<p>Hi there, Im a little nervous about being a National Merit Finalist. I believe my cutoff will be high enough in kansas, however, I have a 4.1 weighted GPA with 3 total C's on my transcripts. I have GREAT extra, such as business owner, FBLA secretary, DECA national qualifier, and vp of DECA. I am also captain of the tennis team. My teacher recommendations will be excellent. My SAT is a 2200. WIll I move on to the Finalist stage? I need this because I want to take advantage of the money offered by National Merit Finalists, and honestly im stressing out. Any help out there?</p>
<p>First impression is that you are fine, but you really don’t provide enough detail about your grades to make a good guess. Weighting schemes vary so much that your classroom performance really cannot be inferred from the number you provide. Could you provide your unweighted GPA? If not, aside from the 3 C’s, do you have mostly A’s?</p>
<p>If your unweighted GPA is above 3.5, you are almost certainly safe. If approaching 3.0 or below, maybe not. If you are in between then it will be very hard to say. No one here will know how the NMSC will interpret the details of your transcript. It should be of comfort, however, that 93% of semi-finalists become finalists.</p>
<p>My unweighted GPA is a 3.5. I have mostly A’s and B’s. I go to the best school in the state, so Im not sure if they will consider that.</p>
<p>Does your transcript show quarter or semester grades? Are the C’s quarter or semester grades?</p>
<p>I sweated the C’s for D1; she had two semester C’s in Honor Chemistry her sophomore year. She had undiagnosed LD’s so her freshman transcript was As & Bs (heavier on the B’s at the beginning) 5 A’s & the C each semester sophomore year then all A’s junior year. She ended up making NMF but it was a long wait for me till February ;)</p>
<p>There semester grades</p>
<p>I will conjecture (as long as you understand that this is just an informed guess) that you will qualify for NMF assuming (1) you make the cutoff score, (2) you submit your completed application on time and (3) you haven’t done anything to cause your administration not to recommend you (e.g., discipline issues).</p>
<p>So moving on to the finalist stage is usually case by case? There’s really know golden rule?</p>
<p>Since NMSC isn’t transparent about their process, most of the things we talk about on CC are conjecture to some point. Each year about 1000 students don’t progress from NM SemiFinalist to NM Finalist. The common wisdom is that the reasons for that happening are: student doesn’t complete paperwork, school doesn’t complete paperwork, school doesn’t realize they can support multiple NMF candidates, SAT score isn’t above the (unpublicized) qualifying score, disciplinary issues and/or GPA issues. GPA issues are a grey area; I don’t think anyone can definitively tell you that you’re OK, although I think that Descartesz’s reasoning is sound. </p>
<p>There’s nothing you can do about the 3 C’s now. Is your junior year already over and/or are you in danger of any more C’s or lower in junior year?</p>
<p>I know someone who had 3 C’s, great extracurriculars, adequate SAT score and didn’t get it. I had 4 C’s and did. No one really knows how it works.</p>
<p>My junior year is already over. But thanks for the advise</p>
<p>My guess is that you’ll make it. Hang in there. Get paperwork in on time, write a great essay and hope for an excellent recommendation. (btw, I think I’m in your district. . .)</p>
<p>Along these same lines, anyone want to make a conjecture in regard to how high SAT scores have to be to “confirm” PSAT score?</p>
<p>^</p>
<p>a 2000 is high enough</p>
<p>Thanks for everyone’s help. I really appreciate it!</p>
<p>Also, would if I got a Rec letter from one of the teachers I got a C in? I got the C because i was At Deca internationals and missed a lot of school. Will NMSQT take that into consideration</p>
<p>If that teacher likes you and will write you an excellent rec letter, and if he/she explains the reason for the “C” in the letter-- it wouldn’t hurt. Good luck! Others have made it with a few C’s, so you know you have a chance.</p>
<p>I feel like she will explain the C. Do you think I should convey that to her? Like should I tell her to mention that?</p>
<p>Sure, you can ask her to mention it. You could tell her that having C’s on your transcript makes it harder to advance to Finalist status, so it might be helpful if she could explain why you got the C --as long as she doesn’t dwell on it and has plenty of positive things to say about you, otherwise. If you’re hoping for a scholarship that is designated for Finalists, you could tell her how much it means to have the best possible chance of advancing.
Also, you might talk to your counselor about it–he/she might be able to tell you if any semi-finalists from your school failed to advance in past years, and what factors were involved.</p>
<p>That sounds great!! Also my 2 other C’s were there my first semester of my classes and then second semester I brought them up. Do you think this helps glorify my app, since I I’d better second semester? And how many Rec letters are you allowed to have for national merit?</p>
<p>I am confused by this conversation. Do you put in teacher recs for national merit? I thought the rec was provided by your school, and they picked who did the rec. We asked about this, and our counselor said she usually writes it and the principal signs it, but sometimes she will ask a specific teacher to write it if she knows the teacher is close to the student.</p>
<p>Some of those people who don’t make just don’t put their paperwork in. My niece did this… idiotic, in my opinion, but I wasn’t asked.</p>