<p>My son barely made the cutoff to be a National Merit Semifinalist but he is an A/B student who has taken English and Math honors classes but not Pre-AP classes. </p>
<p>Does he have a chance as being a finalist if his SAT is 2100?</p>
<p>If he is a semi-finalist and completed his paperwork on time I wouldn’t worry about him not being a finalist. S1 just barely made the cutoff 2 years ago and scored about the same on his SAT (the ACT test was a better fit for him) and although I worried he ended up a finalist. I think about 90% do (or something like that); the 10% who don’t are those who didn’t follow the rules and bombed on the test.</p>
<p>From our experience and your description, I would say your son is almost certainly on the path to Finalist status.</p>
<p>From what I know, level of classes taken isn’t a factor in advancing from NMSF. What is: not filling out the paperwork (either student or school), disciplinary issues, multiple C’s on a transcript, and/or D’s & F’s, wiseguy essays, SAT scores that don’t verify the PSAT score (I think around 1960-1980 is what I’ve seen as the lowest to advance.)</p>
<p>We’ve only had one kid who didn’t advance to Finalist status. He only worked in classes that he liked and didn’t care about the rest and his GPA showed it (Cs and Ds scattered throughout). Sounds like your S’s GPA doesn’t have that problem.</p>
<p>How do you know that your son has barely made NMSF? The cutoffs have not been announced yet. Hopefully, your state’s cutoff won’t go up a few points, but you won’t know that til fall.</p>
<p>What state are you in and what was his PSAT score?</p>
<p>His courses won’t matter…only his GPA and grades. His SAT is fine.</p>