I’m confused about the terminology – sorry. Does “Class of 2016” mean kids who will matriculate at college in the fall of 2016?
Is this the list of national merit cutoff scores for that cohort? The kids who are seniors now, in fall 2015? http://www.collegeplanningsimplified.com/NationalMerit.html
TIA
D received her official letter today. She is a semifinalist. It contains the temporary username and password.
Questions about the application: How important is it to list a code for your major and career choice? Is undecided good enough? I am worried that it would look back to just put undecided.
I read that you don’t need to list any schools now. Is that correct?
Also, for the extracurricular activities, the first section asks you to list activities and volunteering. The second column of the same section asks for any honors awarded! Where do you put your leadership information? I assume the first section. Where do you put non-academic awards (eg, dance, film, performing arts, etc)? I know the second section only asks for academic awards.
Yes, you are correct @sirila. It gets confusing for sure! And your report with the scores reads “Understanding 2014 Scores”, to complicate life further.
@nycuws I have never seen a list of semifinalists for the whole state of Colorado, just per county.
@lonetreegrad Have you seen one for Boulder?
@piesquared – Thanks. That’s immensely helpful.
@nycuws not for this year, just last year.
@nycuws Edited: Removed the list. It was from last year.
@lonetreegrad please let me know if you see a current list for Boulder.
@nycuws Sure, will do, but the official list from last year came out in October. See the link below from last year.
http://www.bvsd.org/news/Pages/2015-NatlMeritSemiFinalists.aspx
Here’s a link to look up New York semifinalists:
New York
@WhyListen Scholarships awarded through the NMSC are considered some of the highest academic honors attainable by U.S. high school students, and many of our stellar students get little validation elsewhere.
Here’s a partial list of New Jersey:
New Jersey
Florida’s Complete List
http://www.fldoe.org/core/fileparse.php/5306/urlt/16FLSemifinalNatlMeritProgram.pdf
Congrats!
Has Illinois, specifically Dupage County posted a list? I still didn’t get a letter – should I be worried? And my school has done nothing so far
@PoetEnthusiast stay on them! If you know you made the cutoff, go talk to your guidance counselor!
Last year our school didn’t officially tell us until 10 days before the finalist application deadline.
Still looking for a complete Tennessee list… Anyone?
Here’s the complete list of Minnesota Semifinalists: http://www.startribune.com/minnesota-seniors-named-national-merit-semifinalists-for-2016/326283541/
To everyone posting that they made the cut but haven’t received a letter:
Please just go talk to your guidance counselor!
Many of them just don’t realize that you have not been notified by NMSC. They do not realize that you cannot log in without the information they have. And they don’t necessarily realize how important their part of the application is to your future. So, this is a time for you to advocate for yourselves! Explain that you made NMSF but students are only notified through the high school and you have to log in to complete your part of the application and there is a deadline approaching, blah blah blah. This is not a time to be shy or wait for the GC to contact you. You are going to have many times in your life where you have to be bold and stand up for yourselves. Get started now.
And to all the parents who are concerned about deadlines, GCs dropping the ball, etc., you really have to be bold also. There is no way - NO WAY - your kid’s GC is worse than the GC my three kids had. But everything got finished on time. I called and emailed and pushed and prodded (always very nicely however). I called NMSC a couple days before the deadline to confirm that everything had been submitted. When I realized after the deadline that the GC had made a big mistake on what she submitted, I called NMSC and they let the GC resubmit, and assured me the revision would be considered in choosing finalists. Then I called NMSC until they confirmed that the GC had in fact resubmitted.
I understand why some kids and parents are a little hesitant - kids are intimidated, parents don’t want to be seen as pushy, helicopterish, etc., but you just have to get over it.
OK, so I’m on my soapbox and I’m going to stay up here long enough to mention one more related thing. If you need to be sponsored, referred, nominated, etc., just ASK. All they can say is no. This is a lesson my kids and I didn’t learn until late, around the time my oldest was a senior. But with my second and third, we just took matters into our own hands. With my first kid, I was mad a lot at the school for things they did or did not do. By the third kid, I was so over it. Example: First kid, I’m fretting because the HS didn’t nominate any seniors (in particular, my kid) for the academic all-state wrestling team. Third kid, I email the athletic director with a list of deadlines to nominate senior athletes in all sports for all the academic all-state teams. In this case, I thought my involvement was appropriate, but in other cases, the student must do it himself. If there was a scholarship that required a nomination, my kids asked to be considered. It was difficult for them at first, but they got over the initial embarrassment. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t. If they asked a teacher for a rec letter, but they really wanted the letter to focus on particular attribute, they provided that info in writing to their teacher (“Thank you for agreeing to write a rec letter for me. It seems to me that the scholarship committee is looking for students with leadership skills, so I’ve attached a list of my leadership positions and responsibilities for your reference.”). Learning to appropriately and effectively advocate for themselves is an important life skill for us to teach our kids!
What is the deadline to submit material as 2016 semifinalist? Our DS does not start school until next week. He has not been notified by NMSC letter or his GC.