Class of 2020 National Merit Discussion

Has anyone been notified yet that they are National Merit Finalists?

@twinmommy we have not yet heard, but my daughter’s counselor told me he’d let me know when he gets notified. General question: for colleges where they are still awaiting a decision, will your students update their admissions portals to include this new information if they become finalists (obviously, the ones that offer NMF scholarships will need to be notified, but what about the ones that don’t offer NMF scholarships)?

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Are we supposed to notify colleges that offer NMF scholarships once NMF is confirmed?

Since the vast majority of semi-finalists become finalists, if you put NMSF on your initial application, would you update the colleges that do NOT give NM scholarships and let them know you are a finalist? Is going from NMSF to NMF a significant accomplishment to warrant an update?

Ugh! Fully expected our school to have notification today, but alas, we have a SNOW DAY! Now, tomorrow, they will be playing catch up and not tending to the mail!! This is painstaking!

@lkg4answers on the other hand, I would suggest that for applications where you did list you were an NMSF, would the university be curious if you DIDN’T update that you were named a finalist (as in, does that imply that you didn’t make it to that stage)? Just really not sure what protocol is here.

My son had a meeting with the principal yesterday regarding another topic, but he did ask about NMF. She told him she expected them soon! We are in Texas.

Alabama is another similarly-ranked school offering automatic full ride plus scholarships to NMFs.

https://scholarships.ua.edu/freshman/nationalscholars

But yes, it is too late to apply now.
If this is something you were potentially interested in, why didn’t you apply in the Fall?

@lkg4answers @OH2020MOM I was told not to worry about it. Many students with very competitive stats don’t even have room to list NMSF under 5 honors on the Common App. Listing semi finalist means it’s over 90% guaranteed to be finalist. Colleges would know by the applicants’ SAT/ACT and the grades they are safe to assume.

@TheVulcan not everyone understands the significance of NMF. I was just speaking to my SIL last weekend that has sent 3 DC off to college already and she was unaware that there was anything more than the $2500 scholarships.

My daughter was admitted with “semifinalist” on the app to the Honors college where finalists get guaranteed priority admissions. The daedline was the week of rejection letter, and we were debating to put finalist or semifinalist.

I was unaware that some schools offered full rides for national merit finalists. If I had that knowledge in the fall I would have had my child apply to some of those schools! ?

Son didn’t put NMSF on his applications. With only five slots for honors on the Common App, it didn’t make the cut, and, frankly, it doesn’t really communicate anything additional to the adcom they do not already know from looking at the test scores.

At the highly selective schools NMSFs are a dime a dozen (there are 16,000 of them after all), and at the less selective schools the test scores themselves would be distinguishing enough.

NMF only really matters if you intend on taking an automatic full ride somewhere, and those places are going to admit a student with NMSF stats whether or not they explicitly list it as an accomplishment.

Perhaps they just weren’t interested enough in schools that offer automatic generous scholarships to NMFs to look into them?

But if they would be potentially interested in attending Bama (and similar schools), and only didn’t apply because they weren’t aware of its NMF offerings, then that is a very unfortunate lack of planning on the parents’ side indeed.

So, a (not so) funny story while we wait for letters: I was chatting with a few other parents at a spring sports meeting and of course the topic was college - the usual who’s going where and so on. When I listed our son’s top choices were those schools with full COA scholarships for National Merit, I got questions about how one would apply for the scholarship. When I told them the initial qualifier was their PSAT scores from junior year, I got blank stares and baffled looks. Many parents had no idea and thought the PSAT was just a waste of time, and I know one of them has a student who scored 1500+ on their SAT but didn’t even take the PSAT. I wonder how many qualified kids missed out on the opportunity.

It is my understanding that schools that do not sponsor NM scholarships also are not notified of who makes the cut. We chose not to count on the adcom looking that up and listed it on the common app. DD will mention NMF status in scholarship interviews and applications due from now on. The one school on her list that does offer a NMF scholarship (by name) will be listed as her first choice as soon as the certificate is received since it is the one school she has not yet been admitted to (RD).

At our kids’ school PSAT is mandatory. Not sure whether it’s state-mandated or just good stewardship.

At my D20’s school, NM was not even on their radar until D20 got the qualifying index score last year and we discussed it with her GC. This year, I was pleased to see the GC encourage all juniors to take the PSAT because they have a chance to qualify for a National Merit scholarship. Progress. :smile:

Bummer - but hopefully they will have other, better options.

Our state flagship, which we are in town for, used to be a “full ride plus” NMF school, so we were in the loop for a while.

It is now only a “full tuition plus”, but we figured that would be enough as a safety, as we didn’t see a free dorm in (somewhat lower-ranked) Alabama as a huge selling point justifying the move.

My D’s counselor suggested she should update colleges about her NMF status. I’m not sure if that is based on where she’s applied (selective but necessarily chock full of NMFs) or just a general opinion. She hasn’t contacted her regional AO at most of the colleges so she may do so once it’s confirmed. Has anyone else been told they should provide an update?