<p>How much weightage is given to people who have National merit finalist?
I know finalist is better (obviously), but is there a huge advantage over getting a commended scholar?</p>
<p>You can't apply as a national merit finalist, unless you're not the standard graduating Senior after 4 years of high school. The reason is that you find out if you're a semifinalist in September, and you don't find out whether or not you're a finalist until February, when you've finished turning your application in. So I guess I'm saying your question should be about semifinalist (though I will admit most semifinalists--90% or something) become finalists.</p>
<p>ok, so my question is about semi-finalist. So back tothe original question</p>
<p>I know SEMI-finalist is better (obviously), but is there a huge advantage over getting a commended scholar?</p>
<p>thanks for the clarification :)</p>
<p>Not if the SAT are the same. If the SAT differ large its an advantage, but the PSAT really doesn't matter for most competitive colleges.</p>
<p>so in terms of awards, the semi-finalist is only slightly above commended scholar?</p>
<p>In terms of scholarship awards (if that's what you mean by awards), the semifinalist is equal to commended because it's only some finalists who get the actual award.</p>
<p>in terms of how princeton views it, a little better or a lot better?</p>
<p>Well, the people at my school who get Semi-Finalist are usually a lot smarter than those who just get commended, so if this holds true elsewhere, then I bet Princeton would consider Semi-Finalist quite a bit more impressive. That being said, neither one of these is going to knock the socks off of the admissions staff, so don't worry too much about it. The SAT is much more important.</p>
<p>There are 16,000 Semifinalists, and I'm sure a lot of them would consider applying to highly selective colleges like Princeton. A significant portion of all those who apply to Princeton probably has Semifinalist written down somewhere on their app, so it's not something that's ultra-special; tho it might be when you apply to state colleges or other less-selective colleges.</p>