<p>Help. Gotta pick two schools to send National Merit letter to...today. I've read on CC "don't bother sending the letter to the Ivy's" and "it's best to send it to schools that track interest." </p>
<p>I'm sure Stanford will not be particularly impressed with a first cut National Merit letter, but does it track interest? Will it care that someone loved it enough to send the letter?</p>
<p>Does not help much for Stanford. I think it doesn't help at MIT and Caltech plus top Ivies. But it helps a lot if you apply to U Chicago, USC etc.</p>
<p>I remember a line from the Stanford admissions site (I won't look for the link because that's not the point) that said they won't care at all if you show interest because they interpret a completed application as having shown sufficient interest. With their matriculation rate and simply because they're Stanford, I really don't see them fearing anyone is using them as a backup! So use your NM letter for schools a tier down (your actual backups) that will care.</p>