National Merit Commended Students

Paying for College
1

<p>Have the National Merit Commended students been notified? My son hasn't heard anything yet. He missed the semi cutoff by 2 points, but I thought that they would notify him of the Commended status by the end of September. (He did receive the packet in the spring that allowed him to notify 2 colleges of his scores.)</p>

<p>Also, what do the give you for commended? A certificate?</p>

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<p>I don't know about notification, but my son was commended and received a nice sum from a company scholarship (presumeably there weren't enough finalists in the group). So, good luck!</p>

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<p>Since it's obvious that the NM Commended students are the ones who made the top 50,000 students on the PSAT, but didn't get NM semifinalist notification, some high schools save awarding the small Commended certificate until awards night near graduation. That's what older S's school did. Younger S somehow never got his Commended award, but his name was listed in the graduation program as being one of the awardees. In that S's case, considering the had such senioritis that we didn't know if he'd graduate until a week before graduation, I think the school forgot to give him the certificate. He wasn't able to go to the awards night because he was catching up on homework that was long overdue.</p>

<p>Meanwhile your student can list NM Commended as an award on his college apps.</p>

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<p>my counselor notified me... and what i got was this little "letter of commendation" that looks like a certificate</p>

<p>ps: commended students are among top 34,000, not 50,000</p>

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<p>"ps: commended students are among top 34,000, not 50,000"</p>

<p>Nope: "The top 50,000 scores on the PSAT (five percent of a million) are divided into 34,000 commended students and 16,000 semifinalists, who proceed for further testing in hopes of scholarships. "</p>

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<p>Ohiomomma</p>

<p>Go to this forum for information on commended and semi-finalists. I don't know how to put the link in here.</p>

<p>College Discussion > College Admissions and Search > SAT and ACT Tests & Test Preparation<br>
OFFICIAL National Merit Semifinalist Cutoff Scores 2007</p>

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<p>A commended student from one state may have scored higher than a finalist from another state. The designation is national; the breakdowns state by state. In applying to a school with a national draw from a highly competitive state the commended status is meaningful.</p>

<p>If you received the original packet your child will be a commended student by process of elimination.</p>

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<p>I received a certificate of commendation a couple weeks ago from my school. I wish I could have done better though, because my PSAT scores did not at all reflect my SAT scores (202 PSAT, 2290 SAT).</p>

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<p>

Just to clarify, I believe the Semi-Finalist cutoffs are by state, but the commended cutoff is national. And yes, a commended student from NY or another high-scoring state could have been a semi-finalist in a lower scoring state.
At my son's school in PA the commendeds were recognized earlier this month.</p>