<p>i scored well on the psat, so the national merit corporation sent me something where i get to choose 2 colleges as my top choice colleges. later, those two colleges will be told i chose them as my top picks. i chose yale as one of them. how much of a difference will it make?</p>
<p>not that much if at all since yale doesn’t give national merit scholarships.</p>
<p>None at all. If you’re a NM semifinalist when you apply, put that down on the common ap with the rest of your awards, but choosing Yale as one of those recipients makes no difference.</p>
<p>not at all? dang. but wont it show yale that i am really interested in it?</p>
<p>It’s not important to show Yale you’re interested. Yale doesn’t much care about demonstrated interest. They don’t need to. They know that the vast majority of students who apply are interested. When we visited Y, we were amused that they didn’t even ask visiting students to sign in. </p>
<p>You’re better off switching your two colleges to schools that participate in the NM program. It really makes no sense to list any school that does not participate in the program. You can check individual schools’ websites with the words “national merit” to see if they are institutional sponsors of the NM program.</p>
<p>I agree with wjb in that you would be better off switching to colleges that participate in the NM program.</p>
<p>Switch it to another college! One of your safeties.</p>
<p>It does not have to be a safety. A reach is fine. But it should be a school that cares about demonstrated interest.</p>
<p>how can i change it? isnt it too late?</p>
<p>Nah, they have cards you can use to change your selection of which college to send it to.</p>
<p>really? what cards?</p>