<p>Hey, so I was a National Merit Semifinalist and I was wondering how I know if I advanced to being a Finalist or not. Recently, I've been getting some emails from colleges saying congrats for being a finalist, but I haven't actually received any notification that I am a finalist.</p>
<p>I think it’s in February, but colleges may get the heads up sooner. </p>
<p>16,000 Semifinalists
15,000 Finalists</p>
<p>The chances of you NOT being a finalist are pretty low…</p>
<p>Hello Everyone…you can feel the excitement in the air! Best wishes to all!</p>
<p>The National Merit people say that the vast majority of semifinalists who don’t become finalists just didn’t submit the paperwork. So I wouldn’t worry about it.</p>
<p>There are a couple of threads about this - it seems rejection letters were mailed a couple of weeks ago. If you did not get one, you should be ok.</p>
<p>Also, they say colleges receive the data sooner, high school letters are mailed Feb 2 and students are notified Feb 9.</p>
<p>What kind of paperwork do you need to do to qualify if your score is above the cut?</p>
<p>Some time around August/September of the year after you take it, your school gets mailed an application. You just need to get it filled out and sent in.</p>
<p>Ya, the app isn’t that hard. Just some questions about your school and family and then an essay…which I also used for my common app essay, which was very convenient.</p>
<p>International students that are in the U.S. probably make for a large part of the 1,000 that do not make it to Finalist, as the furthest they are allowed to advance to is Semifinalist.</p>
<p>@CollegeHappy: if you don’t mind me asking, when did you get your first letter from a college congratulating you on becoming a Finalist? I remember a few people last year “finding out” that way too.</p>
<p>This past Wednesday was my first letter from Boise State saying “As a 2010 National Merit Finalist you can earn a full ride scholarship to Boise State University.” but I don’t know if they are just using Finalist and Semi-Finalist interchangeably or if I really am a finalist, though it seems, from what people have written above, that I am probably a finalist.</p>
<p>Thanks CollegeHappy! I think that you’re probably through 
as letters back in the fall made mention of semi finalist status.</p>
<p>If you think through the timing: people who didn’t make the cut were mailed letters around Jan 8th (the 1st was received on Jan 9th.) For colleges that requested lists of NMFs, those were probably generated and sent the following week (1/11-15.) </p>
<p>It’s a lot easier to generate a mass mailing based on a list, than it is for NMSC to print out certificates for all NMFs and then collate them based on high school. So that probably explains why students get letters giving them the heads up on NMF status before they get “official” word.</p>
<p>Congrats everyone on Finalist!</p>
<p>D got a letter today from Arizona State about Barrett (the Honors College.) She’s gotten mail from them before, but towards the end of today’s letter it says “Perhaps most important to you and your parents is the merit scholarship offered to National Merit Finalists.” And it mentions benefits to NMFs subtlety in another place or two.</p>
<p>So nothing saying “Congratulations on being named a NMF” but I can’t imagine that they’d send this (dated 1/22/10) if she hadn’t advanced. Waiting till Feb 9th…</p>
<p>Got a similar letter as the above from ASU (perhaps identical letter…). It would be great if one could extrapolate that a mention of “NMF” in a form letter means that you are a finalist, but somehow I doubt it could be that easy.</p>
<p>According to NM web site - the principals of the high schools were notified starting January 22…</p>
<p>Thanks for the date update; I didn’t think the HS’s letters were mailed until Feb 2.</p>
<p>S received the ASU letter today. My favorite part was the guaranteed $17,000 with out-of-state costs being $31,000</p>
<p>but later it says attendance will cost only a “few thousand dollars.”</p>
<p>14 > few</p>
<p>They are obviously not including the room and board in their calculations. It is only a few thousand for tuition and other fees.</p>
<p>Last year attendance to ASU for a NMF would have only cost a few thousand dollars. As such it was quite attractive to my D.</p>
<p>But they increased the cost of attendance and decreased the scholarship amount (it was previously $23,000) and now the difference is significantly more than a few thousand dollars.</p>
<p>Does anyone know how students who accepted the deal offered in previous years are faring? Did their scholarship amounts stay at $23k or did they drop to $17k?</p>
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<p>Hmmm… looking at the letter again, I guess it depends on what the comma means:</p>
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<p>I didn’t interpret the comman to mean “plus” but I agree it could be that.</p>