Class of 2022 National Merit Discussion - Scores Release

Paying for College National Merit Aid
765

Art’s update and analysis. Well worth the read.

The most obvious difference is that there were 1,511,469 PSAT entrants in the class of 2021 and only 895,072 in the class of 2022.

It’s easier to get top scores on the SAT (even with section scores being capped at 38); students can repeat the SAT and submit their best scores; and SATs can be taken later in the year, when a student is a more knowledgable tester. Hundreds of top-scoring SAT students entered the Maryland competition, and it distorted the cutoff in the state. I would be surprised if as many as 20% of the 370 Semifinalists were PSAT takers. The 224 figure may have been on the verge of being 225 for Maryland.

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766

Important numbers from Art’s post

2022 total number of NMSF 16,740
2021 total number of NMSF 16,453

Chances are there will be a few more through AE, but it won’t be drastically more than in 2021.

You can see that MD has 370 NMSF compared to 296 in 2021.

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767

Congratulations!!

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768

Just heard back from D22’s US CC - the school (here in the UK) still hasn’t received the list of NMSFs but is expecting it imminently.

Does anyone know how to find the list sent to the media for Americans abroad NMSFs?

769

Our Northern CA HS send out announcement this morning. We have 10 semi finalists - my student is not one.

770

Try Google - National Merit Semifinalist 2022 and your child’s name.

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771

My son officially got notified he’s a national merit semifinalist. Social media post and everything. We were pretty comfortable that he was over the cutoff for our small midwestern state but confirmation is a good thing!

Also, Maryland’s 224 with 25% more semifinalists than last year. We already thought it was already a crazy outlier but geez.

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772

Thanks for the suggestion. My D22’s school principal just sent an e-mail to her and another classmate congratulating them on NMSF (so only 2 this year, down from 6 last year) and asking to meet them for 30 minutes (D22 - “What are we going to talk about for 30 minutes!?!?”).

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773

Congrats! Wonderful! All this waiting must be much more difficult abroad.

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774

So far nothing from the school but found her name on a list in the state newspaper

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775

Thanks. Yes, it is a bit challenging being abroad because American kids have to meet the highest threshold among US states and it’s unclear whether NMSC knows of their US citizenship.

776

https://www.reddit.com/r/psat/comments/poomem/lists_of_2022_semifinalists_by_state/

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777

https://www.reddit.com/user/lil-catfish/ (u/lil-catfish on reddit, if the link doesn’t work) has also been posting lists from every state.

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778

OMG no confirm from school yet but I see her name at Reddit. So happy.

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779

S22’s high school is still claiming not to have received notice. SMDH.

780

At this point I would call NMSC and ask them to confirm for you. I think since it is now public date that they might be willing to over the phone. They will understand that there needs to be time to complete the application. You will still need to get a hold of the log in link.

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781

Does anyone know what 3 digit number next to the name means ?

782

My D22’s name was published in the local online paper, but her school still hasn’t said anything to the students. Very strange way to do things.

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783

Could it be a college major code?

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784

S22’s school was completely unaware of the announcement today. Apparently, they never received the information from the NMSC as it was lost in the mail. It is only because I asked and named the NMSFs from the published information on Reddit, that they called NMSC and verified the information. They are now following up and getting the information and announcing the awards formally. OMG.

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