<p>We've been receiving a steady stream of mail from schools, but today seemed like a tsunami of glossy brochures, posters, and booklets, some waiving application fees. A couple are high(ish) profile, while some we haven't heard of. Is it just that time of year, or do colleges receive NMSF score before students?</p>
<p>from what others have said on this board, no. We’ve been getting stuff too which gets my hopes up but what is more likely is that college students are getting back on campus, and there is more manpower to make their big fall push for admissions. our stream died down some over the summer. Did urs continue? We have gotten a lot over the last few days though. As u may know, someone on this board called the national merit board and was kind enough to let the rest of us know the high schools should find out Tuesday who the semi-finalists are. it’s possible the colleges can guesstimate likely cutoffs better than us and asked collegeboard of whoever they ask for kids names above certain scores. don’t really know.</p>
<p>Thanks, ctl987. We had intermittent mail over the summer. Today was crazy, though. I’m just ready to know, but I guess I’ll have to wait a few more days. Our son doesn’t seem concerned, though. He’s concentrating on schoolwork while I’m obsessing, lol.</p>
<p>oh mine is concentrating on wrapping up summer(ie chilling) and trying to not think about school yet 
. He won’t be banging down the guidance counselor’s door on Tuesday</p>
<p>When my son made NMSF, the colleges knew weeks before so that they can get mailers, etc, prepared. My son got his first NM scholarship offer the same day he was told that he made NMSF…and he was told by his principal around the 3rd week in August. So, colleges must know by mid Aug or earlier.</p>
<p>I though the NMSC was mailing out notifications on Tuesday, not telling high schools?</p>
<p>thanks mom2. This is very encouraging then as we’ve recently heard from Bama, UCF, and Fordham. And Arizona State. does ASU have national merit awards? I could be wrong Arkie but I thought the notice was given to the schools. I’ll look at the note posted earlier again.</p>
<p>letters are being mailed to high schools per note on Tues. I guess I assumed they may notify high schools not only via regular mail but also by email. which is why I thought high schools might know by Tuesday.</p>
<p>I am skeptical about colleges “knowing”. I think it is much more likely they just get lists over a certain score knowing that list will likely include the vast majority of those qualifying. Maybe they miss a few or maybe they send to a few that don’t qualify, either way no big deal to them.</p>
<p>@mom2collegekids says:
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<p>Do you remember if your son’s score was well above the cutoff or near the cutoff score, @mom2collegekids? (i.e. was there any doubt about your son’s status as a semi-finalist?)</p>
<p>The kid has had a pretty steady flow of mail and email all summer. It does feel as if the volume is increasing, although right now most of that increase is in the number of emails received. The emails all mention getting the kid’s contact information from ACT or the College Board. I will be interested to see if that changes next week.</p>
<p>Oh, the snail mail we are getting is shifting from postcards and small brochures to large envelopes with big, glossy booklets.</p>
<p>I concur with ridethewave - more mail mentioning ACT achievement. My daughter took the state administered (PSAE) and national ACT test in April. We marked the box to receive mail from colleges and had a lot shortly after results came out. There is a new wave of mailings with the beginning of the school year, some with offers from schools that would like us to visit or just mentioning that applications are now available, encouraging us to apply.
Many of the steady emails are vague regarding how they got our information. We could not tell if it was SAT, ACT, or PSAT.</p>
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<p>Interesting…</p>
<p>I also got that mail from Carleton… It seems to heavily apply I was selected as a Semifinalist rather than commended considering the timing… If colleges do know, perhaps someone could call the admission number for Carleton and ask?</p>
<p>Maybe I am too pessimistic, but it could just be generated from the original list of high scorers. (Our high school has not even shared that with us.) In the springtime, or maybe early summer, we received something similar from a different school. I try not to get my hopes up. We have not received a Carleton postcard recently. Maybe on Monday?
All schools are sending information out right now. This is the time to attract the seniors whom have not yet decided on where they want to attend. The schools, even if they know, I believe are not allowed to share that information right now. Nor would it be in their best interest. Think of how many commended students there are that are requesting information, visiting, and applying to schools based on the chance that they may make it to the Semi-Finalist stage. Those students (around 35,000) are REALLY great candidates. If schools informed students of their standing now, that large number of highly qualified students may not consider those schools as seriously.</p>
<p>Just going to point out that colleges aren’t stupid. They look at last years cutoff scores add a couple of points and send out mail to they students they want to attract.
I got a brochure from Carleton a couple of weeks after i took the test saying that i was likely going to be a NASF and i should check out Carleton</p>
<p>I am impressed. When my daughter took the PSAT, it took a couple of months for us to get the results, with mail not starting until after that.</p>
<p>@mom2collegekids says:
Quote:
My son got his first NM scholarship offer the same day he was told that he made NMSF…
Do you remember if your son’s score was well above the cutoff or near the cutoff score, @mom2collegekids? (i.e. was there any doubt about your son’s status as a semi-finalist?)</p>
<p>lol…it’s been too many years, I don’t remember what his score was. However, colleges would never be told individual PSAT scores. So, it’s not like the colleges thought, hmm…M2CK’s son has a 240 so we know he’ll make NMSF, so we can send him a letter. No. </p>
<p>I strongly believe that univs who participate as sponsors get the info early.</p>
<p>CT1987 – about ASU, yes, they have always offered very attractive NMSF/F awards, and trumpted the number of those students they attract. Recently, however, they have changed the scholarship info on their website to be quite vague, and have removed the award from their financial aid calculator (unless I am missing something, which is certainly possible). We will probably go on a tour in a few weeks, and I will ask them what is going on, then.</p>
<p>Just a couple months ago, I did have an assurance from one of their scholarship office reps that they are still making their attractive NM awards.</p>
<p>When we visited ASU this summer, the Honors College told us that the scholarship for NMF is still full tuition and fees.</p>