Impt. Class of 2006 PSAT high (@ 180+) scorers

Parent Cafe
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<p>If your student is black or Hispanic, make sure you read the info toward the end of this, too even if they didn't score a 200 index score.</p>

<p>If your kid scored at least a 200 on the fall PSAT, there's a good chance that your child is one of the 55,000 top scorers in the country and will eventually be either National Merit Commended or a National Merit semi finalists.</p>

<p>If so, National Merit has sent your student a letter care of their GC.</p>

<p>I read on the "National Merit Semifinalists naming the 2 colleges" thread here that some GCs are holding those letters for end of year award ceremonies. If so, that could cause problems because the National Merit organization gives the 55,000 high scorers until May 18 to name 2 colleges to get info about their scores.</p>

<p>While places like HPYS don't care about this info, places that track students for interests do care, so you would not want your student to miss this opportunity.</p>

<p>So, check with your student about this, and have them check with their GC.
My absent-minded S got the letter at least a week ago but with finals coming up, forgot to mention it until I asked. </p>

<p>I don't know what the cutoff is for this year, but usually it is around 201. All students who get that letter will either be commended or semi-finalists. They will learn if they are commended or semi finalists in the fall.</p>

<p>Some commended students do get scholarships from National Merit. I think about 1,200 of the 30,000 or so commended students do. There also are a few colleges like St. Olaf's that give small scholarships to commended students. I posted a list months ago on the scholarships board. You can find it by using the search feature.</p>

<p>You can Google and use the search feature here to get lots of info about scholarships related to National Merit finalists status.</p>

<p>Any student who does this well on the PSAT should be able to score well enough on the SAT to get merit aid from some of the many colleges that offer SAT score-based merit aid. Here's a list of some colleges offering merit aid to National Merit finalists: <a href="http://homepage.mac.com/l_j/secondhome/National_Merit.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://homepage.mac.com/l_j/secondhome/National_Merit.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>In addition to the above, black students who score at least 190 or above will be named next fall as National Achievement Scholarship semi-finalists. Many of the same colleges that give generous National Merit scholarships also give generous National Achievement scholarships.</p>

<p>Hispanic students who score around 180 or above and who have the qualifying Hispanic heritage will be named National Hispanic Scholars this spring. They, too, qualify for good merit aid including from some of the same places offering National Merit scholarships.</p>

<p>Because neither National Achievement ro National Hispanic publish their qualifying scores, I am providing info based on what I have seen students posting on web sites like this. The actual cutoffs may even be a little lower than I suggest.</p>

<p>To qualify for either of those minority scholarships, the student must have identified their racial/ethnic heritage when taking the PSAT last fall. I understand that the organization providing National Hispanic scholarships also calls high scorers' GCs to find out exact info about the students' heritage to make sure that the student meets the organizations' standards.</p>

<p>Use CC's search and use a general search engine to find out more info about either program.</p>

<p>Best of luck to everyone!</p>

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<p>nsm~</p>

<p>We are (thankfully) not in need of this info. this year, but I did want to tell you THANKS for posting this on behalf of everyone who does!! I am sure it is appreciated! ~b.</p>

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<p>yes NSM, very good info. I am passing it to a friend of mine whose D scored at 230-ish PSAT. Probably will be finalist.</p>

<p>Thanks this is exactly why CC is so useful!!!</p>

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<p>thanks, NSM. Just a confirmation...I spoke to NMQST folks on Friday, and the program director (she actually picked up her own phone???) cofirmed that the national cutoff was 200 again this year, and every 200+ is automatically commended. Also, Commended's may receive some scholarship money if they are associated with one of the sponsoring corporations, who maintain a separate scholarship pool for children of employees, retirees, and the like.</p>

<p>SBmom, since Calif cutoff has been ~216 last couple of years, 230 is definitely Semi-F. </p>

<p>(Unfortunately, our HS is one still holding onto letters...but not for long. heh-heh.)</p>

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<p>I'm really confused. My D's head of CC has said on 2 occasions that this year's juniors will not be notified until next September whether or not they are NM! She has heard nothing...with SI of 217 in Michigan (last year's cutoff was 210 for NMSF) I suspect she'll be a finalist. Does this mean she won't get the opportunity to name 2 schools?</p>

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<p>Letters went out very recently to the GCs to give to the top 55,000 students based on the 2004 junior year PSAT scores. Those are students whose index score was 200 or higher on their junior year PSAT. </p>

<p>The letters tell students that they are the top 55,000 students, and they are given the option to have 2 colleges notified of this achievement. The students must designate those colleges by May 18.</p>

<p>All of the 55,000 will either be Commended or National Merit semi finalists. The announcement about commended and semi finalists will be made in Aug. or Sept., depending on when your kid's school starts and the GC gets around to giving your kid the info. From what I can figure out, the info probably is sent by National Merit to the GCs in mid Aug.</p>

<p>Anyone whose child might be a semi-finalist needs to make sure that the GCs give their kid the info in the fall and the kid follows through with the paperwork that must be submitted by a certain deadline. I think an essay, GC report, SAT scores, and transcript must be sent in and the students at that time get to select a first choice college. </p>

<p>Students can fail to make National Merit finalist due to low gpas, low SAT scores (This doesn't mean getting something like a 1400. It means getting an SAT score so low that the National Merit folks probably suspect the super high PSAT score was due to cheating), not sending in the required info or presumably not getting a good report from the principal or GC. Considering how proud schools are of their NM scholars, I assume that principals and GCs only give negative reports in the most extreme circumstances.</p>

<p>Use CC's search function to find out more info as there's lots of info in the archieves.</p>

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<p>I am so confused as to which colleges to pick. How do I find out if a college tracks interest??
My parents and I had almost decided that it was a waste of time but I'm not so sure anymore.
=) Thanks for the help and the extra info</p>

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<p>You can find out a lot about individual colleges on college confidential. Just ask about particular colleges and use the search function to look for info. You also can use Google to check for info about colleges because sometimes the info you are seeking is in things like articles about colleges.</p>

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<p>"In addition to the above, black students who score at least 190 or above will be named next fall as National Achievement Scholarship semi-finalists. Many of the same colleges that give generous National Merit scholarships also give generous National Achievement scholarships."</p>

<p>NSM, are you sure about this? My son's score was above 200 and he was not named a National Achievement Semi. He was only named "commended". I've tried to get NMSC to tell me what the cutoff is. They've said that they won't release the cutoff, but that it varies by state (for both NMS and Achievement programs). </p>

<p>I'm not sure why they're so cryptic. IMHO, it's a confusing program and loses some of it's luster because of all of the "speculation".</p>

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<p>Momsdream,
If your son got a score above 200, he probably was named commended for National Merit (I am assuming his score was not high enough to be a NMfinalist), and he should have found out in the fall that he was a semi finalist, National Achievement, the program for black students.</p>

<p>If he didn't get such info about National Achievement either he didn't indicate when he took the PSAT that he is black or when he was named an Achievment semifinalist last fall, his GC did not give him the paperwork to fill out to be considered for finalist.</p>

<p>With your S's grades, ECS, and SAT scores, if he had done what was needed to be considered for Achievement finalist, he would have gotten that honor. He also may have gotten a National Achievement Scholarship.</p>

<p>National Achievement is a separate program from National Merit, though both use the PSAT scores. Google to get more info. Call them if you want to find out what happened in your S's case.</p>

<p>Since a v or m score of 650 on the SAT is at the 98th percentile for black students and the 99th percentile for black students is a 700, the qualifying scores for National Achievement are understandably lower than for National Merit.</p>

<p>About 125,600 black students take the SAT each year. For all students, 652,000 males and 750,000 females take the SAT and the 98th percentile is 750 for verbal and between 750 and 800 for math. </p>

<p>I got this info from a chart that the college board put on line 2 years ago showing racial and male female breakdowns of the SATs in 2003. Unfortunately, they no longer put that info on-line any more, but at least I saved the info from 2003. I have never seen a racial breakdown for the PSAT, but one can estimate that info by using the SAT info.</p>

<p>As you can tell, the kind of scores that your son got on the PSAT are very rare for black students, so he definitely should have qualified as a semi finalist for National Achievement. Going from semi finalist to finalist is based on getting the paperwork in, sending in SAT scores (and I have known National Achievement scholars with SAT scores of 1250) and having requisite grades. I am not sure what the gpa requirement is, but I think it's either an unweighted 3.0 or 3.5.</p>

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<p>Northstarmom:</p>

<p>I heard that the National Merit Commended cut off score for the 2004 PSAT was 202. Do you know for sure that it is 200? Also my daughter didn't make National Hispanic Scholar with a 185 in New York. I am pretty upset that the NHSP is so secretive. I am wondering if they are picking and choosing who gets the award, or not seriously trying to weed out the fraudulent Hispanics. Someone on this website said he or she didn't make it in North Carolina with a 193.</p>

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<p>I got the 200 figure from someone who posted on CC that they called NMS and got that #. You can call NMS to find out the cutoff.</p>

<p>Did your D check that she's Hispanic when she took the PSAT? Unfortunately, some whose scores would qualify for the Hispanic award do not check the box. She also has to be a certain percentage Hispanic. If you Google "National Hispanic Scholarship," you can get specifics.</p>

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<p>Northstarmom:</p>

<p>Imagine how disappointing it was for my daughter when colleges wrote her stating that her score would likely make her a NHRP Scholar, and then she didn't get it. She is 50% Central American/ 50% American and checked all the appropriate boxes. Honestly, how can the cut off score be 196 in North Carolina when it used to be 180-185? Something is fishy.</p>

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<p>Damaris,
Call the National Hispanic Scholarship staff (you can find the # by Googling) and find out what happened. My understanding is that they check with students' GCs about whether the students are truly Hispanic. Is it possible your D's GC didn't know she's Hispanic.</p>

<p>I imagine, too, that grades are a factor. Perhaps there's a gpa cutoff, too.</p>

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<p>I think the NM cutoff for commended this year is 202 (posted on several other CC threads, based on calls to NM).</p>

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<p>Is the commended score 200 or 202?</p>

<p>My son got 200. He goes to a public school in a rural area. Our state
has low qualifying scores. Does that make any difference?</p>

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<p>The commended scores are national - at least they always have been. (So they are the same for all the states) The semifinalist / finalist scores are set so that each state has a number of SF/NMS depending on state population - so the cutoff for these designations varies by state.</p>

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<p>I talked to NMSQT this morning. The commended score is 202.</p>

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<p>thank you so much for the info northstarmom. i just got that letter from my GC a few days ago as well.
what im wondering is how much of an honor is this? is it something that really impresses colleges?</p>

<p>also i know im sending one of my letters to emory, because its my favorite right now and i know it places a lot of weight on interest, but i dont know which other one to send it to! vanderbilt? wake forest? tufts? columbia? they dont really give you a very long time to make a decision! how much does sending the letter really do for you? and if you mention the honor on your app for a college you didnt send it to, is it just as effective? i really dont know much about this award at all so if anyone has additional info i would appreciate it.</p>

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<p>It is not at all a big deal for the Ivies, Stanford, MIT, CalTech. It probably is a big deal for colleges that consider perceived interest as they consider one's application. Tufts and Emory are among such colleges.</p>

<p>It also may be a big deal for colleges that may be safety schools for you particularly if such colleges are not in-state public universities that select students mainly by the stats. I suggest not sending such universities the info because if you have a high PSAT score and good grades, you've probably got the stats to get into your state public anyway.</p>

<p>By the time that you apply to colleges, you'll know whether you are National Merit Commended or a National Merit semi-finalist, and either honor should be mentioned when you apply. </p>

<p>If one makes NM finalist, one can get full tuition scholarships from some universities or can get one-time scholarships of about $2,000 from colleges, corporations and NM.</p>