@3scoutsmom, believe me, this is just The Tip of the Iceberg with our friends at NMSC. Seems to me that - last year - somebody was so frustrated by the tortuous process that she wrote a Country Song about it. But I digress…and I will not bite the hand the currently feeds my DS! I LOVE Jimmie & all our friends at NMSC, but they do not make it easy sometimes.
Also, if your DC is interested in OU as a NMF, I just cannot say enough good things about OU. My DS would have gone to OU as a NMS, without question, except it was just too far from home for him. That was incredibly painful to pass up because the offer is so generous & I do feel they really take care of their NMS at OU.
@longdog, I’m definitely hoping MD doesn’t pass 224, since that’s where our son is. Last year was 221, but there has been a year where it went up by 4 points.
@longdog I definitely share your pain. We are in Virginia sitting on a 225. We were extremely confident, but hearing of some of the score increases and just plain waiting is nauseating. My guess is that with school starting Tuesday, the GC’s will call in the SemiFinalists on Wednesday the 9th. Hoping some private or home schoolers can report!
While I am sitting on the bubble here waiting, I want to share some thoughts that may make others on the bubble feel worse, but I hope will make them feel better. I was looking at my daughters PSAT breakdown on collegeboard. She missed one math question and got a 76 on math. She missed one writing question and got a 78 on writing. I presume getting that one math question right would have increased her PSAT by 4 points and we would be well above any past WA cutoff score. I’m just kind of shaking my head at what a big difference one math question could make. Those on the bubble, I’m really feeling your pain right now. Let’s hope the fickle finger of fate points favorably to our kids this week. And if not… my older son was a NMSF, and one of the VERY few that did not make finalist, because he got a D in AP Calculus (which he took as a junior. Who knew what a bad decision that was at the time??) We thought it was the end of the world, but he ended up getting lots of scholarship money to his first choice school nonetheless. All these kids who are even close to the cutoff are amazing and are going to do amazing things. Let’s everybody take a collective deep breath. (that includes me) Thanks for hanging in there with me.
Thanks @GoASKDAD I have good memories of last years thread and the very creative and humors parents! I’m sure Jimmy and his coworkers were reading too! DH could not figure out why I was so fixated on that thread when we had no kids in the running that year!
OU is her #1 choice and would be even without National Merit, it has every single thing she is looking for and she has a very long list of requirements! National Merit will just make it so much easier. I know she has the score but I’d just feel so much better getting official confirmation.
The state reports for Michigan show a huge increase in the amount of people who got upper level subscores. My son has a 209 and we are very worried as cutoffs look like they may even be above the regular 210 this year.
@throwaway18, you are a student, correct? I’m so sorry you did not advance to NMSF, but please believe me - as a parent who has been completely through this process w/my DS now - you still have many opportunities for scholarships & awards! Your score was excellent & I wish it would have made the cut-off, but now you need to focus on your SAT & ACT (if you haven’t already) to get those scores in the range you need.
Since you’re a student on CC, you’re probably already on top of everything, so you don’t need to hear this from a parent. Please don’t be too down about just missing the cut-off, and thank you very much for posting on this thread for the benefit of others. That takes a lot of maturity. Best of luck in your senior year and be sure to note on your college apps that you’re a National Merit Commended Scholar because that’s an important achievement.
East-Coast People, MD, VA, etc. have you checked out DC Urban Mom? I posted a thread there this morning under “College Discussion” and if you take your questions there, you may get the answers you seek and bump that thread up in the line. Please report anything you learn back here on this thread, if you don’t mind.
@Hope2achieve, I was referring to The University of Oklahoma, Norman, in my prior post.
I’m scouring the web for Hawaii’s cut-off and find out our state only has around 65 semi-finalists a year. I think our chance of finding out early here on CC is a long-shot, but it doesn’t stop my finger from hitting that refresh button every few minutes…
Fun fact, one private school in Hawaii has historically had at least 25% of the semi-finalists. As a public school family who did not realize the importance of the PSAT, we are feeling like a David to their Goliath.
Just received a couple of pieces of mail from colleges about what they have to offer National Merit Semi-finalist/Finalist. These are schools I did not select on the common app. or SAT reporting, so not sure how they got my name. Glad I was on today so I wouldn’t automatically assume I had made it.
As far as I know, the cut off score for each state is set so that they have a particular number of students hit it. So I’m assuming Hawaii just doesn’t get many slots due to low population?
But I digress…and I will not bite the hand the currently feeds my DS! I LOVE Jimmie & all our friends at NMSC, but they do not make it easy sometimes.