<p>does anyone know what the nA cutoff for PA is?</p>
<p>As far as I know National Achievement does not have a state cut off but an across the board cut off. S had a 198 and is a semi-finalist from DC. </p>
<p>I think NA cutoff this year was around 189 but I am not certain.</p>
<p>National MERIT does have a state cutoff with the deep South being lower than DC and N England.</p>
<p>Thanks, I know this is overkill but a 203 wil probably make it right?</p>
<p>Yeah, but it does depend on your geographic location. I got in with a 188 last year (the test was a bit harder than usual) in Florida, but someone else got a 189 or 190 and was only commended. Well, either that or they lied.</p>
<p>Dnerd is right.</p>
<p>Here is the info:</p>
<p>[National</a> Merit Scholarship Corporation - NASP](<a href=“http://www.nationalmerit.org/nasp.php]National”>http://www.nationalmerit.org/nasp.php)</p>
<p>It sounds as though there is some type of regional designation. When I was a kid I was named a fimalist and IBM gave me a renewable corporate sponsored one. DC has always had a higher cut off for these things because we have a large number of private rigourous schools; it raises the bar.</p>
<p>Yeah, thanks for the link. It says:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>My D was commended with a 183 (California, class of 2008).</p>
<p>My d was also commended with a 191 in TX. Class of 2008</p>
<p>semifinalist, 187</p>
<p>yeahh so i just got my psat scores back and i got a 155…will that get me recognized at all? i know it probably wont but i still wanted to ask lol.</p>
<p>^ I highly doubt it.</p>
<p>yeah that’s what i thought 
ohhh well.</p>
<p>We find out about finalist status next week :D</p>
<p>Got a letter dated January 7th notifying that I was not selected to be a Finalist. Oh well :/</p>
<p>PSAT: 207
SAT: 2230
GPA: 3.3</p>
<p>They were thoughful enough to tell me specifically why I was not chosen(poor grades 9th and 10th, even though I had a 4.0 during 11th).</p>
<p>Ansley,
Thanks for sharing and sorry that you didn’t advance. Do know that this is not the end of the road you have great SAT scores otherwise. Widen your options for school and always have a Financial Safety that you would love to attend.</p>
<p>@ ansley… Are you sure it wasn’t national merit? The lady I spoke with on the phone claimed that they hadn’t notified anyone yet.</p>
<p>I’m positive-I was only named Commended for National Merit so there’s no reason I would be getting mail from them</p>
<p>Here’s the letter:
January 7, 2010</p>
<p>Dear Ansley:
We were very pleased to notify you in September that your 2008 PSAT scores qualified you for Semifinalist standing in the 2010 NASP. Your name was sent to news media for public announcement and to four-year U.S. colleges and universities. This honor should certainly be a source of pride, since fewer than 1700 students throughout the fifty states attained this distinction. However, the # of of Semifinalists who meet the exceedingly high standards necessary to become Finalists will be even smaller, and only about half of those who do become Finalists will recieve Achievement Scholarship awards.</p>
<p>To advance to Finalist standing, a Semifinalist must have a record of academic performance that is consistently high in all of grades 9 through 12, and in any college course work taken. After a careful evaluation of your course work and grades, we have concluded that your academic record does not fulfill the Finalist requirement. Therefore, we regret to inform you that your application is being withdrawn from further consideration in the Achievement Scholarship competition.</p>
<p>Although you will not continue in the competition, we hope the recognition you recieved as a Semifinalist, an honor you will always retain, has made your participation in the National Achievemt Program a worthwhile experience. Your performance on the qualifying test indicates abilities that we encourage you to develop to the fullest, and we wish you well in the pursuit of your educational goals.</p>
<p>Sorry about that, ansley.</p>
<p>I haven’t gotten any letters from National Achievement or National Merit. Hopefully no news is good news! Or, the letters were sent to our school so that a big fanfare could be made out of finalist status. They made a huge thing out of NMSF/NASF, which is weird, because we always have 15-20 NMSF plus one or two NASF a year.</p>
<p>Hmm… I don’t know whether that’s a good or bad thing. My stats are all lower than yours (freaking 1970 SAT score is 5th in my school, and 1st of AAs, but 67453920355th here…),and unless they look at weighted GPAs, mine was the same as yours. I had a *really[/i[ good short essay and rec though so hopefully they look at that… </p>
<p>Well I have a few questions for you or anyone else who can answer them…</p>
<p>Did they send out letters to all of those people who didn’t make it at the same time?</p>
<p>When did you actually get the letter?</p>
<p>By “poor” grades, did you mean you got an F or D or a few Cs?</p>
<p>Gah… I’m so nervous now. Thanks for willingly sharing this with us (a lot of people just wouldn’t have said anything about it), and good luck with other scholarships and college acceptances.</p>