Hi everyone,
I found out I made semifinalist in CA but I’m concerned about my chances of making it to finalist. I heard that if you have C’s you might not make it, and I have 3 C’s on my transcript all from sophomore year. However, I have a /decent/ GPA (3.6+ unweighted) and a huge upward trend in junior year (3.9 uw for the year). I also have a high enough SAT score. Would these factors help my chances, or am I out of the running altogether? Thanks
No one can say for sure, but you definitely are at risk of not making finalist. I wouldn’t count on it, but submit your materials and see what happens.
Yup. It matters. People assume it doesn’t because most who make NMSF make finalist but it’s only a co-relation as most semifinalists happen to have good grades, SAT, essays, LORs, ECs etc. One with lucky flukes doesn’t proceed to finalist or scholar levels.
That being said, try anyway, you have nothing to loose and much to gain.
If your grades were from hardship, be sure to have your principal and counselor write expanation letters. Sometimes that helps.
Whatever the outcome, know that you can find good automatic scholarships based on SAT or ACT score alone.
Congratulations on doing well on the PSAT! That is still a great accomplishment!
bump
Read through the threads about NMF from past years. There are a few students (posted on CC) that haven’t made NMF from NMSF because of grades.
Grades are and were extremely important with my son’s application. Yes, he was a NM winner and everything counts.
If you had c’s, your application is being compared with other students who didn’t have C’s.
Yup. Everything matters. Mine is a scholar and many of his semifinalist friends didn’t make finalist and most couldn’t make scholar. However, try anyway.
I am surprised that many of his semifinalist friends didn’t make finalist. Over 90% of SF make the Finalists. I know the ones that haven’t made it at my kid’s school are typically the ones that didn’t turn in a complete application on time.
Last year, there was one kid with a 3.2 that didn’t make it to Finalist. However, at least two with semester Cs and one with a yearlong C plus a semester C (all in Freshman year) made it. I believe there might have been extenuating circumstances in one of the cases. In any case, the NMSC folks look at the whole package.
The “Sorry” letters go out in January, so there’s much much wait time left. Good luck in your college search/picking.
@Reebtoor - thank you for the useful information. You mentioned that at least two with semester Cs and one with a yearlong C plus a semester C (all in Freshman year) made it. Which state are they from? Do you know anything about their GPA? Thank you.
Check the Worry thread from last year for details. I don’t remember any details. http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/21119894/#Comment_21119894
Thank you for the informative link @Reebtoor.