<p>my school has a class of 16 and i was the only semifinalist…and i think the only one in the schools history</p>
<p>I live in Indiana and our school has 1200 ppl in our graduating class, and I think there were 10 semi-finalists.</p>
<p>3 SF 80 students
private school in MS</p>
<p>my senior class had 250 ppl and there were 20</p>
<p>Last year, 17 out of 85 students were semi-finalists.</p>
<p>I’m not sure how we did this year, but I bet it’s similar.</p>
<p>Given the very real disparities in education around the country ranging from resources to environmental factors, I too favor the MNSC system the way it is. The program is national in scope but students are able to compete more predominantly with their geographic peers who are more likely to have experienced the same advantages or disadvantages. </p>
<p>I believe, as do many others, that the PSAT is not a measure of core intelligence as much as it is a measure of academic experiences and testing skills. That being the case, I see little value in the very predictable outcomes of pitting the haves against the have nots every year. All of the students who are able exceed the cutoff scores within their particular regional or cultural environments are equally talented and deserving in my view. </p>
<p>What distinguishes ability in learning and education is not how much you have, but how much you can do with what you have. Thus, an individual who scores 226 in an environment that produces a cutoff of 220 is indeed talented. However that individual is no more special or talented than the one who scores 210 in an environment that produces a cutoff of 204. Both outperformed their peers. Extending this further, I definitely do not agree, as some apparently do, that an individual who scores 216 in a 220 cutoff environment (i.e. underperforms) is more deserving in any way than the one who scored 210 in a 204 environment (i.e. outperforms). Certain underlying realities should not be oversimplified just to achieve the outcomes that personally favors us the most. If your student doesn’t make the cut in the NE, it serves no purpose to sit around assuming that he or she would have performed any better than the top students in the South if placed under the same conditions with them. </p>
<p>Likewise, I also do not believe the NAF and NHS finalists are any less able than NM finalist. I think it is no less difficult for any of the highest performing students in their respective category, be it regional or cultural, to distinguish themselves from the rest of their peer group, and they are all worthy of our respect.</p>
<p>jlauer- in answer to your earlier question: yes, 3 NMSF out of approximately 700 seniors. School has over 3,000 kids in 9-12.</p>
<p>class of 85</p>
<p>52 nmsf
33 commended</p>
<p>you have to get either of the two in order to receive your diploma</p>
<p>Holy smokes, calcobra, no pressure there! What if you’re sick that day or something terrible happened? Well, guess it didn’t, so congratulations to you all!</p>
<p>^ FLVADAD</p>
<p>Well said</p>
<p>FLVADAD: I agree with wemel – well said.</p>
<p>20/350 ish
a ton were commended (probably around 40-50)…in my homeroom alone with 25 people, four other people and i were commended at least</p>
<p>I’m in Nevada:</p>
<p>4 semifinalists in a class of 385.</p>
<p>You can e-mail the College board directly and they will give you that information. Post it here when you get it please!
I know the cutoff for National Hispanic recognition for Louisiana was 195</p>
<p>5 semi in a class of about 350. 2 of them got 240. (a CA public school)</p>
<p>We had 6 in a class of 75. I’m biased, since my son was one of them, but I love our school because they keep things really balanced - lots of opportunity to achieve,but none of that horrible pressure that drives kids to dispair (and suicide at some schools).</p>
<p>It’s best to get a 240 in any environment. :)</p>
<p>…Am I the only CCer NOT in an insanely smart school? I’m in semi-rural New York, and I’m the only semi-finalist in the COUNTY, which I estimate to have about 1000-1500 seniors in it.</p>
<p>Now I know why I feel “different” from everybody else here…</p>
<p>Also, this thread makes me really curious - I know that the NMSC does their cutoffs by state, but even within states it seems extremely biased, what with dozens of SFs coming from one school and all. In my case, upstate New York is a completely different world from Rockland County, NYC, and Long Island, and I have a feeling that if one was to look at the geographical distribution in the state, they’d find a great disparity between the number of SFs “down there” and “up here.”</p>
<p>10 in a class of 700 at a public high school (about average too)</p>