<p>I'm wondering if our HSs laid-back approach is typical? S asked to see GC. Handed pack with congrats from C. Picture of winners posted school website for a few days. Announcement to be made at some assembly, parents not invited. No letter home. No mention last year, even at graduation, of Finalists. </p>
<p>Not sure if I'm being too sensitive, but these kids scored in the top-range of 1.5 million peers... I at least want a congratulation picture at school.</p>
<p>Umm wow compared to my school that’s a lot. My school just announces it to the seniors and teachers, then a little congratulations thing gets posted on the school website (its like one sentence) in a part no one checks. </p>
<p>I’m pretty sure that if I wasn’t in the newspaper I would never know who got them this year</p>
<p>No mention in any way till graduation, if at all. May get listed in summer school publication with all the other honors next to each student’s name, but I cannot remember if they list only Scholars.
My D has no idea who is NMSF in her class, or any other class before her.</p>
<p>The HS does not have a “laid back approach”. What you have listed is more than enough in terms of recognition. I don’t know what you want exactly. Your son is a NMSF and that is an amazing accomplishment. I don’t really think you should be up in arms because he’s not getting treated like a gift from God at his HS.</p>
<p>Our school puts their/his/her name(s) on the marquee. That’s pretty much it.</p>
<p>Our school district does nothing that I know of. Since S1 was a NMSF 2 years ago, I watched to see if there was anything in the paper or announcements etc. but nothing in the 2 years that I have been looking. When S1 received it, he only found out that 5 others received it in the county because his GC mentioned it.</p>
<p>Our school regularly has over 50 NMSFs (88 this year, which is exceptional). There isn’t much individual recognition - I’m not even sure if my school puts out a list or not. I’m pretty sure there is an assembly so that we can find out what to do to get Finalist status.</p>
<p>(They still haven’t notified us, and I’m not sure how they’re going to do so…)</p>
<p>My kids’ school ( a small private) always makes a big deal…mentioning it several times per year…including at graduation. And their names are on a plaque in the school’s entry.</p>
<p>I guess our school is in the norm than, thanks.</p>
<p>mom2collegekids - do you think since your school makes a bid deal about it, that it motivates younger students to try for NM? </p>
<p>I honestly do not think many parents or students at our school even know what it is. Last year I spoke to two Mom’s of kids a year behind who had never heard of NM, yet their kids both did well at Duke TIPS. I encouraged them to look into it and prep their kids over the summer. They were grateful and upset the school did not mention it to them.</p>
<p>I wonder what Mission San Jose in California does, they had 86 NMFs.</p>
<p>They send out a line in the daily email announcements listing who makes NMSF & then in February, they send out a similar one listing who is NMF. The district sends a press release listing the NMSFs for a 7 high schools to the press & also lists them in their monthly news letter. </p>
<p>At honors night in May, the HS recognizes the NMFs, as well as the Commended students. And at graduation, NMFs wear an honors stole along with the graduation robe; some of the kids are quite colorful with NMF & IB stoles, plus cords for the various honor societies :)</p>
<p>So far, all we’ve seen is that my D got called to the counselors office and handed the printed out page with her login info on it. That’s all. No announcement, no pictures, no marquee, no nothing…It’s kind of a let down, for me at least. Maybe something else will happen later on.</p>
<p>I am going to be blunt. Making NMSF is not a big deal at all. And as cutoff scores vary by state, not all NMSFs are equal in terms of academics.</p>
<p>On another note, we get our name on the district website and maybe our local independent news site. That’s it. Nothing more needs to be said.</p>
<p>Loldanielol - It’s great to be blunt and it’s wonderful that it’s no big deal to you but you cannot convince me of that. My S is a NMF who has over $100K in scholarship money and is able to graduate from college totally free from debt. He will be able to go to medical school with the money we saved for his college. So it’s not a big deal, it’s a HUGE deal.</p>
<p>There is not a big splashy announcement at my Ds school either (although she was surprised at the number of people who said congratulations after their names were just mentioned in the email update the school sends out everyday)
However I must disagree that making NMSF is no big deal…it most certainly is an honor and puts these kids in a very small group of high achievers. Just being commended and being one of the top 50,000 college bound kids is amazing! While my D is acting like it is no big deal either, I know she is proud of herself and the amount of scholarship money it makes available is unparelled…every NMF can get their undergraduate degree FREE if they are willing to pick a school that offers such a scholarship…graduating without debt is a huge gift to these kids and often makes graduate school possible…Debt in any form is not something we want to saddle our children with in this economy!</p>
<p>I was called down over the announcements to the guidance office, and congratulated by my counselor and a couple others very simply and briefly. That was it.</p>
<p>So, far nothing from D’s school, except the paperwork. It’s typical. If it’s not sports related, it’s not important.</p>
<p>Hello all,</p>
<p>First post here, so please be gentle ;-)</p>
<p>Being a NMSF or NMF is a big deal.</p>
<p>But only to the kid and the family.</p>
<p>My homeschooled S, 15 yr. old, is a SF this year. His “school” honored him today with a special dinner, prepared by the headmistress and her assistant.</p>
<p>A few years ago, our school district started making a bigger deal about NMSF because they decided it was something they could brag about. They changed to giving the test to all juniors on Wednesday, instead of Saturday, to get more kids to take the test. Award winners now get their names on a plaque in the board room. (Similar logic made them decide to require the AP test for every student in the class - to improve their Newsweek rankings.)</p>
<p>Yes, it was a big deal to me and my daughter. It was a goal we had in mind since she started high school. I knew it was a big deal because I was a former NMF and my college was paid for as a result. I’ll bet my parents also thought it was a big deal. </p>
<p>I heard rumors that my school might be planning a nice breakfast for the commended and semi-finalist kids. We’ll see…</p>