I am going to be a senior in Colorado for the 2015-2016 school year. I scored a 217 on my PSAT, a 2090 on my SAT, and a 33 on my ACT. I have been told by my school counselor and several college representatives that I will qualify for Semifinalist for National Merit and that I don’t have to worry about that part. My concern is Finalist standing… I have a 3.45 UW GPA, having taken 8 honors courses and 2 APs (planning to take 2 more senior year). I have heard that you need to have at least a 3.5 to qualify for Finalist, but I’m hoping that my strong extra-curriculars, recommendations, and essay will make up for my GPA. Does anyone know if they have a strict cutoff of 3.5? Or if they round up GPA’s? I’m really hoping I can make finalist status so that going to college isn’t so much of a burden on my parents.
If you have a C or two, maybe. If you have a D, highly unlikely ( I say this as a parent of a likely NMSF with a couple of D’s).
There is not a fixed GPA requirement.
As mstomper writes, the big factor will be individual grades. 2 Cs could be the end. In a competitive year, just 1 could be the end. If your GPA is all about As and Bs, you should be OK.
I don’t have any D’s and all but one of my C’s are in weighted honors/AP classes… Do they evaluate that far or do they just look at how many C’s you have no matter what course?
If you have multiple C’s it is highly unlikely you will advance to NMF. The level of the class does not seem to be considered.
How many C’s do you have as semester grades? (not quarter grades)
What does your school put on its transcripts? Year end grades only? or semester grades? or what?
My transcript is by semesters. My freshman year I had a C in my honors chem/physics both semesters. Sophomore year I got a C in one semester of AP World History and a C in Honors Trig (semester class). Last year I got a C in one semester of Precalculus. So that’s C grades for 5 semester classes. I don’t know if they view semester grades differently from year-long grades… if they think of it in year-long grades that would basically equate to 2.5 C grades…