<p>
[Quote]
Thanks for the link...but, now I wished I had not seen it as it apppears that S. has missed semi-finalist by 1 point. Ouch.
[/Quote]
</p>
<p>Why don't you just move to West Virgina or Arkansas? ;)</p>
<p>Only if I can live at the Greenbriar! Maybe we'll consider it for our 13-year old...he'll need all the help he can get.</p>
<p>Hey, don't dis Arkansas. We get enough of it from the national media.
I moved back here from Arizona, by choice. I will agree that the educational opportunities for gifted and talented students could be better.</p>
<p>Hey, echi and echosensei and whoever else hadn't received their letters as of last week: you've received them now, right?</p>
<p>Not yet....the GC told my S not to worry...easy to say.</p>
<p>runmanstl, maybe the cut-off will drop by a point. You never know. It all depends who takes the test in your state in a given year, and how they score as a whole.</p>
<p>Nope. CC says it doesn't come until the fall.</p>
<p>I'm a U.S. citizen living abraod (but I go to a Western-style school) and I just received my letter today through my GC. I wouldn't worry for whoever hasn't received the letters yet. There are 50,000 to send out all over the country and all over the world.. that's going to take a while!</p>
<p>And also -- looking at that Semi-finalist cutoff list -- it seems that living abroad does me no favors in terms of National Merit! Fabulous.. lol.</p>
<p>Finally, today G.C. gave letter to my son.</p>
<p>m_c:</p>
<p>not sure how they handle international schools, but for US high schools, the letters were packaged and mailed to the high school GC on April 11 from the National Merit group. (Supposedly, the letters were even stuffed individually into envelopes for mailing.) Thus, IMO, there is absolutely no reason for a GC not to hand them out or drop them in the mail. </p>
<p>Reponses are due back by the 18th of May according to what other posters have mentioned.</p>
<p>btw: Since SAT/ACT and ap scores (as well as state testing results) are all mailed directly to the student with a copy to the HS, can anyone help me understand why the psat-related 'stuff' has to go thru the school only? What value does the school offer for psat in this process that is any different than all other testing? (Just whining since our GC is still sitting on high scorer letters.)</p>
<p>It all has to do with National Merit making the decision that they want the scholars to be geographically diverse and how many students are in your state and the cutoff of the top so many students. People in the states with the lower semifinalist cutoff could complain that NY, NJ and CA get more students - so everyone gets a chance to complain about something! People in CA and NY are welcome to move to ND or MS!</p>
<p>Tabbyzmom, thanks for the words of encouragement...you are right maybe Missouri will drop a point. Anyway, the infamous letter did get distributed last Friday from the college counselors...almost a month after they were sent out. There were 40 letters distributed to a class of 98 students.</p>
<p>Wow, runmanstl! What a competitive high school. Is it a private or public one?</p>
<p>Northstarmom, it is private. And yes, it is very competitive...we have 2 boys who scored a perfect 2400 on the March SAT and a third with 2390...so my own just retook the SAT in an attempt to raise his 2260 score.</p>
<p>ok i got the letter from my gc (TOMORROW--MAY 18-- IS THE DEADLINE FOR SELECTING COLLEGES TO BE REPORTED, just to let everyone know because it would suck to miss out on this if you got it).</p>
<p>my only question is which college to send it to!
i KNOW i'm sending one to emory, because a)its my top choice and b)it majorly tracks interest...so that works out well.. but i dont know for #2! </p>
<p>anyone have any ideas? a school like emory?
-in the south (i'm a northerner dying to get out of here)
-very near a decent city (but not smack in the middle of it, unless it still has the grass/trees of a suburban school)...like atlanta is to emory would be ideal.
-mid-sized (very roughly 5000ish)
-work hard/play hard environment
-study abroad opps
-good english program</p>
<p>i'm considering a few, but i'd like to hear what you think!
(vanderbilt, william&mary, wake forest, urichmond, tufts are a few of these but i have issues with each one, so they arent perfect fits...so dont limit it to these) </p>
<p>-keep in mind the tracking of interest.
also if anyone has that list of 200 NMC supported colleges it would be muy helpful, thankyou!!!</p>
<p>I don't know why Tufts is on your list if you want to go south. It tracks interest, but since it's in the wrong location for you, I think you should pass on applying there.</p>
<p>Take a look at Rhodes in Memphis. It is supposed to be in a nice location down the street from a museum and across from a park It also has Greeks, a nice campus, and a nice study abroad program. I hear that many students who want to go to Vandy use Rhodes as their safety. Stellar students also can get nice merit aid.</p>
<p>yeah, the thing with tufts is that its basically perfect aside from the fact that its not in the south, which is essentially my biggest factor in choosing a college... my dad seems to think its not a very legitimate reason but i disagree. </p>
<p>i will look into rhodes, thanks northstarmom.</p>
<p>one thing thats not really the topic of this post but it has to do with my issue is that vanderbilt, by these standards i mentioned, is a perfect fit, and i'm pretty sure they track interest too. i've also visited and i liked it a lot.
~Heres the dilemma: i've heard a lot about vandy being very snobby, white, highschoolish, and conservative, which may be a problem. i am from a wealthy white type of town (but also very liberal, since its a suburb of boston, and i'm extremely liberal as well), and although its not a huge problem for me here i dont want to go to another highschool.. while i def dont oppose partying and drinking and stuff, its just the pettiness and snobbiness and shallow..ness that im worried about (a girl from my high school went to vandy last year and is now transferring... i heard that it was partially bc she didnt get into the sorority she wanted to, but she said it was because of the stuff i mentioned above). i'm the type of person who would lvoe to go to a frat party one day and have a discussion about a book (outside the classroom) another day. also i'm super-liberal, as i said, and i feel like i'd get frusterated if its almost all republican place. </p>
<p>so i dont know... what should i do?! i wish i could just transport tufts to the south..</p>
<p>Have you considered Washington University in St. Louis?</p>
<p>Hilary,
Go ask on the Vanderbilt board that is on CC.
Also Pm EvilRobot, who turned down Yale last year for major merit aid at Vandy.
If you use the search feature, you also probably can find a post that EvilRobot did about 2 months ago on Parents Forum describing his freshman year. He is very happy and (since $ was the factor in his choosing Vandy) clearly isn't wealthy.</p>
<p>runmanstl-- wow, so glad you mentioned that. i always heard it was similar but for some reason never really looked into wustl. well, i just did..
and its SO much like emory... i love what i'm hearing. any more info would be greatly appreciated...thanks so much!! (do you know if "interest" is a big factor there? as in, should i send them one of my nmsf letters?)</p>
<p>northstarmom-- also v. helpful! i read evil_robot's post, it was really interesting and heartfelt. thanks! </p>
<p>now i dont know WHAT to choose!!!</p>