<p>Hey, wait a minute. HIMom said her son was in with a 214 in Hawaii. Hawaii's cutoff was 216 last year. This could only mean Hawaii's cutoff fell at least 2 points. Very good news for what might happen with other states' cutoff scores.</p>
<p>I wasn't aware of a boarding school pool. However, what's interesting is the deal in Washington D.C. As bad as people think they have with a 222 cutoff or so, they could have it much worse. D.C.'s cutoff is actually capped at the highest cutoff score for a particular state for that year. (222 for example). If the cutoff was not capped, D.C.'s cutoff would be close to 230. It would be this high due to the number of highly educated kids who attend the many private schools in D.C. Mostly kids of lawyers, doctors, and politicians. It's those intelligence genes I tells ya.</p>
<p>I went into my guidance office today and asked about any letters from NM, and my counselor said something like, 'oh yeah, something came wednesday, but I didn't open it...', so, sweating bullets, I asked her to open it, and .... YES. My name is on the sheet. YES. I've been so nervous this last week, because I scored a 215, and the Ohio cutoff was 214 last year...plus, I'm going to Univ. of Oklahoma most likely, which gives a full scholarship to NM Finalists.</p>
<p>So, I had a lot riding on something that my guidance counselor hadn't even opened.</p>
<p>Oh well. </p>
<p>So...if you scored at or above a 215 in Ohio, you are in there.</p>
<p>Whew! Son says today they told him the cut-off for NMS/F is 214 in HI, which is indeed a 2 point drop from last year. He just squeaked in, but did better on the SATs with a 2230 & OK grades & ECs, so it should work out for him, provided his essay is decent.</p>
<p>My son was notified this week that he is a semi-finalist (Michigan). What does it take to become a finalist? We have all the forms to fill out , but I wonder what is most important to make it to the finalist level.</p>
<p>Considering 15,000 of the 16,000 who apply are chosen as finalists, it seems that most who apply do get chosen as long as they get recommended by their school (no major discipline problems), turn in the forms on time, do a decent job on their essay, have OK grades and do OK on the SATs (or at least the gist of what I've read from several of these threads). Some folks don't bother applying because the schools they're interested in attending HYPs & UCs don't give NM awards, so they automatically don't become NMF, just NMSF. That may be a large portion of the 1000 who don't qualify for NMF.
HImom</p>
<p>I have a 3.982 GPA, and I scored a 2220 on the SAT. I should get a great recommendation letter, and I'm a good writer... I have a medium-large amount of extra-curricular activities and community service.</p>
<p>I should be fine, right? The sub-4.0 gpa (if barely) isn't going to hold me back?</p>
<p>Those who want to go to HYP, etc are still eligible for the NM corporate scholarships ($2500). But you're right that some just don't bother to try for finalist. I think a lot of the others who don't make finalist have relatively low grades.</p>
<p>Thanks a lot jrpar! I know it probably seemed like something small to freak out about, but I have a full scholarship (Oklahoma) riding on this, and I just wanted to know where I stand...thanks!</p>
<p>I could be wrong on these, but I'm also 70-80% certain that:
California: 217
D.C.: 223
Massachusetts: 223</p>
<p>Does anybody have confirmation on these? By the way, states that went up a lot last year have an extremely good chance of going down, so don't fret. All of the states that have seen increases were bound to go up considering their cutoff scores stayed the same for so long.</p>
<p>Florida is definitely 215, and I'm in! Not that I was borderline, but I'm still happy. We had 9 people from our school, and last year there were only 3.</p>