<p>Is there any evidence or precedent for National Merit Semifinalists or students of other distinguish getting their acceptance letters sooner than other applicants, possibly in that late November, early December range that seems to split applicant decision with February range? </p>
<p>I'm a Semifinalist who has been accepted, letter received Dec 12th, and a friend with awesome credentials including generally high grades, service activities, and extracurriculars like Student Council vice president, tennis, track, debate, mock trial, etc. etc. hasn't received a decision (not a National Merit Scholar)</p>
<p>I think you are right, although I have no solid evidence to suggest this. However, I should mention that when I went on a tour of Minnesota and talked to a lady at the Honors session, when I told her I was a National Merit Semifinalist and expressed my concern over the prospect of waiting until February, she seemed to suggest I may recieve my decision a little earlier than some. I can’t remember quite when I was admitted, but I think it was about two weeks ago.
In addition, I have already recieved a scholarship award for the Gold Scholarship for semi-finalists (with finalist pending of course). If other students haven’t even recieved an admissions decision yet, it would make sense that they are trying to attract the national merit individuals early on. I should add that I applied in September- very early on.</p>
<p>I think the University of Minnesota promised currently enrolled PSEO (dual-enrollment) students that they would get their news by 18 December 2009 for applications filed sufficiently early, but I have not heard about any other promises of that kind. We know admission news and have been reviewing stories from local friends about scholarship notifications in previous years, which didn’t all happen by this time of year.</p>