<p>D decided to send her two free National Merit “top 50,000” notifications to two highly selective LACs that definitely do seem to weigh the applicant’s demonstrated interest as a plus factor in admissions. Hey, it can’t hurt. Likely the positive effect on admissions is negligible standing on its own, but it will be one more data point in what we expect to be a hefty file showing consistent interest over a couple of years by the time she actually applies. We’re not worried that these two schools don’t give automatic NMF scholarships, for a couple of reasons. First, we’ve been over the list carefully and D’s just not interested in any schools that do. Second, because her junior year PSAT score came in a couple of points below last year’s cutoff for our state, we’re expecting she’ll be Commended, not NMSF . (Not to worry, though, her January SAT I score was much stronger than her PSAT, and we anticipate further improvement when she retakes in May). In short, for us the two free notifications are just a costless opportunity to “show the love.”</p>