Lost chance for National Merit

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Hi all-
DD did poorly on the math portion of the PSAT test this morning. I have no doubt her writing an reading will be near 70-80 but her math will take her out of the running for NM here in Indiana. Just looking for advice on how this will negatively affect her chances of getting money to attend college....
Thank you for any info or opinion from experience...:)</p>

2

<p>It won’t. Your daughter lost out on some scholarship money and free rides at schools which are academic safeties. Not being named NMF is a bit like not being the winner of your state’s academic decathlon. Great if you are, but no one cares if you’re not.</p>

3

<p>National Merit money is not that big for most kids, even the winners. If she has good grades and good ACT/SAT scores, there will be other merit opportunities. But merit opportunities are fewer than most people realize.</p>

<p>Think of test scores and grades as a kind of currency. You can trade them for merit money, or you can trade them for acceptance to the top schools. You can rarely trade them for both.</p>

4

<p>lol…how do you already know that she did poorly?</p>

<p>Anyway…even if she doesn’t make NMF, if she does well on the SAT or ACT, she can still get merit scholarships.</p>

<p>However, if your goal is a TOP school, they don’t give merit for stats. They give need based aid.</p>

5

<p>It’s a heads up that she’ll need to do more work on math test prep before the SAT or ACT in the spring…not that I would say that today to an exhausted junior!</p>

6

<p>One of my guys missed out on NM due to a technical issue - he still got great merit offers - just not NMF offers.</p>

<p>What sort of school(s) is she considering? How much merit do you need?</p>

7

<p>Thank you so much for your responses! Well, she isn’t looking at a top school, mainly because we don’t her to be too far away from us in Indianapolis. Top regional school perhaps Hillsdale. No Ivys.
Creekland- 100 percent merit would be awesome, but hoping for just A LOT! Thoughts on that? Where do I go? I am just beginning this research but it does seem daunting. It looks like some schools just take off big amounts up front for good SAT Scores?</p>

8

<p>The more geographic restriction you put on her, the less chance there is to find a good merit aid school that she also likes. I understand the thought, but looking and going are two different things. A great offer from a more distant school may change your outlook, but you’ll never know if you don’t expand your horizon in the first place.</p>

<p>Also, things will change tremendously over the next year for both you and her. You’ve still got a good year until applications are due, so explore a little. It’ll be fun.</p>

9

<p>“Where do I go?”</p>

<p>Start in the Financial Aid Forum here. There are a number of threads on the topic of Merit-Based Aid stickied at the top of the forum.</p>

<p>If you like doing your own research, two old threads that describe unbeatable research techniques are:
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/148852-what-ive-learned-about-full-ride-scholarships.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/148852-what-ive-learned-about-full-ride-scholarships.html&lt;/a&gt;
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/291483-update-what-i-learned-about-free-ride-scholarships.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/291483-update-what-i-learned-about-free-ride-scholarships.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;