Wow, it looks like the Texas Tech scholarship covers true cost of attendance which would even include transportation, personal and miscellaneous expenses.
A school counselor told me yesterday that the “Commended” cutoff for Alabama is 202. That is all he knew. No word on the cutoff for SF. He said it would be August before he knew anything further. Things must have changed. Two years ago, word was out in April about the SF cutoff.
Commended cut off is a single number across the nation. It seems to be 202.
NMSF score has always been released in the first week of September officially and the names of students released to schools a bit earlier.
I agree that the press release didn’t quite say they were semifinals, just keep me of skirted the issue. I wonder if I ask the school if they will tell me anything. Family works there so I have to be careful that they don’t get in trouble if I ask about it. September is a long way off.
If your score is 202 or higher, feel free to contact your principal just to make sure your name is on the list. It’s a long wait for September, and it’s nice to know there hasn’t been a paperwork problem going into it! Hopefully they’ll confirm your status without too much grief, LOL!
Wow! Texas Tech package is the best I have seen. Thanks y’all.
Can anyone send me a link to the details of the Texas Tech package?
all I can find is:
http://today.ttu.edu/posts/2015/02/texas-tech-announces-scholarship-program-for-national-merit-finalists
[\quote The scholarship offer will be funded by a combination of federal, state and institutional gift aid funds, including Pell Grant, Federal Supplemental Opportunity Educational Grant, TEXAS Grant, Texas Public Education Grant, Texas Tech Grant and scholarships./quote]
Looks like there is a lot of need based included in this.
I’m guessing it just means that Texas Tech will meet whatever portion isn’t covered through Federal and State Grants. If someone was ineligible for Federal and State Grants, then Texas Tech would be funding the entire National Merit Grant themselves.
That is my take on it as well. It would mean that FAFSA would be required. I have not found any other details on the scholarship besides the news announcement referenced above. Definitely worth following up on.
As suggested by PAMom21, I contacted GC to “make sure name is on the list”.
GC replied “We did receive a letter regarding National Merit status. The letter basically wanted me to verify the spelling of the student’s name and that student was still in attendance. I expect to hear more this fall.”
Since there are no official letters in April anymore, it made me feel better to get that basic confirmation from the school,.
@WRUAustin I have not seen that you have ran the numbers for Mississippi so far, if you have and I missed it, I apologize. I have gathered the info, and I have to say that it was interesting to look at how the numbers have changed over the years and especially interesting to see a downward trend in the number of students taking the PSAT. Here are the numbers for Mississippi
Year /75-80 R /75-80 M /75-80 W /Total
2014-2015 / 44 / 53 / 67 / 5745
2013-2014 / 36 / 51 / 65 / 5989
2012-2013 / 47 /46 / 66 / 5835
2011-2012 / 25 / 22 / 107 / 6376
2010-2011 / 38 / 45 / 85 / 6042
2009-2010 / 50 / 31 / 48 / 6111
2008-2009 / 39 / 23 / 53 / 5995
Thanks
The goodness of fit (R2) isn’t good with what I have thus far. Can you also provide the 70-74 numbers as well. It may be more pertinent for Mississippi because the population isn’t big and also because the cutoff isn’t as high as many states meaning the 70-74 numbers may be more meaningful.
@WRUAustin
Here are the numbers for 70-74. I know that our small testing population and lower scores make it harder to predict. My son has a 208 and last year our cutoff was 207. Just looking at it and seeing that we have fewer students testing than last year and we have more students scoring in the top area, I would think that the cutoff would go up. I am just really hoping that if it does it will be only a one point increase. I know your system is a prediction, however, I am impressed.
Year /70-74 R /70-74 M /70-74 W
2014-2015 / 152 / 118 / 244
2013-2014 / 82 / 112 / 183
2012-2013 / 164 / 178 / 171
2011-2012 / 79 / 83 / 98
2010-2011 / 65 / 70 / 84
2009-2010 / 137 / 49 / 179
2008-2009 / 119/ 59 / 131
Those numbers improved the R2, but it is still not spectacular. Last years numbers are a bit strange in that they didn’t appear all that strong, but scored a 207 which is tied for the highest Mississippi score. Without knowing last years cutoff, I would have predicted 205.3, so it was off 1.7 which is more than typical. For this year, I would predict 207.6 or 207.4 depending on which method I use. If pressed, I would say 208 (also to be safe). I don’t think it will hit 209, but I guess it is always possible.
Yes, there were fewer students testing this year, but what is important is how many students there are in the class statewide. I couldn’t find the enrollment numbers for Mississippi so I can’t comment on that. I found them for Texas and this year’s junior class is a good bit bigger than last year’s junior class.
I think your son stands a very good, but not perfect chance and making the cutoff. I hope he does, since the Mississippi state schools are very generous with NM scholarships. Good luck.
For the 2014 - 2015 school year, 31364 is the number of 11th grade students reported on the Mississippi state department’s website. I’m not sure what the number of private school / homeschool students would be.
Hmm. I can’t find that information. Can you point me to it (best) or post the junior enrollment for previous years. That would help make a better prediction.
@WRUAustin
Here is the number of juniors for MS for the past few years
2014-2015 31364
2013-2014 30914
2012-2013 31206
2011-2012 31952
2010-2011 31579
2009-2010 31928
2008-2009 31119
I got the info from http://reports.mde.k12.ms.us/data/
Thanks for your time and effort.
Those numbers did help to raise the R2 values modestly. Thanks. The model is predicting 207.4. Looks like a 208 score will likely be sufficient. No guarantees, of course.
Thank you for all of the information. We live in North Carolina and I was wondering if you could calculate the cutoff for that state. There appears to be a lot of fluctuation. My daughter scored a 218 which is higher than the cutoff I have seen in previous years, but I do not know if we should feel safe or not. Here are the numbers:
Year 75-80r 75-80m 75-80w total
2014/15 291 514 262 42,774
2013/14 305 518 214 43,013
2012/13 359 436 376 43,264
2011/12 219 320 313 46,201
2010/11 371 613 461 45,605
2009/10 311 474 232 44.095
To run my calculation, I need you to go back an additional year to 2008.
However, I don’t think there is any reason to have to do this in your case. Your daughter’s 218 should be fine.
In general the high year scores for most states were in the test taking years of 2012 and 2010 (class of 2014 and 2012). If your score is higher than those (as your daughter is), then you should be fine. In general, I expect the cutoff scores to be at or below those levels for most states. Low population states are less predictable, though.
NC scores for those 2 years are 215 and 217. 218 should be fine. If you get me the 2008 numbers I will do the calculation to add some better (but not perfect) certainty.