Class of 2020 National Merit Discussion

WA State list of semifinalists was finally published in the Seattle Times today.

Our school finally notified their SFs on the 12th.

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/education/washington-students-named-national-merit-scholarship-semifinalists-seattles-lakeside-once-again-tops-list/

You absolutely can reuse your essay material if it is answering the prompt appropriately. Common App/Coalition App/Colleges have nothing to do with National merit final application and they don’t get to read the essays you submit through the other application.

Hey, just an FYI you are eligible for Benacquisto in Florida if you have any of the three scholarships. I confirmed this with 3 Florida schools.

Was coming to share the Seattle Times link for WA but I see 2HelpOut posted above.

My child was finally notified at the end of the school day yesterday … a TA handed off the form letter during class. Glad to see the full list published today because we know classmates and other local friends listed. ETA: Also a public school where they’re just told it’s just practice for SAT, get a good night’s sleep.

On the positive side, while watching for news from our local paper or school district, I’ve seen a lot of fun social media posts from across the country celebrating terrific kids! It’s great to see many bright students get some recognition. And thanks everyone for sharing your experiences.

Here is the Illinois list.

https://adc.d211.org/cms/lib/IL49000007/Centricity/Domain/48/2020-IL-Semifinalists-Natl-Merit.pdf

Absolutely fine to recycle another essay. My D19 edited her NM essay to adapt it for the CA essay (so backwards from what you are asking but basically the same thing). She made Finalist.
She was one of three semi-finalists since 1984 from our small town < 5,000 people. Parents aren’t even told when the PSAT is going to be administered so I know of a couple of kids who were out sick on that day in the last five years.

Can someone tell me when the list of Commended students goes out to the schools? Our Semifinalists have been announced but no mention of the commended students-and they usually list them as well. Do they come seperate? My son had a 216 so should make the cut for commended.

@AJinPgh the commended list went out to schools in April. I heard from another forum.

Does anyone have the Virginia list? Thanks!

the list of kids or the score to be commended? I did see the score was sent (212) in the spring. Do they send the school all the kids then as well?

@AJinPgh I heard school gets the list of kids when the commended score is announced. Someone said their principal announced the kids who made
commended at school. Most schools don’t do it.

I’m new to this National Merit thing but very frustrated…my daughter is a semifinalist and still NO word from her school. She’s asked her guidance counselor who thought it was an AP Scholar thing. We emailed the principal who said she hadn’t seen anything yet but would ask the Ass’t. Principal (the state has released the list and other area schools have notified their students). That was two days ago. Today daughter was called down for the AP Scholar thing so she asked THAT guy (testing coordinator) - he at least knew what it was, and knew it was time-sensitive - but told her to email her guidance counselor and the principal!!! Really this school has had semifinalists before so not sure what in the world is going on.

@Sound6 time to contact National Merit directly let them know what’s going on they will reach out to the school.

Has anyone received an email about parental consent yet? I did last night. It still seemed surreal to me since I really didn’t expect DS made it to the semifinalist ?

I got the parental consent request as soon as DS set up his NM portal. I know what you mean about it feeling real, not that I didn’t think DS would make it but it was just something I wanted so badly for him!

The principal just posted on FB that our school broke their all time record with 51 NMSF and 61 commended students this year. I must have miss counted because I though we only had 49. Not bad for a public school with a class size of 700.

My parental consent email wound up in spam, so I’m glad DD told me to look for it. I agree it didn’t seem real until we had the letter in hand.

@3scoutsmom agree! I knew that it would be so close if Oregon didn’t lower down the SI. I’m actually glad they did! ?

DS’s senior class is 444 kids & we have 7 kids being NMSF. Kinda normal number for his school

So, our high school doesn’t care, but at least Texas Tech does ? (still bitter)…
Texas tech called my son a couple days ago and left a message saying they are offering him full tuition and will cover all housing and food costs because he’s a NMSF. He’s not interested (going to florida) but FYI to others.

Should we start a 2020 NMSF scholarships post with updated information as a sticky post at the top? There is a NMSF scholarships post on CC. However, it is ancient but has new info at the end of the post which makes it hard to decipher.

@TXRunningMom I hope they add the math ind study too. It is a new class.

@border1218 Just a small quibble with your Texas Tech statement. They provide full cost of attendance but only to Finalists (who select them as first choice) not to (just) NMSF (who don’t make finalist).