From National Merit Semifinalist to Finalist -- who doesn't get chosen as a Finalist?

I understand that of the approx. 16,000 Natl. Merit Semifinalists, about 15,000 get a NMF designation. Is that accurate? If so, what about those 1,000 NMSF makes them not chosen as finalists?

  • What kind of SAT score is seen as congruent with their PSAT score that got them the NMSF designation in the first place?
  • How important are GPA, recommendation letters, extracurriculars or other parts of their NMF application compared to their SAT score?
  • Does the NM Corp. even fully read the application at this point, or do they save the full reading for after they've designated finalists? It seems unlikely that they'd do a full read of 16k NMSF apps, IMO...?
  • Should/can a semifinalist student check online to see if they got finalist designation, or must they wait until the NM Corp alerts their school and then find out from the school? I hear there's a lag time between when finalist designations come out and when schools are notified...?

Thanks for any input on this. My student and I are trying not to get our hopes up too much, but if 15k out of the 16k NMSFs become finalists, those seem like pretty great odds for her and a NMF designation could possibly change some options still on the table.

Those who:

Had too many C’s (usually 2 is too many)
Didn’t do the paperwork
Was a discipline problem in school
Wrote a rude essay

Thanks @mom2collegekids – none of those apply to my student, so fingers crossed! Thanks.

Forgot to add to above…need the SAT confirming score taken between Soph year and Dec of senior year.


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What kind of SAT score is seen as congruent with their PSAT score t

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Not necessary!!! There is one minimum SAT that all must meet. The SAT score has nothing to do with the student’s PSAT score. A high PSAT score does NOT need to meet a high SAT score.

GPA important…usually only 1 semester C is allowed.

ECs don’t matter.

Are there now LORs??? Or do you mean the school’s report?

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Does the NM Corp. even fully read the application at this point, or do they save the full reading for after they’ve designated finalists? It seems unlikely that they’d do a full read of 16k NMSF apps, IMO…?
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Good question. Now that things are online, there may be some things that just pass thru (adequate SAT, etc), but who knows how the essays are read. They may pay people to read them. I know one student who didn’t make NMF and his rejection letter stated that his essay was rude…it was a sarcastic essay about the NMF process. After that, our school principal demanded that the GC preread all essays before submission.

If your DD’s GPA is adequate, and her SAT score meets the minimum, and she hasn’t been a discipline problem at school…and she met the deadlines, you can count on her making NMF.

I think rejection letters go out today. If your child doesn’t get one in the next 10 or so days, she’s good to go.

Hmm. I seem to recall a LOR being part of the application, but I may be wrong. It’s a jumble in my head for sure!

I just got off the phone with NM Corp – don’t know why I didn’t think to just call them before??? – and the rep told me that they will mail letters directly to students (as well as schools) in February and no, you can’t check online before that.

She also said the cutoff from the SAT confirming score selection index this year is a 206. They calculate this by multiplying each math, reading and writing/language sub-score (on the 10-40 pt scale) by 2 then adding the three together. After that cutoff, they look at the application “as a whole.”

So good news for my student as far as a confirming SAT index/score, but now we wait…

Thanks for your help on this.

NMCorp will mail letters in Feb to those who make NMF.

The rejection letters go out around today. They’ve usually been mailed out the first Fri in January.

As for LOR…it’s been a few years for us, and back then only the school provided a written rec…maybe now there is an add’l req’t? The school’s input can deal with any discipline issues…which is a deal breaker. Someone who has been a trouble maker would not get a favorable report from his school (suspensions, etc)

I think your DD is safe. In all the years here, I don’t think we’ve seen any surprises. We’ve seen kids rejected for 2+ semester C’s (and that’s if the school reports semester grades, some only report year-end grades).

Our son was rejected last year due to grades. Suffice to say that it was worse than just a couple of C’s. He’s still in college and doing ok, though.

S is class of 2018 but I would like some informed opinions. Our school gives 100 scale grades, and the transcripts only report final grades. He has a 79 in a course sophomore year. Does that equal a probable rejection?

OK, I’m nervous we didn’t cross all our "T"s and dot all the "i"s!

If you have a new/smaller high school that perhaps is not overly familiar with the whole process, be sure that you know what they need to do and follow up with the counselor/principal to confirm that that they have submitted grades, etc.

@planner03 one grade of 79 I do not think would put him out of the running if all else is strong. You never know, but I would not think that would be a deal breaker.

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He has a 79 in a course sophomore year. D


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Please clarify… Was that a year-end grade??? Was that 2 C’s for 2 semesters??

@ReturningFavor if that student ended up with a year end grade of 79, and the school puts 2 semester C’s on the transcript, then likely he won’t make NMF. HOwever, if the C is only one semester…or the school only reports a year-end grade of 79 on the transcript, then maybe he’ll make it.

We don’t really know how NMCorp views ONE C…if only year end grades are reported on transcript (no semester grades shown). We don’t know if NMCorp will say that’s equal to two C’s, or not.

Many don’t realize it, but most schools do not put quarter grades on transcripts. And many only report a year end grade per class…so a student who got a high B and a high A in a class, could end up with an A for a year end grade.

@3scoutsmom, do you know if it depends on the state a student is from whether a C may disqualify you?

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I doubt it. The determination is made at NMCorp.

I guess maybe if one state’s NMSF students mostly all had at least 2 C’s then an exception might be made so that the state would still have adequate number of NMFs, but I doubt that’s happened very often, if at all. NMSF’s tend to be the state’s top students, and the exceptions tend to fall into that 1000 that don’t make it.

National Merit Corp has determined how my kids they want from each state they start with the cut off to try to get that number and then they uses grades as the next factor to try to fine tune their numbers so in some states kids with a C or two will still make the cut but in other states a single C could knock you out. It’s all about getting the target number of kids from each state.