Is it worth putting National Merit on a resume or college application?

I got my PSAT scores back today, and if the cutoff is similar to what it has been in previous years, I will easily make the cutoff for “commended” (I’ll miss the cutoff for semifinalist). Is it worth putting something like this on an application/resume, since literally like 30,000 kids get “commended” status?

If you get notified you made the cut, then definitely put it down. However, you can’t just put it down because your score would have made the cut in another year. There is another post circulating about the brutal curve, so hope for the best, but don’t count your chickens before they hatch.

No obviously I know that. But for the past 2 years (Class of 2019 & Class of 2020) the index has been that a 212 or above is “commended,” and the year before that (Class of 2018) 211 was commended. And my index is a 218, so something really crazy would have to happen for that score not to make the cut for “commended.”

How did you get it back so soon?? I thought the earliest was Dec. 9th?
But also, put commended! I think any positive award is helpful and to me it shows you care about your performance. It would be weird to not see that if you got a good SAT score and I don’t see how there would be a negative effect.

If you have anything more interesting to put down in the Honors section, do that instead. They will be able to see how strong you are from your scores, but you only get 5 Honors slots.

School counselors have the scores…if you pester them they will probably give you your scores.

If your school has Naviance, your PSAT score may already be entered for your place on the scattergram. It showed up at my kid’s school yesterday.

Does it show in the “Test Scores” section on Naviance? Our scatter plots only show SAT or ACT, but has PSAT in the About Me section. It currently says 0.

Yes. It helps. Anything positive will not hurt you, it can only help you.