<p>To become a finalist, you must have at least a 3.5 GPA, be involved (extracurriculars and community service), have an academic record of difficult classes, and have an SAT score that reflects your PSAT score. Then, once you become a finalist, becoming a scholar is much more difficult and subjective.</p>
<p>I am a white male from Montana with a 4.0 GPA, over 200 hours of extracurricular/community service participation in high school, and am enrolled in the International Baccaulareate Diploma program. However, I have only scored a 2100 on my SAT, in comparison to my score of 213 on the PSAT. Based on this info, do you think I will still become a Finalist despite my SAT score? What about a scholar? What SAT score does it usually take to become a finalist/scholar?</p>
<p>Don’t worry, I think you’ll easily make finalist. Over 90 percent (15,000 out of 16,000) of the semifinalists do. The most common reasons for the few that don’t make it are: failing to turn in all of the paperwork on time (including reporting SAT scores), having disciplinary problems on their school record, or being slackers (i.e., having GPAs way below the potential shown on their test scores.)</p>
<p>I don’t know what minimum “confirming” SAT score is required now. A few years ago, when my older son was a semifinalist, a minimum 1300 was required to advance (on the old 1600-pt. test), so I imagine that somewhere around a 1900 would be fine now. NMSC just wants to make sure that the PSAT score was not a one-time “fluke.” Your scores are certainly good enough. (By the way, there is no significant difference between a 2100 and a 2130.)</p>
<p>Getting to be a NM Scholar is a much, much tougher proposition though. Only about half of the finalists actually get any money (and most of them are one-time $2500 payments). You’ll have a greater chance of being named a scholar if you are applying to schools that sponsor NM scholarships.</p>
<p>Some schools, however, will give you merit awards every year because of your NMF status (which you are sure to earn as long as the paperwork gets done). These range from a full ride to near full rides to half tuition to $2000-$5000 a year. Plus, as a person from Montana, you will add geographic diversity at many places.</p>
<p>montana IB, there are three ways to get national merit money once you are named a Finalist, as you probably will be. The first is as a National Merit Scholar; these students receive a one-time $2500 award. The second is a corporate-sponsored National Merit award, often, but not always, awarded to a dependent of a sponsoring corporation. The third is through a participating college or university; as others noted above, these awards vary greatly, depending on the school, and can run from $1,000 a year to full tuition (in a few cases). In general, the school sponsored awards are renewable for four years, although some schools may set requirements for renewal.</p>
<p>As noted above, the award that comes from the National Merit corporation is a one-time award, but most schools that offer their own college-sponsored national merit stipends will offer to renew the one-time award at their own expense (at least this is what I believe based on many anecdotes).</p>
<p>If you elect to attend a school that does not participate in the national merit award program--that is, it does not offer any of its own scholarships--and you do not get one of the NMCorp awards, then you will not benefit monetarily from your national merit finalist status. However, more than a dozen of my son's friends were NMF and the only ones who did not realize some financial benefit were those who attend one of the Ivy League schools, or one of the other strictly non-merit schools such as Williams College.</p>
<p>Also, some public universities do not offer national merit stipends to out-of-state students (Univ. of Illinois is one example) but others definitely do (Texas A&M, many others).</p>
<p>Your score is certainly high enough for you to become a finalist. If you fill out the forms properly and write a decent essay, you will most likely be a finalist.
As to the NM Scholar award: You can't count on getting anything more than the $2,500 one-time award even in the case of schools that give money to NM finalists.
.</p>