Wow! I thought we were all alone in the school not recognizing it, but it sounds like we are in good company. That’s really sad! Sports are hyped where we are as well. The week my DD found out she was NMSF there wasn’t anything about it in the school announcements and I am not holding my breath on them doing anything if she is NMF. Outside of our family, the principal, and a few close friends, no one in town knows. Luckily, she’s a confident kid in her own and doesn’t really need the attention or the pat on the back. However, it sure would be nice if she would get noticed for her hard work at some point.
I wouldn’t wait for them to make a big deal - I would push them to! Yes, there is a time to be “that parent” and this one of those times. And if your son decides to go to a school with a full-ride scholarship for NM, they should put that right up there with the athletes that sign scholarship offers.
I agree with what @BMC9670 said. Talk to your kid’s HS in regard to being recognized and celebrated for his academic achievement.
I was surprised to find out that during my kids’ first year middle school award ceremony that no awards or even mentioning kids with good grades. The entire ceremony was about sports, other (non-sports) ECs, plus prefect attendance. I wrote an email to the principle and stated that while I appreciated the school recognized my kids for their sports and UIL activities, but they also worked very hard to get all A’s … the school began awards for A Honor Roll students the very next year. I truly believe it just never crossed their minds to award anything for academic achievements.
@ATTX Ironically, my son’s middle school did a better job at recognizing academics than his high school. At his middle school awards night, there was a bunch of certificates and a few medals on a big table along with one lone trophy. The certificates were for academics (honor role, reading awards, etc) and the medals were for sports. Typical, I guess. They gave the trophy out last and to our surprise, our son won it for the highest individual score in the state math olympiad. Pretty cool.
Fast forward a year to high school, my son won the state tennis championship and they honored him at a prep rally, put it on the website and social media pages, honored him at a school board meeting, he was interviewed by local and state news media with an article and professional photo shoot and had a banner hung in the gym.
We’ll see what they do for NMF, but I’m guessing no banner 
.
Our school is pretty good. While they do have a lot of special things for sports, they have the NMSF pictures hung in a hallway at school and honor them at a banquet at the end of the year.
@silverpurple DS also got the Fordham NM scholarship only filing FAFSA.
Just got the principal’s letter in Fla. We homeschool. D20 NMF. So relieved. Needed to be a finalist for Benacqisto scholarship she was offered.
@mom2gr8girls which college was your daughter offered the Benacquisto scholarship at? Congrats!!
Florida State
I’m not surprised that my school isn’t recognizing me for NMSF, they didn’t even notify me until 2 days before the finalist application was due! Haha my school is also very athletics oriented, recognizing academics has become so taboo that no one’s allowed to wear honors society chords at graduation.
Principal just notified my daughter she is a finalist. She is being recognized by the school Board tonight. We are in Texas (Dallas area).
It’s a shame to hear that so many schools do not recognize NMSFs. Our school is very large (1K+/grade level) and always has 10 to 12 semi-finalists plus averages another 15 commended students. They post on social media, honor them at a school board meeting, and hold a breakfast for all the students and their parents. The semifinalist pictures are placed in the main lobby of the high school for a couple of months and this year they announced the names at back to school night.
If your child’s school does none of the above, I would talk to someone about recognizing these students for their academic achievements. My son is not one to seek a pat on the back but I could tell he felt proud of himself when his peers and their parents were congratulating him. A little positive reinforcement never hurts!
My son heard today that he and the other 3 SFs made it to finalist. They will be recognized at the school board meeting in 2 weeks. That’s about all they do at our HS. Hopefully they will issue a press release. I believe they usually do.
Son got a call today from counselor that he made the cut. We’re in Missouri.
Whew, certificate came in the mail today for this Texas Homeschool. I was starting to sweat it thinking we’d somehow done the paperwork wrong.
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Wow! Congratulations everyone! This is so exciting. Still nothing here in WA but DD did get accepted to UCF today, so that is exciting. It’s been so much fun today seeing everyone’s announcements. Congratulations!!!
Very large public school in North Texas…no word from the school today and GC ignored my email asking if certificates had arrived. They had 70 semifinalists this year. Hoping maybe tomorrow.
That’s crazy! School is supposed to be academics. Smh-
Our school Principal (Central Texas) informed DD today that she made it to finalist.
Congratulations everyone!
I’m an American going to school abroad, and my school knows pretty much nothing about these things (I had to call NMSC to even get my semifinalist notification/login, cause my school was no help at all). Is there anyway to know whether I’m finalist without having to wait on my school?