<p>I live in Wisconsin and I took the PSAT as a junior... after I got my scores back, it showed that i was in the top 4 or 3% of the state.. can't remember exactly which one it was for sure... but the counselor at my school told me i was in the running for this scholarship and that i would found out in the fall if i was a semi-finalist?.... he said no one had even been qualified from my school on quite a few years so he didnt really explain to me what this means?? what type of scholarship is this exaclty, what do i have to do if i do become a semi-finalist, and does it affect anything if i go to an out-of state school?</p>
<p>Only the top one percent become semi-finalists. You may, however, have been commended, which unfortunately doesn't really get you anything.</p>
<p>thanks... yeah i really didnt assume anything would happen... im not all that smart but apparently its smart for my small town and im some sort of freak genious now...</p>
<p>[url=<a href="http://hseagle.sas.edu.sg/hscounseling/tests/NMSCindex.htm%5DHere%5B/url">http://hseagle.sas.edu.sg/hscounseling/tests/NMSCindex.htm]Here[/url</a>] are last year's cutoffs for National Merit finalist for each state</p>
<p>Well...here's a question: is the percentile printed on the Score Report Plus based on results from your state or from the US? It just says that it "compares your performance with college-bound juniors."</p>
<p>Also, is the cut-off for each state really the top 1%?</p>
<p>Wait, I thought NMSF was top 1/2 of 1%...</p>
<p>:)</p>
<p>I believe the cutoff for commended this year (those who took the PSAT as juniors in 2004) is 202. The cutoff for semifinalist will vary by state.</p>
<p>Bump......</p>
<p>the percentile on the report is national, but the cutoffs for National Merit are state percentiles (see Tanman's link). And yes, for semifinalists, it is the 99th percentile, which means the top 1%. commended status is the 96th percentile, but that doesn't mean much anyway.</p>