National Merit Cutoff

Paying for College
341

<p>
[quote]
My son's guidance counselor told me that the Va cutoff is 220. Ok, now I whine. My son had that as a sophomore, but was sick the test day junior year and only got a 219. One day, one test- and now no money- whine whine.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Wow, that's up like 2 points isn't it? I thought it might go down, based on what people I know got. If I had gotten my sophomore year scores in the two verbal sections then I would have made the cutoff but I was like 7 points lower (both combined) my junior year. Nothing really explains for me to have gotten lower, I was kind of tired that day but not sick. At least I had already figured I would miss the cutoff anyway though because even if it had gone down or a point or two I still would have missed it by a point or two.</p>

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<p>Holycow-I'm just wondering how you got the information on the new york cutoff
Does anyone else have any information on the New York cutoff--I got a 222 and i'm really hoping i made it</p>

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<p>Can anyone from Texas please verify the 217 cut off posted on #227? Everytime I look at the "unofficial summary" and see that question mark next to 217 I get nervous. I'm hanging on to my S's 218 with a death grip! Surely somebody else from this great state can ease my mind. My S school has not contacted us and I don't want bug them so I guess I'm bugging you, my fellow parents playing the college game. Thanks for understanding!</p>

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<p>eventer:</p>

<p>I am very confident of the reliability of the info I received.</p>

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<p>got in for az (not that az has such a high cutoff, but still)! woohoo</p>

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<p>Hey Prince Dog, yeah we thought it might go down too as we knew several kids who scored lower this year. Wish it was lower!!</p>

<p>And to yyiiwweeii, yeah he will be ok. The big thing was that all of his high school years, every member of his athletic team has made it, now he is captain for next year, and might be the ONLY one on the team that didn't make it. Also, we were really hoping for some money from it!</p>

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<p>for california: my associate principal told me today in her own words that "the cutoff will probably be 217 again this year", and i dont find any validity to that "rumor", so i would go by what my associate principal said</p>

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<p>It's going to be hard for the students who come from states that haven't started (or have <em>just</em> started) school to find out if they made NMSF and to find out (or determine) what their state's cut off is.</p>

<p>However, if my child lived in a state where school has been in session for at least a few days, and my child's PSAT was likely to be above the cutoff, and my child had tried to get the paperwork himself and had been "blown off", I would go to the principal/counselor's office and insist that they give my child the paperwork!</p>

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<p>My son's school in Georgia gave him the paperwork today and wants it back by September 8th.
Sorry, no clue as to the cutoff, he was well above 222.</p>

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<p>Georgia was 218 last year. It would not likely go up by 4 pts.</p>

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<p>ok, jym626, if you want specifics, the cutoff is 229 or less for Georgia. :)</p>

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<p>See my post from earlier today. 221 is a semifinalist in Georgia. The minimum is yet to be established on this board.</p>

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<p>Did I ask for specifics???</p>

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<p>Mostly for people new to the thread, here's a summary of information mostly from earlier posts, with schedules and links:</p>

<p>CCer WillyWankaWannaB located the current (2007 National Merit Program/2005 PSATs) NMSC schedule for us at <a href="http://www.collegeboard.com/prod_downloads/counselors/psat/2006-official-educator-guide-PSAT-NMSQT.pdf%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.collegeboard.com/prod_downloads/counselors/psat/2006-official-educator-guide-PSAT-NMSQT.pdf&lt;/a> The three key dates there (on page 30, labeled page 29) are:
--> Monday, August 21, 2006: "Notification of 16,000 Semifinalists in the 2007 National Merit Program and Merit Scholarship application materials are mailed to principals." Note: Semifinalists do not get "Notification"; the NMSC mailed notifications to principals. Schools handle this very differently: compare post #310 ("our school said they know but won't tell us") to post #334 ("our principal just gave us the good news").
--> Wednesday, September 13, 2006: "Release to media names of 2007 National Merit Scholarship Program Semifinalists". And from their FAQs at <a href="http://www.nationalmerit.org/faq_news.php#QD3%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.nationalmerit.org/faq_news.php#QD3&lt;/a> "NMSC distributes public announcements about Semifinalists in the fall and about scholarship winners in the spring. Included is background information about the competition with a list of students' names, the names and locations of their high schools, and information about scholarship sponsors." and "NMSC sends news releases to several thousand daily and weekly newspapers and school district public information offices that have requested them."
--> Monday, September 18: "Notification to principals of Commended Students in the 2007 National Merit Program." </p>

<p>The state Semifinalist minimums from last year (2006 Program/2004 PSATs)are in post #9 (9/1/05) in
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=93947%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=93947&lt;/a> This includes 2006 and 2005 minimums. Some statistics for 2005 to 2006 changes (like # of states that increased) are in post #202 of the thread you are now reading.</p>

<p>For the prior year (2005 and 2004 minimums), see the top post (9/2/04) at the CC archive <a href="http://www.collegeconfidential.com/cgi-bin/discus/show.cgi?70/87772%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.collegeconfidential.com/cgi-bin/discus/show.cgi?70/87772&lt;/a> This includes 2005 and 2004 minimums.</p>

<p>Over time, the trend has been a gradual increase of the state cutoffs. Compare the more recent minimums with the 2001 minimums table at <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2004-02-04-national-merit-scholars_x.htm%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2004-02-04-national-merit-scholars_x.htm&lt;/a> Between the 2001 and 2006 Programs, only 2 states (HI and ME) went down, only one (OK) was level. Every other state was 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 limit the SFs to 16,000. From what we've figured out in this thread for the 2007 Program so far, 5 of the 10 states we're fairly certain of are up from last year, consistent with the Commended minimum rising another point this year as well.</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. For people who go to boarding school, there's apparently is at least one special minimum used for them which is discussed elsewhere on CC.</p>

<p>Relax as best you can, and good luck to all...</p>

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<p>rivj,
Nice summary. Where's thid info about boarding school? I have a friend who would be most interested inthis--as she lives in NY but her s. goes to school in NC.</p>

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<p>Not much new tonight, except NY and VA. Here's what we've got as of now (please post if you have additional data):
. . . minimum . . . change from
. . .<a href="in%20blue">color=blue</a> is:[/color] . .last year . . . . relevant post(s)
AL . . . . 212 . . . no change . . . posts 231, 263, 286, 336
AZ . . . . 214 . . . +2 . . . . . . . . post 321
AR . . . . 206 . . . no change . . . posts 319, 326
CA . . . 217? . . . no change? . . .posts 282, 347
FL . . . . 215 . . . no change . . . posts 274, 277, 324
GA . . <=221 . . . min. prob'y lower . . post 334
HI . . . . 218 . . . +4 (-2 last yr) .post 271
IL . . .<=218 . . . ?? . . . . . . . . .posts 309, 312
MS . .<=216 . . . prob'y way lower . . private message
MO . . . .214 . . . +1 . . . . . . . . .post 234
NY . . . 221? . . . +3? . . . . . . . . posts 306, 333, 338, 340, 344
OH . . . .215 . . . no change . . . .posts 247, 252
SC . . <=214 . . . 2006 unclear . .post 272
TN . . <=217 . . . +1 or less . . . .post 303
TX . . <=217 . . . no change? . . .post 227
VA . . . . 220 . . . no change . . . post 335</p>

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<p>I've found out that 219 is a semifinalist in IL but 211 is not. Don't know about in between, although another poster reported 218 is good enough.</p>

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<p>Texas's cutoff had better stay 217. I'll have to be institutionalized if it drops (I had a 216 last year).</p>

<p>Oh well...it eventually worked itself out.</p>

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<p>Illinois better have dropped JUST ONE FREAKIN' POINT.</p>

<p>And katho, why would you care if it dropped? Do you just want all the 216s to be deprived or what?</p>

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<p>jym626: It's really hard to find out about this, but there are hints. First, check the NMSC's last Annual Report at <a href="http://www.nationalmerit.org/05_annual%20report.pdf%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.nationalmerit.org/05_annual%20report.pdf&lt;/a> Paging down to "Semifinalists" at the bottom of page 16-17 (labelled page 14-15), the NMSC sets Semifinalist minimums for the states and "for [1] participants attending high schools in DC, [2] US commonwealths and territories, [3] schools in other countries that enroll US citizens, and [4]US boarding schools that enroll a sizable proportion of students from outside the state in which the school is located." (brackets and underlining mine)</p>

<p>The Semifinalist minimums for [1] DC and [3] schools outside the US are typically 222 (tied with MA, MD, and NJ last year), while US CWs & Terry's is typically at the very bottom (tied with WY and MS at 204 last year). </p>

<p>The [4] US boarding schools are apparently further subdivided by region, though their minimums don't seem to have ever appeared on CC. Check check CC thread <a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=91698%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=91698&lt;/a> starting in post #36 for a short discussion of them and a few of the regions. Maybe try Private Messaging "hazmat" or other posters on the subject. Good hunting...</p>