How do I know if I made the commended cutoff? I made a 202 on the psat and I haven’t recieved any letters even though my school has already announced semi-finalists.
Is everyone who passes the semifinalists cutoff a semifinalist? The cutoff here is 225 and I passed it (not by much), but our school hasn’t announced anything yet. We’re now on break for the next week. I emailed the GC but I haven’t heard back, is there any other way to find out if we made it?
@xxxxqwertyxxxx … Call National Merit Scholarship Corporation first thing Monday morning at (847) 866-5100 and ask them to verify whether or not you are a Semifinalist. It’s possible that a minor administrative error from bubbling on the test or something similar might be an issue, or it’s possible that your school was notified but the letter got lost in the shuffle. In any case, the deadline for submission of the packet to advance to Finalist is very close so you need to make contact with them ASAP. The majority of the items to be submitted can be pulled together pretty quickly, and NMSC will work with your school if they’re unfamiliar with the process.
NMSC is very understanding about these types of issues and will usually make allowances for you and your school to get the necessary items submitted for your package but don’t delay contacting them tomorrow. I don’t recall if their offices open at 0800 or 0900 but they’re in Illinois so they’re on Central time. I’d suggest you start calling at 0800 Central time to start the ball rolling.
Have you taken the SAT yet? As part of the advancement process you’ll need to have a “confirming” SAT score of at least 1960 using the formula M+CR+(10 x Writing Multiple Choice Sub-score). NMSC will allow you to take either the November or December sittings if necessary to get a score, but you must submit it to NMSC (code #0085) just like you would to a prospective school.
Good Luck to you!!
@Wolverine86 - I remember hearing about the semifinalists from our school last year, so our school should be pretty familiar with the process. I’m thinking it might be because the GC in charge of the PSAT/NMSQT is new or, as you mentioned, an administrative error. But I haven’t heard about anyone else making the list for commended students or semifinalists, so I’m hoping its just that our school hasn’t gotten around to announcing it yet. And yes I took the SAT last school year 
In any case, I’ll be sure to call NMSC tomorrow! Thank you soo much for everything!!
Can anyone tell me whether DS should name a first-choice college at this point? He is deciding between two colleges (reaches), and neither of them offer a NM scholarship. Two colleges on his list (one match/safety and one reach) do. Any advice?
It seems that he has the option to mark this section “undecided,” and wait until the spring to name a first choice. Is this the best thing to do?
@NYMomof2 Like you mentioned, you don’t need to declare until May 1st - at the earliest, if you read the rules: http://www.nationalmerit.org/Merit_R&I_Leaflet.pdf, look at the “REPORT OF A SPONSOR COLLEGE AS FIRST CHOICE” section.
If you want to play games, and since you can call the NMSC and change your First Choice as many times as you want (prior to the deadline), some people have thought to change their First Choice to the university that they are applying to SCEA, to give the school some warm fuzzies. And then after your hear back, you can switch your First Choise to your favorite RD, then maybe change it one last time to where you intent to matriculate.
I don’t think this works, since schools know the system and deadlines. And most schools that are hyper-competitive get plenty of NMFs so I figure it is just fine to be “undecided” until the very end…
In the “College & Career Plans” section, is there any advantage/disadvantage if we choose “Undecided” for both College Major and Intended Career ? Or is it better to choose a major and career ?
Some schools award school scholarships based on the first choice designation, for example Boston University gives a $20K Presidential scholarship to NMF who have designated BU as first choice by March 1. http://www.bu.edu/admissions/apply/costs-aid-scholarships/scholarships/merit/
Scroll down to subtitle National Merit, about halfway.
Best advice is to call financial aid/scholarship office of the schools you have applied to and find out if there are any hidden reasons to designate one school over another or to do nothing.
A quick help needed. D16 submitted her NMF application 10 days ago. She emailed her counselor right away to complete the school part. Her application still states that the school has not completed their portion yet. I emailed D’s counselor a few minutes ago to see why this is not done yet. She said that she hasn’t received any emails to tell her to do her part!!! So, was she supposed to get an email to remind her?
Son still has not completed essay in order to submit and still allow time for school to submit their part. I am getting concerned that the school will not have enough time. School work and cross country are constantly at odds with anything else that needs to be accomplished - ugh!
…and then when I read about glitches such as @lonetreegrad’s D16 I get really worried!!!
No, they don’t get a reminder e mail.
NMSC is very understanding about schools not getting their portion of the application package done on time and will work with the GC’s to get everything necessary. Have the GC call them and they’ll be more than willing to help.
They’re normally less forgiving if the student doesn’t get their portion submitted on time, unless it’s due to a notification issue from the HS. @4kids2graduate … The NM essay prompt is generic enough that many SFs recycle one of their college app essays (usually have to shorten it in fact). Just cut and paste it into the OSA portal.
@GoodGrief16 Thanks. I am hoping that she will start working on it since I sent her an email.
@Wolverine86 I am glad that NMSC is willing to work with the schools to get these applications done on time. D16 has already received an acceptance letter from one of the colleges that give full ride to NMFs. I hate for D16 to miss out on thousands of dollars in aids because her school is not familiar with the whole process.
@4kids2graduate. I agree with @Wolverine86 that the essay should not take that long to do. D16 used a college app essay. The application took less than 10 minutes to complete. It has been extremely stressful to get D to do college applications/essays/scholarship apps, etc. D has 7 weighted classes (5 IBs and 2 APs), ECs, and subject tests to take, so the whole process has been extremely stressful. To add to it, her high school takes weeks to submit transcripts to assigned schools!! With everything being electronic, I am not sure why they take so long. Two of her colleges are still waiting for her transcript; all other things were submitted 2 weeks ago!! Ugh.
How do they know that the student submitted it on time? Do they receive student portion separately from the school portion?
@Ballerina2016 … Yes, the school and the student portions are done separately. Students are responsible for submitting the essay through the OSA portal (must get login info from GC/Principal), send their confirming SAT score to NMSC (code #0085), etc. and both the student and NMSC can see whether everything from their end has been submitted prior to the deadline.
The student can also see whether the school portion is completed or not, but cannot see individual items to know what particular things may or may not be done.
ETA: The confirming SAT score does not need to be at NMSC prior to the deadline for the rest of the package. If necessary, the student can take either the Nov or Dec SAT sitting to achieve the necessary 1960 score.
@Wolverine86 @lonetreegrad Unfortunately my son does not have “other college essays” yet…this is the first essay he has worked on [sigh] !!!
He has completed some applications, but only to safety schools with easy apps, no essay requirement, and great NMF scholarships. The harder, more involved apps with essay requirements have been put off until he has “more time” [second sigh]!!!
Can someone clarify…I thought son had to submit his part in order for GC to be able to start the school’s part. Is this the case? @Wolverine86 Your comment above seems to indicate that both the student and GC parts are independent of each other. I gave my son a deadline of tomorrow so that GC has time to do their part, but maybe I didn’t need to set that limit?
@Wolverine86 can you tell me where to look to see if the school has submitted their part? When I log on it just says
@4kids2graduate … The 2 parts are indeed independent of each other. There is no requirement for the student portion to be completed before the school portion can be started. They’re normally worked on concurrently, and since the student portion is less involved it’s normally finished first.
Each HS handles their portion differently. Some use their GC to write the recommendation for the student, while others (like our local HS) let the student choose a teacher/administrator to write the LOR. Submitting the student’s grades can sometimes take a while, since it’s not like sending an official transcript to a college. IIRC, the GC needs to manually enter the student’s grades into the school’s portion of the OSA portal. The school also has to answer a few questions to “rate” the student’s course rigor, etc.
Your son’s GC could have (and should have) been working on the school’s portion already, but NMSC will help him/her get the necessary materials submitted. Every year there are GCs who are unfamiliar with the process that stumble with initial notifications to the student, getting login info to the student, getting the school portion done etc. It’s nothing new to NMSC, but the GC needs to contact NMSC ASAP and ask for help.
It sounds like you’re going to have to be the engine to get both trains moving with your S and the GC. It’s a fine line to walk sometimes but there’s WAY too much money potentially at stake to not be proactive, even if the NMF schools are being used as a safety. It certainly takes a ton of pressure off the rest of the college app process if you’ve already got a large $$ scholarship (potentially full-ride) in your back pocket while you wait on other schools admission decision/FA package.
The NM essay is really a very simple and non-taxing thing, It doesn’t have to be anything resembling a work of art, just a few hundred words about darn near anything will suffice. He can talk about a teacher who impacted him, or an obstacle he overcame, etc. The only essay issue I ever heard about was a student who bad-mouthed the whole NM process…and subsequently didn’t advance to Finalist. Kinda self-critiquing…
We’ve been through this process twice now with D1 (Class of '11) and D2 (Class of '14). Feel free to PM me if you have any questions and I’ll be happy to help wherever I can.
@3scoutsmom … I seem to recall being able to see whether the school portion was completed or not, but it’s possible I may not be remembering correctly (this getting old stuff is a killer 8-} ). I do know I called NMSC and asked directly whether the school portion was completed or not and they will tell you. I’m not sure if they’ll tell you individual items that are missing or just complete/not complete, but for our peace of mind it was definitely worth a call.