@RainGator and to everyone else who missed the NM cutoff but have exemplary grades and SAT or ACT scores…I just wanted to re-post this link with great options for scholarships based on GPA/test scores (other than PSAT):
- PSAT is probably used since it has a very predictable schedule.
- NJ, NY, CA have higher score thresholds because they probably have higher quality schools and teachers than ND and Arkansas on average. So a kid in Arkansas pulling a 202 given his/her background and school and economic situation is doing something equally extraordinary as the NY kid getting a 224. I'm not saying this is totally just or fair, but this is the argument.
- you should be so so happy and proud of daughter's 2370...that means so much more than NM. She probably has a good shot at the elite schools which care nothing for NM and for which the $2500 award is a drop in the bucket. My son is reverse: 234 on PSAT and 2200 on SAT -- I would trade scores with you in a second!
@pickpocket: I know that the fairness of NMSF must have been discussed ad nauseam but let me rant a little 
After all, that’s all I can do now.
Your argument “a kid in Arkansas pulling a 202 given his/her background and school and economic situation is doing something equally extraordinary as the NY kid getting a 224” doesn’t jive well with me. The reason is simple: PSAT is a national test and you can’t curve it based on a state to award scholarships even though I understand where the NMSF is coming from - they want to encourage students in low profile states to give them a chance.
But, NMS stands for National Merit Scholarship - it somehow doesn’t do justice to its name, literally speaking of course. Also, the name, PSAT, implies that it’s PRELIMINARY and NOT as FINAL - that’s why we have SAT. That too, the kids take it in the Junior year and anyways, no matter what the arguments are, it doesn’t make sense to me whatsoever.
I am NOT saying this to make myself feel better - even if my D had met the TX cutoff, I would still say that it’s a NOT a fair scholarship as kids in NJ, DC, etc. are being dealt unjustly and that doesn’t seem right! Not one bit! In NMSF’s case, it’s NOT awarding scholarships based on MERIT but rather based on POPULATION and ECONOMICAL situation.
Oh well, time to move on as it’s no point in arguing about things that I have no control of changing but to deal with the reality!
First of all, @RainGator I would like to say that I agree with you about the unfairness of the whole process. We didn’t know anything about PSAT until I heard about it from a friend whose son was a finalist. Our state has a mandatory ACT in junior year and no other test is discussed in school/district. We are lucky that D is in a high school that provides PSAT, but a lot of kids/parents think that it is a preliminary SAT and since SAT is not important in our state, they don’t prep or take the test.
Just to add, you said “it’s NOT awarding scholarships based on MERIT but rather based on POPULATION and ECONOMICAL situation.” And why is this different than any other scholarship program or even admission to a selective school?
For every child who gets admitted to a highly selective school, there are thousands with the same stats that don’t. For every child who gets a very large scholarship to college, there are thousands with the same stats that don’t. There are hundreds of scholarship that my D can’t get because she is not a URM, an athlete, alumni, not poor enough, not tall enough, etc!!
As I mentioned before, D got a 2290 in SAT missing 3 questions in the whole test. Your D’s amazing SAT score of 2370 was probably from missing 1 question in the whole test. I have seen people saying that anything over 2300 has a lot better chance of getting to an Ivy school, so does that seem fair that 2 questions out of 150+ questions should have a better chance of getting into an elite school. Not sure, but life is not fair…
I think any school will be very lucky to have your D. I think she will do great. Good luck to her.
My son did make the cutoff in NY and I couldn’t agree more with RainGater. The PSAT is a bad test. Aside from the shortcomings of all standardized tests, the PSAT has very few questions and therefore there is more randomness in scores. And I don’t completely buy the arguments for different state cutoffs. My son made it in NY, but he would not have made it in MA or DC. And he is just as “advantaged” as kids in those states, more advantaged than many.
RainGater, it must be so frustrating to miss by one point. I do want to mention a school that gives a lot of merit money to kids like your daughter. Not sure if you’re interested in schools so far away, but we visited University of Rochester and both DS and I loved it. PM me if you’d like to hear more about it.
The SAT isn’t much better. The ceiling is way too low, especially for the strong math kids. My son hit 800 at age 11, but the first time he took it to count, he only got 770. And he knew a LOT more math at that time!
I believe the system is seriously flawed. If you are going to make different cuts, perhaps it should be based on poverty quartiles instead of states. The opportunities are NOT the same across any one state.
That said, I don’t want to bite the hand that is now literally feeding my son.
When do the official cutoffs come out?
Although I agree the process isn’t necessarily fair, our son did benefit. Making NMSF cracked doors he had slammed shut by not turning in assignments he didn’t want to do and making some low grades. His lack of effort in classes he didn’t like will definitely keep him out of many colleges he would have liked going to, and could mean that he doesn’t get his wish of spending four years on an urban campus. I guess he deserves something for being in the top one percent of test takers in a high scoring state, but I think it’s a good thing to not let students who slack off too much not advance.
@mstomper Congratulations to your son. What kind of low grades did he get? Kids with more than one C may not become finalists. Most of the scholarships are for finalists and not NMSF.
Well, I just got called into my principal’s office, and-while I was standing there wondering if I’d done something wrong without realizing it-she told me I qualified as a semifinalist.
My 225 was exactly on par with the cutoff for US citizens living overseas. Boy am I glad I triple-checked my math section!
I agree with a lot of the above posters that it’s an arbitrary and unfair system, and the law of large numbers guarantees that there are kids more capable than me who had a bad day when they took the PSAT. I was disgusted at having to take the PSAT a second time for no reason except NM, having earned the same score of 225 the year before. I was disgusted at having to take the SAT afterwards, partly for NM but mostly for colleges of course. I’m glad that’s all over. If it was feasible, I’d love nothing more than for every school to stop looking at these tests in evaluating applicants.
I now have a few questions for those of you who may be more familiar with the process. I’m only the second or third semifinalist in my school’s history, so I’ve got next to no idea what the qualifying process is like beyond what a quick Google search turned up, and the school’s counselors also have next to no experience with the different steps. If anyone out there can answer some of these queries, that’d be great.
- Are finalists and scholarship winners also selected on a state-quota basis? Or is every NM finalist/winner spot open to any student among the 16,000 semifinalists? I'm wondering because, if state or regional quotas exist for scholarship winners and finalists as well as semifinalists, my location is hardly ideal; the US expat pool is very competitive, if our cutoff is any indication, and applicants to US colleges living abroad are a highly qualified bunch on the whole.
- What sort of SAT score do finalists tend to have? I've got a 2330 from the January SAT: is this likely to be enough for a scholarship? Is an SAT score above (insert arbitrary cutoff here) just a box to check, or will SAT comparisons be used in choosing winners?
- Does the PSAT matter in selecting finalists/winners? I'm a little worried because I'm on the bubble, so if the PSAT has a significant impact I'd probably be one of the first candidates to go.
- With regards to courses and grades: what sort of course rigor and grades will typical finalists have? What about scholarship winners?
- The school recommendation. How much does it matter? Who should write it? What does it tend to discuss?
Finally, a question that’s not so much about the NM process as about uni admissions in general: how much does it help admission chances if a student is a semifinalist? I’m looking at several schools that are in the “crapshoot” tier, and wondering if this would make any real difference to my chances of admission. Is it roughly equivalent to an extra EC or AP class? A local award? I know that the common app considers NMSF a state/regional award, but I can’t imagine it carries the same weight as going to state in a sport or winning a state-level competition in some academic discipline.
If anyone can answer some of the above questions, it would help this nervous senior stay calm-the more I know, the less scope there’ll be for uncertainty and angst.
@NotVerySmart. Greetings from another American living abroad. Congrats on your great score and on making SF. Thankfully I’m enrolled in an online school in PA, so my 217 might be making the cutoff. I look forward to hearing the answers to your questions.
@NotVerySmart. I also am interested in understanding the process of the awarding of the $2500 National Merit Scholarships. My D, 2 years ago was a NMF, but did not receive the scholarship. She had straight A’s with probably 10 AP classes. Had good EC’s, leadership positions, 2 points above the state cutoff, good recommendation and a 2310 SAT. The essay was probably just OK and that probably was her downfall.
Reading what NM says about the process, they do indicate all states will be represented. They say they consider all information they are given but that is all they say. I do think my D did not get it because of the essay but that is OK because she got a full tuition plus departmental scholarship based on her GPA, class rank, SAT score and geography at a college of her choice. In the big scheme, the NM scholarship was not that much. There are many schools that give great scholarships to NMF and for great SAT scores.
As far as who should do the recommendation, our principal does it.
Being a NMF or scholar does not make a big difference with the upper end schools but I would still be proud of it and include it. Congratulations!
One more observation - at our school we had 9 NMF that year and only 1 or 2 received the NM scholarship. Considering 50% of all NMFsupposedly receive one, we were below the average. Maybe that is more of a reflection on our school versus the scholars.
My oldest sister got the $2500 award. She had a 4.0, a perfect SAT, was a certified lifeguard, and had a recommendation from a well known and highly regarded piano teacher in the area praising her and saying she was the best student he’d ever had in his 20? 30? years of teaching. She wrote her essay about teaching swim classes at the local pool for senior citizens.
I had a barely 2000+ SAT, a recommendation from a Calc teacher which though I’m sure it was good, it was probably not “best student ever” quality, and I wrote my essay about flying gliders. I did not get the $2500 award. I chose a school that gave a huge NMF award as well as a $1000 per year “official” scholarship. So, I get a total of $4000 of “official” money from NMSC - if I’d gotten selected for the $2500 award, I’d have gotten only that. I’m still an NMS as much as the $2500 winners. So, from my point of view, you can get more NM money if you don’t get the $2500 and choose a school that gives an official NMF award.
@GTAustin Well, if I understand correctly, there are 15,000 finalists and 2,500 national merit scholarships. The 50% figure includes scholarships sponsored by colleges and corporations for prospective students and children of employees, respectively. The totals I found were ~4600 college scholarships and ~1100 corporate ones, which adds up to 8200 when you include the 2500 NM scholarships. A little higher than 50%, but it’s close enough.
It’s not that surprising, then, that out of 9 finalists your school tends to have 1 or 2 winners. The odds of a finalist (1 out of 15,000) winning one of those 2500 NM scholarships are 1 in 6, assuming an average applicant, which fits well with the totals you give. It seems none of the students at your school happened to be in the bucket that’s eligible for school/company scholarships.
Informal straw poll while we wait on NMSF official release: will you seek to enroll at a university that fully (or nearly fully) subsidizes National Merits with scholarships, or will you forgo it to attend an “elite” university that gives little to no $$$ for National Merit?
As for us - roll tide! 'Nuff said?
^Boomer Sooner <:-P
does anyone know if 225 is really the NJ cutoff score?
^ please @ me
I do know that University of Arizona and UT Dallas is in the running for my D.