Commended Student Question

Paying for College National Merit Aid
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<p>My DD’s principal had the student’s who were in the 50,000 group stand up for recognition at the weekly Monday student assembly yesterday. DD was named (PSAT 222). Thank goodness, because we have not received the letter at home yet, although her friend who was also named got hers at home last Friday. And we have been considering colleges such as OU and UA who are generous to NMFs, optimistic that she will make the cut (219 in TX last year).</p>

<p>I’ll be checking the mailbox today for sure.</p>

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<p>Where does one find this Common Data Set?</p>

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<p>The Common Data Set (CDS) is a document with a standard format and content by which a school can post its “vital statistics” such as application and enrollment data, retention and graduation rates, test score and grade ranges, financial aid statistics, school expenditures, popularity of majors, etc. Once you get used to the format you can quickly find most of the essential “hard data” about a school, and it is usually the most up-do-date source, too, as most of the major Web data sites (like U.S. News) often lag by a year or more. Usually on a school’s site you can find older CDS, too, and so see if there have been recent trends in statistics of interest.</p>

<p>Here, for example, is Harvard’s: <a href=“http://www.provost.harvard.edu/institutional_research/common_data_set.php[/url]”>http://www.provost.harvard.edu/institutional_research/common_data_set.php&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>– Google “<school name=”“> Common Data Set” and you’ll probably get a hit at the top of the first page of the results.</school></p>

<p>– Failing this, go to the school Website and search for “Common Data Set”. This will often yield a hit, too, but you might have to filter out links to other research results and commentaries.</p>

<p>– Failing this, search the school site for “Institutional Research” (or similar) and find the site of the school department responsible for internal monitoring. Typically Common Data Sets are there, if anywhere. You can keep an eye open for “Fact Books”, too, as they often have similar data.</p>

<p>– Even though by agreement they are required to make this data public, some schools simply don’t post this document (WUSTL and Occidental, for example), and that is a shame, but most do comply.</p>

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<p>^^^Great to know, thank you.</p>

<p>The mailbox yielded no letter. Is anyone else who knows they should qualify for top 50,000 still waiting for their letter?</p>

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<p>We got our letter last week. Still mulling over what two schools to pick. I doubt the UCs in CA care about them.</p>

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<p>Son got his letter in TX on Friday. Anyone know if we pick two schools now can we change them by a certain date or is it final?</p>

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<p>According to my kid’s letter, you can change your picks any time up to the response deadline of May 23, 2012.</p>

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<p>^Thanks chucktaylor, I was not sure if the letter meant we could change our October’s choice or if we had till May 23 to change our minds.</p>

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<p>So, UCs don’t care about these recommendations? I mean I know they are glorified forms of demonstrated interest, but can anyone here confirm or deny? Would I be better off skipping sending them to UCs and only to privates?</p>

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<p>Should I be worried if I havent gotten a letter yet? What do I do? This is a mess, my mom wont listen to my request for her to leave our dog in the back, so that they mailman will deliver, Im sure he throws my mail away Im missing out on a decent chunk of mail :(</p>

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<p>Call the NMSC:</p>

<p>[National</a> Merit Scholarship Corporation - Contact Us](<a href=“http://www.nationalmerit.org/contact.php]National”>http://www.nationalmerit.org/contact.php)</p>

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<p>I’m confused by some wording I read on a college planning website:</p>

<p>“Among the 50,000, only students who will be commended or national merit
semifinalists will be invited to name two colleges for the competition. Other
students in this group will be able to name two colleges through the College
Plans Reporting Service. Their information will be sent to the colleges but these
students will not compete for scholarships. The selectivity number for
commended students will not be revealed at this time.”</p>

<p>I thought that of the 50,000 who received letters in the spring, approx. 16,000 would be semifinalists and all of the other 34,000 would be commended. However, the above paragraph makes it sound like only some of the 34,000 would be commended and some won’t be anything. My daughter got one of the letters in April and was invited to submit the two college names, and although we knew she wouldn’t be a semifinalist (she scored 201), we thought by virtue of receiving the letter she was going to automatically be commended. But now I’m not so sure, and can’t remember exactly what the letter said regarding College Plans Reporting Service vs. competition. Also the same article said schools would be notified in August of semifinalist and commended status and we haven’t heard anything. </p>

<p>Does anybody have updated info since these April posts about the commended score? There was lots of speculation it would be 200, but that may be all it was…speculation. Thanks!</p>

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<p>I would say that site needs some editing. Here is the text from the NMSC site:
[National</a> Merit Scholarship Corporation - NMSP](<a href=“http://www.nationalmerit.org/nmsp.php#commended]National”>http://www.nationalmerit.org/nmsp.php#commended)

</p>

<p>Cut-off “high-scorer” score was 200 for class of 2013. Anyone not qualifying as NMSF will be Commended.</p>

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<p>Thanks for the clarification. Yes, that other site was misleading! Guess my daughter squeaked in as commended.</p>