I got the letter in mid-February that I’m a national merit finalist, which means all the colleges I applied to only know that I’m a semifinalist. Or do they? Did the National Merit corporation notify all schools of who finalists are so that I don’t have to personally notify colleges of my status? Or do I have make updates in the application portal?
You should update them yourself.
It does not really matter as they know 90% of the semifinalist would be finalist. The 10% that do not make it would have some problem in their GPA, SAT score, or school record.
My son decided not to update them on his status, figuring that since all but 1,000 semi-finalists become finalists, the schools must pretty well assume people have moved on in the process. Hope that was the right decision!
National Merit doesn’t notify schools about finalists, if I remember correctly. Some schools will offer a NMF more than a NMSF, so you may want to provide documentation.
^ You would list the school as top choice by the end of May and they will adjust the FA package if they do offer better aid to NMF.