<p>PSATs are offered Wed or Sat, Oct 17 or 20. My son's school picked the Saturday date. S will be fencing in Europe that day, and missing 2 or 3 school days in the process.</p>
<p>He could take the Wed test at another school less than an hour away, but would miss yet another school day (or large part of one) to do so.</p>
<p>He's taking 7 APs, so every missed day is huge. Is there a compelling reason not to skip the PSAT?</p>
<p>Thanks in advance</p>
<p>The PSAT is important only if you think your son might qualify to be a National Merit SemiFinalist or as a commended student. The PSAT is the determining exam. Other than that, if your son checks the box on the PSAT, he will begin receiving boatloads of college mail.</p>
<p>PSATs can also be given by a faculty proctor at your son's school--if the school and CB agree.</p>
<p>It's a great predictor of SAT scores--and potential school matches based on predicted SAT score.</p>
<p>Benefits of being a National Merit Semifinalist include the potential for a scholarship and being able to put it on college applications. As a top student, ie of NMS caliber, missing a day of even AP classes won't matter- the work/any tests can be made up- this would be a very legitimate reason to be absent.</p>
<p>If your son is smart[ and he must be to be taking 7AP's!] then he would be foolish to NOT take the PSAT. He could be awarded thousands of $$$ in scholarship money from college looking to "snag" him if he scores high enough on the test to be chosen as a NMFinalist. Only 15,000 students are chosen to be NMfinalists, out of over 1,100,000 students applying to college each year. It can be quite an advantage.</p>
<p>Other than possible $$$$, there is no other down side of no taking PSAT. If OP has money to send kids to Europe for fencing, he/she may not care about $2500 a NMS gets.</p>
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he/she may not care about $2500 a NMS gets.
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<p>The value of national merit finalist status ranges from zero (schools that offer no merit aid, e.g. Ivys, Stanford, MIT) to 20K over 4 years (at Vanderbilt U and others), or even full tuition at a variety of publics, particularly engineering schools.</p>
<p>Those students who get the NMS from National Merit Corp, currently a one-time $2500 award, are almost always offered three more years of the same or similar amount from the college they attend, if that college offers its own merit awards.</p>
<p>If your son is a great fencer (good enough to miss school to compete in Europe) that may be a better ticket to college than NMS. The value of the PSAT as prep for SAT is rather limited. Getting the CB blue book and practicing would probably be just as good.</p>
<p>We were in the exact same situation two years ago--my daughter was going to Wash. D.C. for a program the same week as PSATs. I asked the guidance counselor if it was really worth going to all the trouble to change things since there was no way she would be a NM Finalist--but he felt that it still was important to try and have her take it. We were able to change to a different week, and to our surprise, she did well enough to become a finalist, and now all of her college tuition and half of her room and board is being payed for--we never realized just how bright she was because she's very low key. I would really suggest that he take the alternate test dates at another school--the results could be very beneficial--you'll never know.</p>
<p>the value of the NMSF can be huge. USC, for example, awards a near-automatic $15k discount per year. Other colleges are absolutely free to NMF's.....</p>
<p>I think the importance of the PSAT is that it gives you a touchstone of performance against which you can evaluate your first SAT scores. When you get the first results, you'll have something to compare it to, and if you test again, you'll have two data points instead of just one, as a comparison.</p>
<p>Some may not find this particularly valuable, but I always thought it was.</p>
<p>Hi midmo:</p>
<p>What public engineering schools offer full tuition to NMSF? We're just starting DD's senior year and all of this info is overwhelming!!</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>It will depend on your need for scholarship help for college. If you can pay your way without worry, no worries. If you can't or want a better educational opportunity, doing well on the psat helps alot.</p>
<p>For families that can afford to turn their noses up at scholarship offers or because the schools they preferr don't "offer" scholarships, you can stop reading now.</p>
<p>thanks.</p>
<p>For families that need help or aspire to send their kids onto a school in a higher cost tier, the psat is a big step towards National Merit Finalist status and thus an opportunity to gain tuition help (partial to full) from many different schools across the country. For my family the psat was part of gaining over a quarter million dollars in tuition scholarships for my two kids (both NMF). The status allowed them to attend schools that would have simply been off the radar due to cost for our family. One is now in med school with a very clean debt slate. The other starts her second year pre vet. The private schools they attend(ed) are well over $100,000 in tuition cost. Never would we have been able to swing that without this boost. </p>
<p>So the importance of the psat depends on your situation. For us, it was very important.</p>
<p>To clarify my earlier post, I am suggesting the the OP's son take the PSAT if he is the type of kid (or test taker) that may be in the range for qualifying as a NMF. Some kids know that they are not on that level. In his case, with seven APs, he probably has a shot and should go for it.</p>
<p>My kids both took the PSAT; one knew going in that she had a good shot at NMF, because of past SATs taken in middle school. She was right.</p>
<p>At our sch., the PSAT given to all students (except seniors of course) every year. After taking it in 9th grade and 10th grade, My S2 a very average student and his average student friends decided that twice was enough for them and skipped the test (I was at work and didn't know) and went out for breakfast. They then returned to school for the rest of their classes that day.<br>
S was grounded for skipping school but skipping taking the PSAT for the third time was really of no consequence to him. </p>
<p>Well, I guess the only real consequence has been that our mailbox has not been flooded with college brochures,lol.</p>
<p>Wow! Thanks for all of the thoughtful responses. They've very helpful. I'll pursue the faculty proctor idea with the school; that seems like the best solution.</p>
<p>I would like him to take the PSAT for a couple of reasons:</p>
<p>First, it's realistic he could qualify for a NMS, and although his current target schools don't offer merit aid, the future has yet to unfold, so it does seem foolish not to try to put himself in a position where he could utilize any potential scholarships.</p>
<p>Second, even though the PSAT might not be a particularly good prep for the SAT, preparing for the PSAT should be very good prep for the SAT. He's got the grades, he's got the ECs, and he may a have a decent athletic hook, but he still needs great test scores. Starting to prep for the SAT now (while calling it PSAT prep) is probably a very good idea.</p>
<p>Thanks again for all of the input. I'm relatively new to this site but have quickly become a devoted follower.</p>
<p>In addition to the NMF possibility, another benefit of the PSAT is that it gives students specific feedback, so they can use their results to target their SAT prep.</p>
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What public engineering schools offer full tuition to NMSF? We're just starting DD's senior year and all of this info is overwhelming!!</p>
<p>Thanks!
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</p>
<p>At Ohio State, NMFs who designate OSU as their first choice by March 1 receive full instate tuition and $4500. Out of state students with those kind of scores would also receive some other automatic scholarship money (but not enough to cover the surcharge). </p>
<p>The Honors Program at OSU encompasses engineering, business, nursing, liberal arts, pre-med, etc.</p>
<p>If your son can do good on the PSAT, he must take it. If he becomes a National Merit Finalist or something that will help him out enormously, and is more important than even the AP scores your son gets from his courses.</p>
<p>From the official website: <a href="http://www.nationalmerit.org/entering.php%5B/url%5D">http://www.nationalmerit.org/entering.php</a></p>
<p>If a Student Misses the PSAT/NMSQT® Administration
A student who does not take the PSAT/NMSQT because of illness, an emergency, or other extenuating circumstance, but meets all other requirements for NMSC program participation, may still be able to enter the competitions. The student or a school official must write to NMSC as soon as possible after the PSAT/NMSQT administration to request information about procedures for entry to NMSC competitions by alternate testing. The earlier NMSC receives the written request, the greater the student's opportunities for meeting alternate entry requirements. To be considered, a request must be postmarked no later than March 1 following the PSAT/NMSQT administration that was missed. NMSC will provide alternate entry materials including an entry form that requires the signature of a school official.</p>
<p>Certainly worth a phone call to see if the competition would qualify as extenuating circumstance.<br>
Fencing may give him more scholarship chances, but if he can have both choices, why not!</p>
<p>almagetty, there are long threads on NMS schools, search CC. Here in my neck of the woods you get good to great money from Texas A&M, UT - both the flagship campus in Austin and others... UT Dallas is full ride and has very good engineering school but is a new campus without traditional feel.... and U of Oklahoma absolutely rolls out the red carpet:
<a href="http://go2.ou.edu/national_scholars/index.htm%5B/url%5D">http://go2.ou.edu/national_scholars/index.htm</a></p>