<p>At my school there were 5 National Merit Scholars (myself included), and they just invited us into the school office, gave us cheesy smiles, and shook our hands. A list was sent to the homeroom teachers, but they weren’t required to say anything. I honestly don’t think they did anything with the 2 that were named MMSF; I wouldn’t even know that they got it if I weren’t friends with both of them.</p>
<p>Now that I think about it, that is kind of sad, especially since I go to a top high school in my state.</p>
<p>I wasn’t expecting them to do anything other than make an announcement, but they sent a press release to the paper listing the three finalists, announced their names at the parent open house and are having an assembly to announce them to the students as well. I’m pretty sure my daughter will be mortified by the level of attention, but it should blow over pretty quickly…</p>
<p>Our local paper handles the press release. HS announced the National Merit and National Achievement Semifinalists during a school day last week, and now apparently will recognize them at the homecoming assembly this week. Teachers congratulated her in the hallways the day it was in the news, long before school said a word. Yuck! says my daughter. She is glad to be NMSF because of the benefits, but rather amused that such a to-do is made of one test for which she did not even study. She is much prouder of her ACT score, for which she practiced to get math speed up and to get a handle on the science graph problems. Her doctor congratulated me when I took my other kid in recently, told me the local doctors have a competition every year to see which practice has the most NMSF. Funny. I thought she was joking, but no, she scrambled to get the newspaper list out of recycle bin when she got back from a trip. One of our other local schools has a special reception for their kids. Probably my daughter would be much happier about the attention if she got a danish out of it.</p>
<p>Wow, I’m not in the norm here; it’s kind of a big deal at our school. There’s a banquet held one day, and all students who make the cutoff and their parents, other family members, and counselors are invited. We also get a formal award for it at the end of the year. The list of all of the students who make the cutoff - and a group picture - is posted on my school’s website and in the local newspaper.</p>
<p>Then again, my school had 15-20 NMSFs this year, and it had 30-40 of them last year (out of a few hundred students). Maybe the high academic caliber of the school helps make it a bigger deal.</p>
<p>It used to be (under the old principal) that at the opening assembly of school (we start a bit late) the principal would announce the commended scholars and NMSFs and hand them their packet in front of the school. She never followed up on who was NMF, though.
Now, they don’t say a word. I don’t even know who has been over the last two years.</p>
<p>Our HS just started a blog and opened at twitter account (facebook is next I guess) - I don’t know how I feel about that yet. There was a nice article there. Otherwise, they did what they have always done, a board member and administrator deliver their certificates in 1st hour class, then they have their picture taken. The photo is posted in a display case next to the guidance office for the rest of the year. They do the same for the kids who graduate with a 4.0 GPA.</p>
<p>Today I got an invite to a NM breakfast that’ll be before school one day for the semifinalists and commended students. Based on previous years, they’ll also include our names in a blurb in the district’s weekly newsletter and have a newspaper article about it. It’s nice to finally be realized for something academic, since every year the top students generally get passed over in the “teacher awards” which is basically hardest-working.</p>
<p>Absolutely nothing at our high school. Not sure if Principal even knew what it was, as it was the first time anyone here has earned Semi Finalist in the school’s history. (No one has ever been Commended either). The student had to educate school administrators through the endorsement process to proceed to Finalist. This school does not celebrate academic achievers - it only glorifies athletes and performing artists.</p>
<p>DDHM–you’re lucky. At least the GC knew enough to get the award to the student! There have been a few horror stories in the past (some local) that the GC not knowing what the award was would let it sit on their desk until all the deadlines had passed.
Emberjed–my son’s class had seven out of 60 students and yeah, it was a big deal. It was a private school so academic excellence is a huge selling point of course. It should be a huge selling point for a public school also.</p>
<p>My school doesn’t do much. We were called in to see a counselor all together, about 7 or 8 of us out of 300-something seniors, and they gave us the info and that was it. There’s nothing up on the website, no perks or anything. They announce it at the senior awards assembly at the end of the year and at commencement, and it goes in the alumni magazine, but other than that we don’t get recognized.</p>
<p>gouf - Actually, the deadline would have passed without the school doing the endorsement part if the student had not taken active charge. The student had to inform and handhold the administrators (no GCs at this school) through the process to meet the deadlines. The school kept telling the student that they didn’t need to do anything, but the student could tell on the NMS site that the school’s section had not yet been submitted. I am mentioning this as advice to other Semi-Finalists that you may need to educate yourself on the process and then take a leadership role to manage your school. That sentence on your student site instantly notifies you when your school’s section has been completely submitted.</p>
Based on previous years, they’ll also include our names in a blurb in the district’s weekly newsletter and have a newspaper article about it. It’s nice to finally be realized for something academic, since every year the top students generally get passed over in the “teacher awards” which is basically hardest-working.</p>