<p>Uhg... Can being commended combined with National AP Scholar possibly make up for it? Or is Semi-Finalist definitely a huge accomplishment?...</p>
<p>Especially for top 10-20 schools...</p>
<p>Honestly, I don’t think it matters too much. Although NMSF’s are pretty commonplace at the top colleges, I don’t think it would be the sort of thing where not having it would guarantee automatic rejection. Go look in the decision threads here on CC… there have been plenty of National Merit Commended scorers who still got acceptances to HYP and the like.</p>
<p>Being a NMS finalist or National AP scholar means nothing to the issue of being admitted. However, having a high SAT means a lot as does having high grades in AP courses (and having some high AP test scores can help a little). In other words, the honors themselves are not a factor, but what leads to them are.</p>
<p>they actually look at your SAT scores, not your PSAT. So don’t sweat it.</p>
<p>
I agree with this. You’d much rather have a high SAT score than a high PSAT score from Junior year, as colleges will evaluate you based on the former.</p>
<p>Whew, that’s pretty comforting.</p>
<p>Sounds like I can just balance out my screwed up PSAT on a good day with the SAT.</p>
<p>Thanks, guys.</p>
<p>Once you enter college, you will soon learn that these PSAT finalist, SAT 2400 are so meaningless. Having a decent SAT is more important than the silly PSAT. It can help, but doesn’t hurt. Millions of us never got it.</p>
<p>Having 2400 is great. As long as you can have above 2100 you are really super -_-</p>
<p>Doesn’t matter at all… Funny story, my son got off on his answer key for the PSAT and basically bombed it (for him). He came home and reviewed the answers and couldn’t believe how completely stupid they were. Haha. It was terrible. We just moved on. He did very well on his SAT and ACT. He submitted those and come acceptance time, did just fine. Bottom line - forget about it. No big deal.</p>