “elite” private LACs then NMF status will not do much for you. You will have opportunities for full-ride or near full-ride scholarships at several state flagship type universities around the country, and I’d suggest you look through this thread (post #727 on pg 49 has the full list)</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/national-merit-scholarships/649276-nmf-scholarships-updated-compilation-49.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/national-merit-scholarships/649276-nmf-scholarships-updated-compilation-49.html</a></p>
<p>to see some of the scholarships available to NMFs. There are some OUTSTANDING opportunities at some great schools, and if affordability is a factor for your family you should strongly consider visiting some of these schools if you can to see if they might be a fit for you. If you’re interested in staying in the Midwest, UMinn offers $11K per year to NMFs ($12K if you demonstrate financial need) plus IS tuition for you through reciprocity as a WI resident. Your stats should also get you some additional merit scholarships there, making UMinn a near full-ride possibility for you. Congrats again on your success…and Good Luck on your college search!!</p>
<p>lastspartan if you are not a finalist I don’t know who would be… I can’t believe you would even ask with those stats.</p>
<p>So 2 C’s would keep someone from being a finalist? That’s so disappointing. But I’ve always been curious if the grades required for national merit are the same for national achievement or if they allow maybe another C or two because their cutoffs are lower to begin with.</p>
<p>kjloga, it does seem like starting last year, any C’s on the transcript prevented people from becoming finalists, with a few exceptions. I don’t know if they are any more lenient with national achievement</p>
<p>At our school this year there were 19 NMSF and one NASF. Two of the NMSF did not make NMF and both had GPA below 3.5. Don’t know specifics of their grades, but assume they must have had C(s), as from what people say here on CC, the GPA itself is not important in advancement, but the ‘C-and-lower’ count is. Of the rest, 2 were in 3.5-3.84 range and the rest had 3.85+ GPA. We only have unweighted. The NASF did make finalist with GPA below 3.5, again don’t actually know about C’s. One of the kids who didn’t make NMF is extraordinary in many ways, lots of very involved and unusual ECs, very advanced in math past calc, Pres. Schol Candidate, etc, etc. But he was always pretty casual about grades. It didn’t matter for him in the end as he’s not going to a NMF scholarship school.</p>
<p>The thing about the national achievement person having under a 3.5 kind of gives me hope but I have a lot riding on this and its upsetting that my freshman year could come back to haunt me. Crossing my fingers though!!</p>
<p>^ same, but i know it wont work out for me, one d+ lol.
The system is just not logical i have one c and one d+ in the same Spanish 1 class and mostly a’s and a few b’s and a 3.7 something gpa but that one c and one d will kill me vs that kid with a 3.5</p>
<p>Someone told me there was a post projecting a cutoff of 227 for NJ due to the all-time high scores. Has anyone seen it? My D scored a 225 so I’m very concerned.</p>
<p>cuhope, I really doubt any cutoff will go above 225. The highest cutoff for any state in recent history was 223 (2 years ago). I don’t think this year’s PSAT scores were that much higher than then. No guarantees, of course, but I don’t forsee the cutoffs going up by huge amounts over the class of 2012 cutoffs.</p>