Help Understanding PSAT Rankings

Parents Forum
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<p>Whether or not your kid qualifies for a National Merit Scholarship Commendation with the score she has, depends on the state you’re from. It’s different for every state. S</p>

<p>National Merit Commended has ONE cutoff for the entire country. It’s usually around 201.</p>

<p>National Merit Semi-Finalist has state by state cutoffs. </p>

<p>the OP is from Colorado. And a 202 isn’t high enough for NMSF. CO ranges from 212 - 215.</p>

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<p>Yep, around 212-215 sounds right for CO NMSF. I used to do a lot of research on that. It turns out though that the scholarship advantage was not as great as I had expected. Most students up in the Commended range have a fine shot at merit scholarship, just not at the tippy top schools (which mostly just do need based aid).</p>