<p>National merit is great if you get it (mostly for purposes of merit scholarships) but hardly damning if you don’t. I don’t see why you’d need to do something so drastic as revise your list of colleges <em>just</em> because you fell a few points shy of some cutoff.</p>
<p>Focus on getting the best SAT/ACT scores you can. Nearly all of the opportunities available to National Merit Semifinalists are also available to students who rock the SAT/ACT (regardless of PSAT performance).</p>
<p>EDIT: Of course, I assume that your main concern is chances of admission. If you’re mainly concerned about merit money AND if the schools you’re looking at have special scholarships available ONLY to National Merit Semifinalists or whatever, then I agree that you should expand your search.</p>