<p>My approach with demostrated interest is that if a college in New England or DC is going to hold it against a kid from Texas that he did not fly up for a vist, it’s not the college for him. He has either sent in the reply card or written to request information from the colleges he’s interested in.</p>
<p>Then, and I think this shows a lot of demonstrated interest, he’ll apply to the college! I admit that sour grapes may be playing into my attitude a bit as I would like for him to be able to visit these colleges. We did visit his safety while on vacation near by, to make sure he would like it. We’re saving our money for a few “after accepted” visits (we hope!) and even if we couldn’t do that, well, a lot of people go to colleges they’ve never visited and it works out.</p>
<p>can someone explain what this reporting service is? and who its for?
i scored a 211 on my PSAT in PA…would i have to worry about this? my school hasn’t said anything?</p>
<p>tokenadult,
S2 didn’t focus so much of whether the <em>schools</em> wanted to show him love, but more on the schools to which "he* wanted to show love (and which were sufficiently selective for him to realize that even with a strong record, they were not sure admits).</p>
<p>bettzke there are a couple factors to think about
1 How high did your 2010 student score on the psat? or on a SAT?
If they had a 230+ or 2300+ they are likely applying to schools which do not participate in the NM- ie all the Ivies, Duke, UVA, MIT etc so NM could be a non-issue
2 If they are interested in one of the free 4 year tuition schools, they are all about getting as many NM’s as possible so you really don’t need to select them at first. From my experience, they are happy to have you at any time in the process-even in the 11th hour!</p>
<p>But for any school you are interested in you should send them an e-mail that says you are interested & wonder about their NM policy…many, which fall between those I described in 1 & 2 above, seem to give about $1000 to $2000/year for 4 years and appreciate your interest.</p>
<p>A simple white business envelope from National Merit Scholarship Corporation with two pages inside. I now think that this must be delivered to school addresses, as all the early recipients I’ve heard about are homeschoolers.</p>
<p>bettzke – we knew that several of the schools on S1’s list didn’t offer NMF awards. Others didn’t care about demonstrated interest (Cornell, for example, didn’t even have a place for S to sign in that he had visited, and I understand most of the Ivies are unconcerned about your love for them). Two were big flagships, and S had already gotten a love letter from his in-state flagship based on his March SAT scores by the time we got the NM letter.</p>
<p>Therefore, we sent them to the two privates he really liked and who would appreciate demonstrated interest (esp. since he was geographically diverse for them).</p>
<p>Did it make any difference? I doubt it. He was accepted at both, but he had a pretty strong package anyway. </p>
<p>Token – no word at S2’s school on letters, and nothing at home, either.</p>
<p>We just decided over the weekend in about the same way that CountingDown’s S1 decided in his application year. My son appears to be on the mailing list of all colleges that he is seriously considering already, but he sent the College Plans Reporting Service information, via the online sign-up, to two colleges that seem to be a good fit for him, are more speculative as to admission chances than the state flagship, and are reputed to track student interest.</p>
<p>Hi parents, I’m a junior and I also received the reporting service mailing. One of you mentioned that this reporting service has nothing to do with any actual reward money, but is only meant to show some interest to two colleges of your choosing. From reading around on some other websites, I think I agree, but how come some parents are mentioning schools that don’t give out merit aid?</p>
<p>Also, would it be more wise to select two small LACs, say Pomona and Middlebury as opposed to JHU and UChicago, where demonstrated interest might play at least a marginally bigger role in some possible, future admissions decision? Thanks!</p>
<p>What if you know that you’re only going to be commended? Does that make a difference? I’m not really sure what I should do at this point…I’m not really going for merit money. Should I maybe just put down some of my top LAC choices? Or should I put down some of my match/safety schools?</p>
<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>
<p>CaliforniaDancer, bclintonk makes a lot of sense with their tactic. It’s not going to hurt wherever you send it. I did some research to see which two schools on my D’s list would appreciate demonstrated interest the most and give merit money, and we’re going that way. As a commended student, I agree that it probably won’t pull all that much weight by itself. It can always be added to all applications when the time comes, right?</p>
<p>Don’t know if someone else posted this earlier but just in case …</p>
<p>For those of you who know you are going to be PSAT commended students AND your HS has not yet given you the letter … you need to go bug your GC.</p>
<p>The special website for sending this PSAT score to 2 colleges FOR FREE will only be active about another week … ** May 26th, ** so I guess 2 weeks.</p>
<p>I think everybody should take advantage of this. It is separate from the NMF and is just a good FREE way to get onto some colleges’ radar/mailing lists.</p>
<p>Vanderbilt is one of if not the only top 20 private universities that is fairly generous with NM money for finalists. They will give up to $5K per year for NMF (if you don’t get any other merit scholarships from them) If you do get a named merit scholarship, they still give you $2K per year. D got the $5K award.</p>
<p>Hey everyone, I got the letter for this service from my school, but seem to have lost it. I remember there being a website mentioned in the letter where we could put down the colleges we want our scores reported to - does anyone have this web address? I’d really hate to miss out on this because I lost the paperwork. Thanks a lot!</p>