(Posting in this sub-forum which I didn’t see at first)
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.
I think the majority of kids who don’t get have some Cs (or lower) in their grades. Or they don’t complete the paperwork for some reason (I know an expat kid who didn’t). An inappropriate essay could do it. But grades seem to be the most common reason.
Agreed. When D was NMSF her school had 14. All but 2 made finalist and the 2 who didn’t both had C’s (more than 1) as semester grades on their transcripts.
What kind of SAT score is seen as congruent with their PSAT score that got them the NMSF designation in the first place?
An SAT score does not play a part in NMSF designation. That’s based purely on the PSAT score taken Junior year.
How important are GPA, recommendation letters, extracurriculars or other parts of their NMF application compared to their SAT score?
GPA and SAT scores are the biggest drivers. In years past, sometimes a single C on a transcript could result in a student not advancing to NMF. (BUT: I also know of at least one case where a student had a C and did advance.) I think that recommendation letters play some small part, and ECs very little if any.
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...?
There is no app for them to read at this point. See more below.
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...?
Schools will be notified in September as to who has been named NMSF. Then it’s up to the schools when they tell the students. Some tell right away, some wait until the names are published - I think typically those notification are about a week apart. Note, though, that CC always has a thread going where we’ve been able to figure out the state cutoffs often before the information is published. Kids who are told right away by their school report that, “In Ohio, my score was a 218 and my principal told me I qualified.” More posters contribute, so then we can figure out the scores.
Once a student learns he or she is a NMSF, then they have about 3-4 weeks to apply for NMF. The school sends their transcript (and maybe a letter of rec, I can’t recall) and the student has to send an SAT score that “confirms” that the PSAT score wasn’t a fluke. (I do not know what this score was last year.) The student has to submit an essay and then that’s it I believe.
@suzy100 I understand the process up until this point for my senior student. She’s a NMSF and applied for NMF consideration. Now we’re waiting. Her GPA is 3.7 (no Cs on transcript, some Bs), and her SAT was 1510. I’m just wondering about her likelihood of advancing NMF status & when and how we’d know as such.
I’ve seen in some posts here on CC that there’s an SAT selection index that should correlate with their PSAT selection index, but I’m not seeing that anywhere on her SAT report…?
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 what you just said – 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…
I posted recently and asked, based on recent years NMFs’ experiences, when NMSF students can expect to start receiving rejection letters . @mom2collegekids said rejection letters should go out around Jan. 6 and if our NMSF students have not received a letter by Jan. 17, they are probably safe. I remember reading the posts from last year as parents & students watched mailboxes for the all clear! By the way, I am not sharing those dates with my daughter. She is just expecting the Feb. notification at school.
See pages 4 and 5. Two rejections reported (January 19 and 20). MLK Day was the 18th, so they began to hear on Tues. after a likely Friday mailing. Would assume this year’s letters either went out on the 6th or will go out on the 13th. But obviously I’m just making an educated guess.
@mnparentof3 asked: “- 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…?”
Good question! Anecdotally, I’ve heard that they will use the essay to advance someone to a final scholarship consideration. The essay probably won’t matter too much in choosing the 15,000 finalists. As for the rest of the application (including recommendation, transcript, etc.) it seems that transcript more than anything else will determine whether you don’t advance to finalist. Every case we know of personally, the kid didn’t advance due to having poor grades, and that seems to be the predominant issue when you read the regret threads on cc.
If you wrote an essay, if you have a few EC’s and/or a part time job (everyone has SOMETHING - my daughter flips burgers and is in Quiz Bowl), and you have a decent transcript with no C’s or lower, then your chances are excellent for advancing. I think it’s much harder to be named a semifinalist than a finalist.
My S16 had a C on his transcript, but I think it was in an AP class, and he was still a NMF. Most of the NMSF’s become Finalists. I think it takes a pretty poor transcript to be rejected. Our principal writes very good letters of rec for the students, so I think that helps too. Our HS usually has 13-15 NMSFs per year, so the school knows how to handle the applications. Our S17 was a NMCS, so did not have to worry about confirming scores, etc. Best of luck to all your students!!
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think it takes a pretty poor transcript to be rejected
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No, not true.
We’ve seen A students who did have only 2 semester C’s (no B’s) on their transcript for an AP class not make it. In one case, the 2 semester C’s were in an unnecessary AP class and the mom was livid that this one unnecessary class took her son out.
Texas NMSF here. I have 2 or 3 C’s on my transcript from doing poorly in freshman year. Really, really hoping that I can still advance because the school I’m gunning for has a full-tuition scholarship for NMFs.
Apparently rejection letters were mailed out two days ago. From this year’s thread:
“I just called NMSC, and a gentleman there told me the feared letters went out yesterday, most likely toward the end of the day. So it is unlikely anyone will hear anything today. He also said that they cannot disclose info about students over the phone. Good luck to all.”
@megxhan If you go back to that thread, someone in NJ with two Cs received their letter. Sorry to say, it wasn’t good news. Hoping for the best for you.
I’ve been following the whole NM process for several years now, starting with the Class of '11 and our D1. From what we’ve seen over those years, it seems that NMSC tries to keep a similar distribution of Finalists from each state as they had Semifinalists from each state. What that has meant in the past is that what may prevent a Semifinalist in one state from making Finalist (one C, two C’s, etc.) may or may not have the same effect on a Semifinalist in another state.
In previous years we’ve seen a student with one C not make Finalist in State “A” while others with more than one C have advanced in State “B”. If NMSC really is culling about the same percentage of SF’s from each state in order to keep their distribution relatively equivalent, it makes sense that we might see disparity from state to state on what criteria lead to non-advancement.
Bottom line…there is no hard and fast rules for what will disqualify a SF from one year to the next, or even from one state to the next in the same year.