<p>From prior experience I know that many merit scholarships are piggybacked onto NM recognitions. I think NMSC should move up its date for release of SF names (currently in August/Sept. of senior year), so that families can have more time to explore and schedule visits to potential scholarship colleges (like in April of junior year). Maybe if enough people lobby they will consider making it easier for families who need time to explore merit opportunities. My kid is on the edge and it is frustrating not to know whether we should spend limited college visit budget visiting potential scholarship colleges if the score doesn't qualify. OTOH, we'd get these visits done during the summer, when travel time is easier to schedule, if we knew of the SF status.</p>
<p>I think NM likes the release date to be timed with the beginning of the school year, since the school “manages” the paperwork - in a way (some better than others )</p>
<p>Any family that thinks their child might be a NMSF, should spend some time learning about schools that are generous to NM kids. </p>
<p>(Looking at past cut-off scores from their state gives a rough estimate - altho, cutoffs can go up or down a few points each year - altho some states have had some big 5 point swings if I remember correctly).</p>
<p>As I understand it, if you make the cutoff, you are almost assured that you make SF. The only way that you don’t make it is if you start failing your classes, does incredibly poorly on the SAT, or do not send in the rest of the required paperwork.</p>
<p>^ttparent, you’re talking about Finalist, whereas the OP is about Semi-finalist status.</p>
<p>I would suggest that if your student is borderline, do as M2CK suggests - start investigating NM schools now so you’re ready to go when you do get the package.</p>
<p>No way would this be a priority for high schools this time of year - they’re still dealing with seniors!</p>
<p>It’s probably better that the release date is so much after the test date: there are occasionally corrections made to the PSAT, and Semifinalist and Commended announcments should be final. </p>
<p>I currently have a dispute pending against one of the test’s questions.</p>
<p>ProxyGC, I’ve not heard before about other merit aid being piggybacked onto NM recognitions. Are you referring to the merit aid that schools give to NMFs who designate a school as their first choice, or to something else?</p>
<p>Even if you knew early, you might still not have time to visit every school your child would consider. You and your child can certainly do a lot of pre-screening research even without visiting campuses. Come up with a list of schools with significant NM scholarships that, based on websites and review books, appeal to your child. See if your child’s stats would make admission a reach/match/safety, and if they’d be eligible for merit aid even without the NMSF designation. See if the school considers demonstrated interest in their admissions decisions. Consider if any of these would be schools your child would want to attend even without the NM scholarship carrot.</p>
<p>I worry about the kids who don’t really even KNOW what it means to be a NMF. That included me…before I found CC.</p>
<p>My daughter was in some national talent search that offered her the option to take the SAT in the 6th grade. I said nah. But, in the 8th grade I thought it might be a good “prep”, so I let her take it. I didn’t even know there WAS such a thing as a PSAT coming up in her life. </p>
<p>So, in 10th, when her school offered her the option to take the PSAT , I said there was no reason, she already knew what it was. Counselors didn’t even explain to her why she should. I guess they assume everyone at home (including those of us who never took an SAT or a PSAT and didn’t attend college), would know all about all the options. I didn’t even know she was going to be required to take the PSAT as a Junior. I would have said she didn’t have to again…but it was required. FORTUNATELY!!!</p>
<p>So, in 11th they were required to take it. I still didn’t even know what it was. But she happened to take her SAT that same month (Oct 12th grade) because we knew she’d have virtually no available dates the next Spring or Fall due to ECs. </p>
<p>Fortunately I found CC and learned how important it could be. And fortunately she wasn’t near the cut off so we knew (again, from CC!) that she’d be a semi-finalist. Otherwise, we wouldn’t know anything about this process at ALL until …well…she really only started getting “Hey, you can go to our college with $87,000 in scholarship money due to your NM standing”…mail until - Oct/Nov of her Senior year… Long after she had her college list and nearly all applications done! I mean, she got a TON of mail prior to that, but they can’t make those promises until the official results come out. So…even colleges might like earlier notice. Because, by that time we’d really already narrowed down all her choices. She selected her in state uni as her academic and financial safety…but others, who learned late about the scholarships…MIGHT have selected a school in Arizona or ALabama as their safety.</p>
<p>Other colleges do send mail about their own merit scholarships when NMSF names are released. The scholarships may not be directly linked to NM, but our experience was that the colleges that contacted my first in this manner were likely to offer substantial merit awards. </p>
<p>My point is that many of these colleges are a plane ride away for us, and we would not visit or apply unless we knew they would offer large scholarships. We are trying to identify financial safety colleges that are a decent fit. Kids really need to see the campus; web sites and brochures don’t capture enough. Travel during the senior year is very tough for high achievers because of extracurricular commitments and heavy academic demands that are present even during breaks during the school year–which is why learning about SF status, for a kid who is one point under last year’s cutoff, before the summer, would make fitting in the visits much easier. Because they are so far away, these are not colleges that we would visit without the incentive of a large merit award. NMSC should be more concerned with what is convenient for students and families than for high schools. I would think colleges that want to boost their stats would want as much advance recruitment time as possible.</p>
<p>So…even colleges might like earlier notice.</p>
<p>Colleges do get earlier notice. My son received a NM scholarship offer from a college in August, even though the “embargoed release date” was Sept 13th. So, we actually found out before the school told my son (the school also told the kids early, but not as early as this college.). </p>
<p>I’m sure that that college broke all kinds of rules by sending out letters so early. But, obviously, colleges are given lists before the public is told so that they can prepare their marketing strategy. However, I don’t think colleges are told very early…probably sometime in early summer.</p>
<p>*My point is that many of these colleges are a plane ride away for us, and we would not visit or apply unless we knew they would offer large scholarships. We are trying to identify financial safety colleges that are a decent fit. *</p>
<p>I can understand your concern. So, in the meantime, identify which schools are possible safeties if your child becomes a NMSF. Then go to those schools’ forum here on CC and ask for input. Also, avail yourself of the colleges’ “online virtual tours”. </p>
<p>What state are you in? do you know the most recent cut off?</p>
<p>What schools are you considering for financial safeties. Maybe some of us have visited those schools.</p>
<p>^Another good idea M2CK. Request info from the schools where your student might be interested in applying. As a high school junior, my d knew she wanted a very small school, with all classes taught by professors (no TAs), in the mountains. She never wavered from that.</p>
<p>Take your student on visits to colleges within a day’s drive from your home. Take the tour, walk around, observe the students. Ask your child what does he like and not like about this campus.</p>
<p>You can narrow things down a lot without a huge financial investment on your part :)</p>
<p>If you’ve found Keilexandra’s list of NMF scholarships, you’ve probably also seen the lists of schools that give good merit aid outside of NMF. Those schools might send out info to NMSFs, but their large awards don’t necessarily go to NMFs. Armed with that and your child’s general stats, you should be able at this point to identify schools with merit aid where your child would be in the upper 10% of the applicant pool. Those are excellent financial safeties, with or without NM. Your child might even like some of them better than the schools with big NM awards.</p>
<p>Juniors get their PSAT scores during their junior year and it is pretty easy to figure out if a student is likely to be a semi-finalist by looking at qualifying scores from previous years and plan from that.</p>
<p>I agree that if a child’s score is well-cushioned above the previous year’s cutoff score then knowing whether or not a child will be a NMSF is pretty obvious, although for those close it could be very difficult and downright disappointing if the score doesn’t end up making it. But, this is an academic recognition from a private organization and even though many public universities recognize and financially reward it, it is private. Therefore, I feel that the National Merit Board has the right to do what they want, including the timing of release dates. If your child’s score is close, look at the schools offering merit aid, but only those that your child would seriously consider without merit aid, not all of them.</p>
<p>I am interested in posts #4 and #5 - are you saying that most semifinalist become finalists (of course, as long as they submit the paperwork)? My DD is a semifinalist and hoping to become a finalist as her first-choice school has a few scholarships for them.
Her GPA is great (3.9+ UW) and her SAT is 2120 or 2130. Thanks</p>
<p>Approximately 15000 of the ~16000 semi-finalists become finalists. According to everything I have read, the few that do not become finalists primarily are because they didn’t complete the application correctly or on time or they had some bad grades (I have heard that one D anytime in high school can ruin it) or the school won’t recommend them because of disciplinary problems. I also read one post that discussed a student who had the grades, the application, the SAT scores but he wrote a very sarcastic essay that degraded the National Merit process and to no surprise, the essay kept him from becoming a NMF. I am sure your daughter’s grades are fine and so is her SAT score. I don’t know what the actual SAT score is required, but other posts place it around 2000.</p>
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