Hi! I’m taking the PSAT in a few weeks, and I live in New Jersey (one of the hardest states in which to get a National Merit Scholarship), so I’m uncertain of how much to prioritize preparing for it. I won’t need merit scholarships financially, so I’m just thinking on the most superficial basis here.
Do the most elite schools (Ivies, etc.) really value the title of being a National Merit Scholarship semifinalist or finalist? I know that usually, NMS awardees have excellent grades and SAT scores as well so a good PSAT score might be redundant, but does it really help to have that title on your application/could it hurt not to have it for some schools?
Thank you so much!
NMF/NMSF are dime a dozen among the applicants for top schools. They don’t really care about it. It is only crucial if you are aiming at certain merit scholarships. The admission criteria for those schools would be much more stringent that the requirement for NMF.
It’s a thing that can give you some full tuition or even full ride options, mostly what you’d see as safeties.
My D prepped for the PSAT and then took the very next SAT, so she was prepping for both at once. You might consider that approach.
Many universities like to boast how many NMFs attend their university. Even the elite places like U Chicago announce the number of NMFs that go there, and seem to want to have more than the next university. So aside from any scholarship consideration, being NMF can help make you a more attractive candidate compared to a similar applicant who is not NMF, because it would give the university bragging rights to have you there.
Later on, it can be a more discrete way of announcing on a resume (print or online) that you scored in the top fraction of the top 1% nationally, without necessarily putting your §SAT scores on there.
The only people for whom the PSAT matters are those tippy-top test-takers who are likely to score in the range that will make it possible that they will be NMF, NMCommended, National Hispanic, or National Achievement scholars. If you have done some test runs with the exam and you know you aren’t going to score in that range, you can skip the PSAT exam. Happykid is a lousy test-taker. We went out to brunch on PSAT day.
It could mean tuition money for you if your are NMF.
