Missed by a point support group

<p>220 in CT :( Anyone else?</p>

<p>happy to join u from pa.</p>

<p>I feel you guys…222 in CA :/</p>

<p>hey, can we open this up to other narrow misses too. Say within 3? Hope you 2 are doing better on this narrow miss :(</p>

<p>I feel for you all. </p>

<p>If any of you were looking to qualify for NMF big scholarships, this can be frustrating. But, take note that a number of schools still award large scholarships for your high ACT or SAT scores, so many of you still have large merit opportunities…at least as financial safeties for you. Very important to have!!</p>

<p>I know that it’s frustrating not to be able to put NMF on a resume, but I have known kids to rack up nearly as much in scholarships (or more!) without the designation. </p>

<p>My older made NMF, but my younger one missed by a point. However, in the end, the younger son nearly got as much in merit. </p>

<p>Also, if any of your parents work for a NMCorp sponsor, then you still might get one of the NM Special Scholarships. Younger son did get one of those, as well. </p>

<p>It bothered my younger son for a bit that he didn’t make NMF, but when he got involved in college and did well, it soon became irrelevant. He’s now in med school, so not making NMF didn’t stop him. :)</p>

<p>thanks mom2. I thought ur younger made it too. And u are right, the kids(I;m a parent myself) still have tons of options, including being good candidates for admissions and scholarships at many schools across the country. We were very open to having some full rides on the table [to put it mildly ;)], and those are very hard to come by without NM designation so that is one frustration. My bigger frustration honestly is the eleven month wait; that bothered me far more than which side of the fence the kid landed on, esp given technological advances over the last 20 to 30 years. the number crunching can take far less time then when I was in school so why the suspense. In my opinion, we could reasonably have had answers by July which would have given everyone a 2 month headstart over the current scenario.</p>

<p>Hey guys, 217 in Oregon checking in.
If I had made it, I would have probably gone to University of Central Florida on a Full ride+ scholarship, but now I will most likely go to Oregon State University. Even though I will miss out on great opportunities for full rides, I can still get enough merit aid to almost cover my tuition. But I agree that the 11 month wait is painful. If I had known my result earlier, I would not have needed to go and visit colleges that offer full rides for national merit scholars and would have already applied to Oregon State. All I can say is that I hope national merit speeds up the process so future aspiring scholars do not have to go through the same things that we did.</p>

<p>lonelynerd, I seem to remember you’re a big OSU fan already?? I totally get the no full ride. We too are aware of UCF;s package and it is very generous. As in Bama;s and many other schools. But it sounds like u and mine are in same boat. Both of you will be in a better position to go to your top choice school (unless UCF was the top choice) as you won’t have to give up a full ride to go to OSU. Very glad to hear u have great options at OSU :)</p>

<p>@ctl987:
Thanks. Actually, other than the money, it seems that I do not miss out on much. Oregon State has a good computer science department (my intended major), and I don’t need to go so far away from home. Anyway, best of luck to you and your kid and I hope he succeeds wherever he goes.</p>

<p>@lonelynerd217, I am impressed with your maturity and responses in this forum; I am sure that your future is very bright. I want to apologize for offering false hope on your chances previously – I really thought you would be in with a 217. The higher cutoff for Oregon demonstrates to me, at least, that there a lot of aspiring young scholars in the state. Despite not being a NMSF, you are among the brightest in your state, and I wish you luck in the college application process.</p>

<p>Ilfather,
You don’t have to be sorry. You did the best in predicting the cutoff with the materials given to you. 5 point jumps are very rare, but unfortunately, this year, my state happened to have one. This was largely unexpected, since the previous largest year-to year jump here was only 2 points. Oh well. It’s impossible to correctly predict the cutoffs for every state accurately, especially since the graduation rates of every state are not publicly released every year. Congratulations to your daughter for being among the group of newly minted NMSFs this year. Best of luck to you guys in in the future.</p>

<p>My D also had 220 in CT. So that all of you who just missed SF status get some credit, I think it makes sense for you to list this in the Common App “Education”, then “Honors” section (it is a regional/state honor). You have room in the description to add info that really clarifies where your score ranked, such as:</p>

<p>National Merit Commended Scholar (PSAT score 220 / 99th+ percentile nationally & Connecticut) </p>

<p>The 99th percentile nationally, if you look at the total score PSAT charts, was 216 for the class of 2014. And in CT, if you look at the NMSC’s annual report (<a href=“http://www.nationalmerit.org/annual_report.pdf[/url]”>http://www.nationalmerit.org/annual_report.pdf&lt;/a&gt;), over 30,000 students take the test, and 218 made it as semi-finalists. At 1 point below the cutoff (probably 10-15 students), you are still above the 99th percentile.</p>

<p>Figured I’d add my NM vent here too. Agreed Jeff. We are working in ways to show not only is kid commended but also that their PSAT score is way up there. of course, since the SAT or ACT scores are likely in a great range for all kids in this spot, it may not matter “that” much. However, everything helps at this point. sorry on ur kid. They would have made it in my home state. </p>

<p>My NM vent: One, this process takes too long, and two, the National Merit Board needs to be more transparent. Regarding first issue, kids took the PSAT in October of 2012. Why does it take 11 months to figure out who is a semi-finalist? I understand NM board wants to use 2013 graduation data in running the numbers so I respect we won’t have answers until the class of 2013 graduates. However, when I was in school, national merit semi-finalists were announced in September. Technology has exploded since then. So assuming a gap between June and September was necessary back in my day, that is no longer the case. Numbers could have been crunched as soon as NM had the high school data and semi-finalists could be announced by July or August. As others have pointed out, put the darn info out on college board or something, so the information could be accessed by the families while high schools are not in session. </p>

<p>Second, more transparency is needed. Thanks to college confidential, we had links to access the state data as soon as it was available, which I think was either late January or in February. What was missing were percentages that went along with the selection index score. Had I been able to determine that say 600 kids at a minimum likely scored higher than my kid in our state, I would have gone oh, crap back in February and spent the last several months focusing more on competitive scholarships. What we were given in February was the breakdown for each subsection but no selection index. Although we all (and by all I mean by CC comrades) figured out the scores would be higher, I think most of us are surprised by how huge the jumps are this year when compared with previous years. Since we had no good way of narrowing down my kid’s odds as to which side of the fence they fell on, not only did we have the already daunting task of narrowing colleges down, our family ran 2 lists, the what if kiddo makes NMSF list, and what if they don’t. Part of this narrowing included what turned out to be unnecessary research into schools with generous national merit scholarships and for us, the time in hindsight would have been better spent focusing on competitive scholarships with maybe a glossed over look at the NM schools just in case kid made it. For those who ask, why did we even bother researching schools until we knew for sure, see my first point. September of a kid’s senior year is too late to begin a frantic process of deciding which school to go to. We all have kids who have partial and if we are lucky, full scholarship options regardless of NM status. Many competitive scholarships have deadlines between October and early December and even schools with rolling admissions ,the general consensus is apply sooner rather than later to maximize scholarship options. Our kids are busy enough this semester without adding NM paperwork that has a much shorter turnaround than the 11 months we had to wait.</p>

<p>I wonder why NMCorp insists on sticking to a 16000 NMSF total. Population is always growing, so to keep the total to that number seems odd to me.</p>

<p>Also, I think 220 should be the max cutoff for any state. That’s equivalent to a 2200 which is top 1% of the nation. The idea that someone with a 223 (2230) shouldn’t make it is ridiculous. It just stirs the pot more in regards to more anger towards the states with low cutoffs (WV with a cutoff at Commended level !! What the heck is wrong with that state when it’s surrounded by states that do so much better? People like to laugh about the education in states like Alabama, but at least Alabama’s cutoff is 8 points higher. /rant about that. lol)</p>

<p>Anyway, again, I think that NMCorp shouldn’t be so stringent with that 16,000 number. If their goal is to keep to their net 15,000 NMF number, then be more strict with GPA, SAT score, or something else (frankly, the 1960 SAT score is too low, especially in light of a 203 Commended score. A student should have to have at least a 2000 to make NMF. </p>

<p>Increasing the number of NMSF, but increasing standards for making NMF would at least give the 221+ students in high-cut-off-states a fighting chance.</p>

<p>mom2, I thought of the idea that at least a 220 makes it no matter what too. That would not have helped my kid so no ulterior motives on my part for that one. But it would be more fair to the kids with exceptional scores. You had some other interesting ideas too :)</p>

<p>I agree with a basic cut-off for all states. My older daughter missed the cutoff in CA by a point or two two years ago, but still this state is so much higher than many others. It would be great to publish achievement cut off scores in advance, based on the prior year (with adjustments moving forward if need be) or at least very quickly thereafter. With everything computerized and standardized, there is no need at all for much of a wait!</p>

<p>And I’m thinking with the cutoff idea, either x score, or xx percentage makes is it in NO matter what. For the rest of the kids, use a similar formula to what’s in place, so that each state gets a reasonable amount of semi-finalists. this may cut out some either with the lowest scores(but Im guessing by no more than a point or 2) or it may cut out the mid range kids in the super high/medium high states. Not sure how it would play out but I think a 223 was too low for NJ this year. How beyond frustrating for those families to not get in.</p>

<p>I don’t agree with the idea of the same cutoff score for all states, but there should be a max cutoff that at least allows all those that score at the 99% mark to make NMSF. They could always make the path from NMSF -> NMF a little tougher if they fear that there will be too many NMFs.</p>

<p>It’s always been a little silly that only 1000 don’t make NMF from NMSF. Seems like a lot of effort for everyone involved just to dump 1000.</p>

<p>Question, you have space for 5 awards. Currently I have AP scholar, CAPT advanced scholar (CT thing, I was only one in my school), bausch and lomb, wellesley book award, and best math student award for two years in a row. Which one of these (if any) should I leave out to make room for commended? Should I just not mention it? (CT got a 220, missed by one point)</p>

<p>What will your major be? I’m not familiar with the bausch or lomb or wellesley book award so using that as a yardstick, maybe one of them. Def keep AP scholar; that sounds good. maybe the best student for math award could be cut. I suggest adding commended in there(and maybe show score if you can and it does not look dumb). Commended shows you had PSAT score in top 3 percent or whatever it is and actually for you, it’s top 1 percent due to your score. I am encouraging my kid to get in somehow they only missed by one point too. Hope that helps</p>