<p>The highest state cutoff was about 222 last year. Most states don't have cutoffs that high, though. If you got higher, chill.</p>
<p>Sorry for difficulty getting to earlier link, and sorry in advance for long post: from prior years it's clear how frustrating this is for newbies. This is an attempt to summarize state Semifinalist cutoff information:</p>
<p>National Merit Programs are "dated" by the calendar year that the scholarships are determined, i.e. the "current" Program is called the 2007 National Merit Program because that's when its scholarships will come. It is for students now (2006) entering their senior year, and is based on PSATs taken in fall 2005</p>
<p>As WillyWankaWannaB notes in post #187 below (thank you WWWB!), the ongoing NMSC schedule is available at:
<a href="http://www.collegeboard.com/prod_downloads/counselors/psat/2006-official-educator-guide-PSAT-NMSQT.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://www.collegeboard.com/prod_downloads/counselors/psat/2006-official-educator-guide-PSAT-NMSQT.pdf</a>
If this link doesn't work for you, try pasting it into a browser and replacing the "dow...PSAT" with "downloads/counselors/psat/2006-official-educator-guide-PSAT". The two key dates in that .pdf file (on page 30, which is labeled page 29) are:
(1) Monday, August 21, 2006 (tomorrow!): "Notification of 16,000 Semifinalists in the 2007 National Merit Program and Merit Scholarship application materials are mailed to principals." But note: semifinalists do not get "Notification"; the NMSC mails the notification to the principal. CC posts discussing this in Fall 2004 and Fall 2005 showed a wide variety between schools. In one school that opened in August, the principal pulled the new Semifinalist from class to congratulate her/him. In another, the principal sent the notification unopened to the guidance office where it sat for weeks, until the student went in asking about it. "Yeah, I think I did get something from them, it's around here somewhere, want me to open it?"
(2) Monday, September 18 (four weeks from tomorrow): "Notification to principals of Commended Students in the 2007 National Merit Program." The hard part is, you only know if you make Semifinalist if your principal gets mailed something tomorrow and tells you about it. You won't know with certainty that you HAVEN'T made Semifinalist until your principal gets the word a month later that you're in the Commended bucket, and tells you.</p>
<p>It's not clear if all the state cutoffs are included in the mailing that principals are being mailed tomorrow. If they are, hopefully someone will post them here shortly.</p>
<p>Here are the Semifinalist cutoffs, by state, from last year, i.e. for the 2006 Program (PSATs taken in fall 2004):
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=93947%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=93947</a><br>
If this link doesn't work, try replacing the "...ad" with "showthread". The cutoffs are in post #9 in that thread. That post was made 9/1/05, so we may not get the cutoffs for this year's Program (2007's) for a while. (Note, Delaware's 2005 population numbers are incorrect in this post.)</p>
<p>For the prior year's cutoffs (2005 Program), see the top post at the CC archive:
<a href="http://www.collegeconfidential.com/cgi-bin/discus/show.cgi?70/87772%5B/url%5D">http://www.collegeconfidential.com/cgi-bin/discus/show.cgi?70/87772</a>
If this link doesn't work, try replacing the "c...w.cgi" with "cgi-bin/discus/show.cgi". It has the same 2005 Delaware population errors.</p>
<p>A few statistics from the 2006 Program numbers a year ago:
-> Highest cutoff was 222: DC, MA, MD, NJ, and outside the US
-> Lowest cutoff was 204: MS, WY, and US territories
-> 29 states/regions went UP (1 to 5 points), 17 stayed where they were, only 7 went DOWN (1 to 2 points)
-> Biggest increasers were VT +5; and AR, MT, ND, and WV +4
-> Decreasers were DE, ID, and SC -1; HI, ME, MN, and NV -2
-> Average change 2005 to 2006: 1.2 points (absolute value of change in one direction or another)
-> Average change 2005 to 2006: 0.8 points up (netting ups with downs)
-> The correlations are pretty low, but the biggest moves do seem to come in the smallest states.</p>
<p>Over time, the trend has been a gradual increase of the state cutoffs. Compare to the 2001 cutoffs available at:
<a href="http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2004-02-04-national-merit-scholars_x.htm%5B/url%5D">http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2004-02-04-national-merit-scholars_x.htm</a>
If this link doesn't work, try replacing the "educati...scholars" with "education/2004-02-04-national-merit-scholars". Between the 2001 and 2006 Programs, 2 states (HI and ME) went down. HI is apparently very volatile because something like half of all the Semifinalists there come from a single school. And being a small state (about #42), ME was volatile -- it went down 2, up 3, down 2. One state (OK) was level 2001-2006: it went down 2, then up 2. Every other state is up 2001 to 2006, with an average increase over that time of 2.6 points. This is frustrating, but explained by greater preparation in recent years, requiring higher cutoffs to hold the percentiles constant. The only hint we have about this year is the unofficial word that the Commended cutoff (see post #165, below) rose again this year (2004 Program 201, 2005 Program 202, 2006 Program 203).</p>
<p>Finally, for people who commute to school from one state to another, the relevant state cutoff is the state of the school, not the state of the home.</p>
<p>N.B. As noted in an earlier post, a lot of people are going to be posting a lot of malarkey here over the next few weeks, so don't overreact to anything you see here (or hear anywhere else, for that matter). Unless someone posts a full set of the state cutoffs and it's validated by a fair number of people hearing (and not hearing) from their principals, it'll be another five or six weeks before everyone knows for sure.</p>
<p>Relax as best you can, and best wishes to all...</p>
<p>nactor329 & jym626: According to the links in the prior post, NJ's cutoff rose from 219 in the 2001 Program, to 221 in the 2004 and 2005 Programs, to 222 in the 2006 Program. As the ninth most-populous state, it doesn't seem likely that they would jump it to 224 for this year's Program (2007), so you're probably OK, nactor329, but you won't know for sure unless your principal contacts you in the next few weeks. Good luck.</p>
<p>221 in Ohio... I'm in!</p>
<p>rivj >>>>2) Monday, September 18 (four weeks from tomorrow): "Notification to principals of Commended Students in the 2007 National Merit Program." The hard part is, you only know if you make Semifinalist if your principal gets mailed something tomorrow and tells you about it. You won't know with certainty that you HAVEN'T made Semifinalist until your principal gets the word a month later that you're in the Commended bucket, and tells you.<<<<</p>
<p>Do they really use the word "Commended"? The Commended students were notified last spring. Wouldn't they use the word "semifinalist"?</p>
<p>so i took psat in 2005 oct. (junior year) means that I am in 2007 competition, right? and can some one post stats for 2006 compeition(specifically nc)? 2004 and 2005 are already posted elsewhere</p>
<p>Where is the listing of the cutoffs for 2006? I thought I had them, but I must have had the 2005 cutoffs. Anyone have a link? Is this info available yet?</p>
<p>yea exactly what i want</p>
<p>jlauer95: Yup, they really use those words, thus the quotation marks. I pulled them verbatim from the calendar in the NMSC's "Official Educator Guide to the PSAT/NMSQT" that WillyWankaWannaB found for us. Check it out at the first blue link in post #202, below. Semifinalist notifications get mailed to principals tomorrow, Commended notifications get mailed to them in four weeks. </p>
<p>achilles (cool handle, BTW): Yes, you are in the "2007 National Merit Program".</p>
<p>achilles & jym626: The 2006 Program cutoffs are at the second blue link in post #202.</p>
<p>thank you very much</p>
<p>In the "Official Educators Guide to the PSAT" so graciously supplied by WillyWankaWannaB, on page 30 it lists "2006-07 Important Dates for Schools".
In the left hand column, eighth block down, it has "October 14, November 4, December 2 - Authorized SAT administrations for Semifinalists in NMSC's 2007 programs." </p>
<p>If you are named a semifinalist in the mailing this week, does this mean you have to take the SAT on one of the three dates listed? I would think that many/most of those named semifinalist would have already taken the SAT - probably more than once. I thought I read someplace that if you had taken the SAT AFTER the October, 2005 administration of the PSAT, you could use those SAT scores should you be named a semifinalist. Does anyone know the answer?</p>
<p>You can use the earlier SATs.</p>
<p>Thank you CollegeBound2007, my daughter will breathe a sigh of relief!! After the October 2005 PSAT, two SATs and two ACTs, she is tested out!!</p>
<p>collegebound: "You can use the earlier SATs."</p>
<p>Thanks! Where does it say that? My son will be very happy to hear this.</p>
<p>It will be in the instructions they are given when they are notified of semifinalist status. There's a certain time period during which they may test. For example, my daughter took the SAT in March, 2005 which was allowable for NM (she graduated in May).</p>
<p>My son took the SAT around March of his junior year & became a NMF in the spring of his senior year. Many of his classmates similarly did not retest after junior year & still became NMFs.</p>
<p>For the 2006 NMF, the authorized SAT tests were those after OCt 2003 and before Dec 2005. See page 2 of <a href="http://www.nationalmerit.org/Merit_R&I_Leaflet.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://www.nationalmerit.org/Merit_R&I_Leaflet.pdf</a> </p>
<p>So for 2007 NMF (that is us) it will be March 2005 to Dec 2006 (New SATs).</p>
<p>does anyone know the cutoffs yet for this year? (people who took it in 2005, the class of 2007) specifically Ohio?</p>
<p>swim4china89: No word yet except someone saying TX has held at 217, with no other details. Sounds like late-night TV election coverage...</p>
<p>Last year's notifications said only yes or no and didn't list the cutoff, so when you get yours, post it like this:
my/state my/score yes/no comment
e.g.
TX 217 yes Yippee!!!!
or
TX 216 no expletive deleted, we tried moving but there were no subatomic particle physicist jobs left in Guam</p>
<p>Note what you know directly<a href="from%20a%20letter%20you%20have%20physically%20seen">/u</a> separately from what you've heard. Last year there were tons of rumors, and it was hard to figure out what was real and what wasn't. If the thread gets big I'll post an occasional summary table of what's been posted so far.</p>
<p>Keep in mind none of this is for sure; it's only as good as things submitted by anonymous posters can be. For all you know, I work at NMSC or am that obnoxious guy you always beat on chem exams trying to mess with your head. It's fun to try to find out early this way, but don't stress too much. If you're worried about making Semifinalist it means you're already way up in the percentiles. Semifinalist names will be released to the press on Wednesday 9/13, so worst case we've only got 3 weeks until we're sure.</p>
<p>Remember: my/state my/score yes/no comment</p>
<p>Please tell me, where did you hear that Texas held at 217? My daughter scored a 217, so you can see we are on pins and needles. Her school did not get anything in the mail today.</p>