Hi everyone, I’m debating whether to put National AP Scholar or National Merit Commended on my common app. I received National AP Scholar in 11th grade, and the National Merit Commended award was announced at the start of my senior year. Which one would make more sense and provide more benefit to my application?
Do you have to choose? Do you have other awards that are so much more impressive than these that you’ve run out of space? Why shouldn’t you put them both?
Hi, I wanted to emphasize my science background, so I’ve put awards that I’ve won at the science fair in the other 4 slots—for example, Regeneron ISEF and other awards that I can label if you’d like.
National Merit Commended > National AP Scholar (the latter can be figured out from your AP test scores, while most schools don’t ask for PSAT scores.)
Yes, AP awards simply reflect the number/scores of tests you’ve taken. Since you qualified for National Scholar, I assume you are sending all of the scores as part of your application, so noting the award doesn’t add any information.
Agree with Rich. If you’re still thinking of Stanford and Ivies, adcoms will see the scores. The CB bar is a bit lower than what the competition will bring, so the awards themselves are not a tip.
If you are applying for the very top schools, is it good to show commended? It shows that you took the test but didn’t score in the top 1% in your state. However, your school profile may give away that your school takes the PSAT( my DS HS does this). Then you would want to show it so they don’t think that you scored worse than top 5%. But I am way overthinking this.
@Eeyore123 Page 40 of the following document describes NMS enrollment at every university: https://www.nationalmerit.org/s/1758/images/gid2/editor_documents/annual_report.pdf?gid=2&pgid=61&sessionid=112487e4-97a3-4da9-8c12-200e9b9ac42e&cc=1
At the top-most schools, NMS appear to be 50-200 students of the entire school, but it’s probably not what got them in-----IMO OP should submit NM Commended as it IS a national award as it’s based on the entire country, not just your state (IIRC state cutoff is only for NMSF, but Commended is nationally set.)
@PikachuRocks15 the numbers that you are referring to are scholarship winners, not semifinalist. About half the semifinalist progress to finalists then scholars. However, you cannot just multiply the numbers that you reference by two to get the number of NMSFs at a school. That is because a large % of the scholarships are given by the school. Very few of the top schools give NSF scholarships. The real number that we would like to see is the number of non hooked acceptances that are NSMF / number of non hooked acceptance that took the PSAT. For the small sample size that I have seen, that rate is 100%.
@Eeyore123 Most NMS (from the NM $2500) tend to be T20 admits, at least in my state, due to the review process being very similar to the selective admissions process. However, I agree that the numbers don’t include the entire picture.
For an alternative situation than the one you observe locally, my HS sends 20-30 students to T20s+USC (b/c of the West Coast) every year, and usually ~20 every year are NMSF. ~1/4-1/2 of those admitted are NMSF----there is a good number of students that do not achieve NMSF status and still get into these schools. NMSF does have some advantage, no matter how small, but it doesn’t preclude anyone from getting into top schools if they have strong applications----it’s just more likely for NMSF students to ALSO have strong applications and be working towards getting into selective schools.
Either way, there’s nothing that OP can do about being Commended vs. Semi-Finalist----IMO it’s still an achievement and should be noted as such.