<p>So today, i became a NASF. Nice, I was expecting it. What I didn't expect was for my school to announce it so everyone could know. and now, I feel ashamed. I feel ashamed that I wasn't good enough to make National merit Finalist. I feel like I was unable to compete with my white classmates. I feel ashamed because I feel recognized for being black and not for being smart. I feel like crawling into a hole and even more, I don't want anyone to know I'm NASF. its so bad, that I would almost rather be just commended. I don't wnat any attention drawn to my race. I pray that no one else will know what NASF is. My mother thinks i'm crazy. what do you think?</p>
<p>You should be proud of your accomplishment, no matter how big or small. And this is a big accomplishment. And being a National Merit Finalist doesn’t make you any smarter, neither those being a NASF make you any less important than a NMF. Not many people can say that they are a NASF anyways, so be proud, because you have ACHIEVED something great. I hope I can be a NASF when I take the PSAT again this year. There is nothing wrong with that. Oh and you shouldn’t assume that your white classmates are NMF anyways, for all you know they might not be.</p>
<p>Yeah, the worst thing that you could do is feel ashamed of your accomplishments due to your race.</p>
<p>Yes, NASF recognition has a lower threshold than NMS recognition - - but that’s like complaining you got the Olympic silver (or bronze) instead of the gold. Isn’t the same true for students who received NMS commendations, but didn’t make the cut for semi-finalist, or those semi-finalist who didn’t make the cut for finals?</p>
<p>I’m a NASF, too! (^_^) And I’m proud of it. I didn’t make the NMS index for any state (my PSAT score is 198), but you know what? I’m no dummy and I know it. I’ve accomplished more academically and intellectually than most people my age, no matter their race. You are smart - that’s why you’re a NASF. Did you compete well enough to become an NMSSF? No, but so didn’t most other people, including non-blacks. </p>
<p>Don’t get me wrong, I understand where you’re coming from. A part of me is irked, but that’s more of an issue of why blacks are held to a lower standard than accomplishing something good. But I was the only one in my class that became a NASF - I beat out the will-be class valedictorian with the 4.0 - and I have a 3.63 and a D in math. The way I see it, that’s pretty damn good.</p>
<p>Take advantage of an accident of birth and run with it. 70% of the country can’t.</p>
<p>You really shouldn’t be ashamed over an award, especially if it’s beyond your control. Take it and be proud.
I agree.</p>
<p>"So today, i became a NASF. Nice, I was expecting it. What I didn’t expect was for my school to announce it so everyone could know. and now, I feel ashamed. I feel ashamed that I wasn’t good enough to make National merit Finalist. I feel like I was unable to compete with my white classmates. I feel ashamed because I feel recognized for being black and not for being smart. I feel like crawling into a hole and even more, I don’t want anyone to know I’m NASF. its so bad, that I would almost rather be just commended. I don’t wnat any attention drawn to my race. I pray that no one else will know what NASF is. My mother thinks i’m crazy. what do you think? "</p>
<p>I empathize with you. I felt the same when I was in high school, and for that reason, I skipped the school’s annual award ceremony. I was the only black student in my high school class, and I didn’t like getting an award that was just for black people when I hadn’t qualified for National Merit scholar or commended like some of my friends had. </p>
<p>If only I had known the PSAT really counted for scholarships. I’d thought it was just a practice test, so I breezed through it as quickly as possible and didn’t even check my answers. I missed NM commended by just a couple of points. </p>
<p>Both of my sons made NM commended and felt prouder about that award than by being recognized by the NAS program.</p>
<p>I kind of wish my school would recognize me lol. I got both NMS and NAS. My school didn’t even tell me lol I got a letter in the mail! We haven’t had a NAS in the last 10 years, maybe not at all lol…so I guess they don’t know what to do.</p>
<p>Djamazon, congratulations!</p>
<p>Maybe your school is going to recognize you at their end of the year award’s ceremony. That’s what some schools do.</p>
<p>D recently received the letter for both NMS and NAS, and she and I are extremely proud… of both! Fortunately, those of you who are strangely ashamed of being one of the best in the nation on this test have the option of not continuing on in the competition. Just don’t turn in the paperwork and you won’t need to be further embarassed if you happen to win anything. But, please, do not look disparagingly upon those, like my D, who will be truly thrilled if she is fortunate enough to become an NM or NA Scholar.</p>
<p>When do national achievement “recognized” high scorers…not semi-finalists find out? I think this is the next tier down from semi-finalist…anyone?</p>
<p>they mail out “Outstanding Participant” notifications on the 28th of September.</p>
<p>Why would you be upset about such a good honor? I don’t understand some people on the website who fish for compliments by complaining about these things…I would dream to be a NASF at least…hopefully I was at least an outstanding participant!</p>
<p>Regardless, it’s a chance for you to get money. I wouldn’t turn down that opportunity.</p>
<p>I have read but never posted on College Confidential, but the initial comment was so unnerving until I had to respond. It is more commendable to be a National Achievement Semifinalist than a National Merit Semifinalist. </p>
<p>We can extrapolate from your selection as a NAS that you scored among the top three percent of all 11th grade African American students in the nation who took the PSAT. Further, to be a NAS means that you are a black student who has demonstrated that, despite nearly 500 years of racial oppression against African Americans in the United States, your PSAT scores are better than over 90% of the 11th grade students who took the test! </p>
<p>While most American students benefitted from oppression, racial oppression was a detriment to you. While the winds of oppression pushed whites forward, the winds of oppression lashed against blacks. Labor that should have enriched your parents was denied them and appropriated by whites to benefit their children. Such unjust enrichment is why many whites can afford better schools and private tutors for their children. Did the whites merit their success because laws were passed that permitted their parents to exploit others to better position themselves and their heirs? Is it lamentable that your PSAT score surpassed 90% of the white students in the nation, despite their unfair advantage?</p>
<p>When I am talking to students, I often ask: if a 16-year-old and I ran the 100 meters, which would win the race. They unanimously agree the 16-year-old would win. I ask them why. They say that I am 50 years old; I am overweight; I am up in age. They are correct. I ask them if the 16-year-old ran 100 meters and I only ran 30, who would win. They say I would. They are correct again. They recognize that the young man is faster, and that his youth would advantage him in the first race. In the second race, he would still be faster because of his youth, but the shorter distance would give me a greater advantage. I would win. Your PSAT score may not earn you National Merit, but how many NMS have had to overcome the obstacles and setbacks your family has?</p>
<p>Do you think white students in Mississippi who earn National Merit status will mope because their scores are lower than white students in Greenwich, Connecticut, who did not earn National Merit? Of course not! The National Merit and National Achievement reflect the differences in the economical and educational composition of our nation. Students from affluent communities have access to greater resources and better opportunities. They are expected to do better than those with fewer resources. </p>
<p>Percy Julian was a top-notch chemist and did much to improve health care in America. When he initially went to college, he was so far behind his white classmates, he had to take remedial classes at the local high school to catch up. He nonetheless graduated first in his class four years later. He was not an inferior student when he went to college; he had been given inferior opportunities. When given an equal opportunity, he surpassed his white college classmates.</p>
<p>Blacks are the victims of 500 years of racial discrimination in America! We have been deprived of money, emasculated of our dignity and self-respect, and provided inferior opportunities. Only in the last few decades have we been given even a decent opportunity to achieve an education. In a stratified society where race and money play such a salient role in opportunities and achievements, it would be inane to judge African Americans on the same scale as whites or Asians who have not known such prolonged and systematic exploitation and abuse.</p>
<p>In closing, merit is based upon achievement when the playing field is level. When people have been given equal opportunities, we can come close to assessing who merits the prize. In other words, judge people equally when they have been given equal opportunities. To recapitulate, whites in Appalachia are not going to do as well as the whites in Greenwich, CT, and it has nothing to do with the color of their skin. It has to do with the inequality of wealth and power between those communities. </p>
<p>You have more reason to be proud that you are a National Achievement Semifinalist, because your PSAT score indicates that your parents refused to allow self-hatred to cause them to self-destruct. They put you in a position to achieve, and your PSAT score ranks among the best in the nation, despite innumerable obstacles strewn in your family’s path to facilitate failure. Laws were passed to ensure the success of whites; laws were passed to ensure the failure of blacks. You have excelled in spite of!</p>
<p>You are the true National Merit Scholar!</p>
<p>^ Extremely well said. I think I’m going to have to bookmark your reply for future reference.</p>
<p>^^Amen and amen. Preach!</p>
<p>Yeah. And just so you know nil desperandum there are approximately 160,000 african americans who participate in the National Achievement Scholarship Program and out of that number only 1300 become finalist. That is a huge accomplishment in my eyes. I’m still puzzled that only that little become finalist, I’d expect the number to at least be 8,000.</p>
<p>daydream 11, I was so troubled by the first post, I forgot to express my respect for the insight and precociousness evidenced by your comment. </p>
<p>Many adults do not understand the rationale of affirmative action; hence, I am not surprised that many teens do not. Despite your ambivalence about your NAS status, you performed better than the valedictorian and tested somewhere around the 95th percentile in the nation! That is outstanding! Irrespective of which award you received, your score ranked among the elite!</p>
<p>In the Narrative of Frederick Douglass, the writer observed that the master loved to see the slaves boxing and wrestling on the weekend, but it was against the law for them to read a book. Reading would have transformed the slaves’ way of thinking. </p>
<p>The scripture tells us that the people were destroyed because of the lack of knowledge. The master vehemently opposed the slaves learning to read, because his power was not in his strength, but in the slaves’ weakness. As long as the slaves were ignorant, they were incapable of defeating him.</p>
<p>Douglass further observed that the master learned that his wife was teaching the slave how to read. The master took his wife aside and informed her, “If you teach that ■■■■■■ how to read, you will never be able to keep him as a slave!” Since Douglass overheard the conversation, he understood that his freedom was predicated upon the acquisition of knowledge. Hence, he assisted white boys with their chores in exchange for their teaching him how to read. Once he learned to read, he escaped from slavery!</p>
<p>We must be wise: If white people truly believed they were superior to blacks, they would not have passed laws to keep blacks down. Their innate superiority would have sufficed to keep blacks subordinated to them. Laws are not needed to uphold what has already been predetermined by nature. Oppression was used to intimidate blacks into submission, so that whites would not feel as threatened about their own precarious state in life. As long as blacks did not read, they could never achieve the knowledge necessary to legitimately compete against insecure whites.</p>
<p>Your scores show that, despite all of the water hoses, bombings, lynching, Jim Crow, KKK, and other machinations that whites used to destabilize black America, many black children, in less than two generations since Dr. King’s death, are already outperforming most children of white Americans! Your PSAT scores exposed the myth of white supremacy! Tell all of your classmates. They will not look down upon you; they cannot look down on you: You did better than 95% of them! Such success is why the Klan and other bigots used brutal tactics to fight against an egalitarian society. When black people are treated equally, whites will no longer be able to mask their fear in the delusion of white supremacy, but would have to acknowledge that they are afraid they cannot win on the merit.</p>
<p>Be proud of your recognition as a National Achievement Semifinalist!</p>
<p>Thank you everyone. I appreciate all the advice I have recieved in this thread. I did feel inadequate when my friend who made NMSF, pointedly told me that, " since your scores weren’t good enough to make NMSF" and expressed suprise at me checking the NASF box, since she thought, " I didn’t do those kind of things" I think mostly, i just don’t want to argue with people about AA, because it goes nowhere. So, yeah, thank you guys, I was feeling really inadequate.</p>