<p>I agree about NM opening doors. This year, the cutoff in NM was 210.</p>
<p>Here is from my persoanl experience, I have nothing else to offer.
Here is your leverage. You can negotiate with you apparently very smart kid. Tell her that if she chooses “free for her option” for UG, you will conisder covering her Grad. school tuition.<br>
We were in a oppositre situation as D. (4.0uw) considered only UGs that would offer subtantial Merit award. There are some privates like this in addition to IS. It was no push from us at all. However, it depends on a mjor. Fro some careers it really does not matter what UG they attend. Well, as D’s plan was to go to Med. School, she simply said: " I will do fine everywhere". He focus was to find a place that fits her perfectly, and one OOS school that she applied fell out right away after first visit, she said that she simply did not see herself attending there.
Because of D’s very wise choice of choosing in-state public UG where she was attending on full tuition Merit, we offered to pay for her Med. School, we have only one payment left and it looks like she will graudate without any debt.
Fro reference, D. was NOT NMF, not she was semi, she took PSAT ones and did not score high. She recieved her Merit award priamrily for her ACT and ranking #1 in her HS class.<br>
Some major may require to attend in the top places for this major (which actually may be one of your in-state publics, which was the case with my S. - a Graphic Designer), but others may not at all.
It is funny and coincidental, that my D’s major actually was Zoology (the most common major for pre-meds at her UG). I have no idea how the career in this type of work is related to the college rank. It skipped my D’s mind altogether to check any type of rankings so we still do not know the ranking of her UG, we never cared, it was a perfect fit, her experience there went well above our and her expectations.</p>
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<p>@twoinanddone </p>
<p>??</p>
<p>Rank and top 10 or 20 has no bearing on becoming a NMF. If the student’s grades are fine (no more than 1 C for a semester grade) and the GPA is good (say 3.5), it won’t matter at all what the rank is. Rank isn’t considered.</p>
<p>When my son was a NMF, there were 3 in his class. One was a student who wasn’t even in the top 20%. But, his GPA was a 3.5, so no hindrance.</p>
<p>This student struggled in middle school, which is not looked at. She has a high school GPA of 3.7…As and Bs…there is nothing there to stop her from becoming a NMF if her PSAT makes her a NMSF.</p>
<p>Nearly every NMSF makes NMF. If there are schools without any finalists, it’s because they didn’t have any that made NMSF, which is purely by PSAT score and state cut-off. When a student doesn’t move from NMSF to NMF it is nearly always the student’s fault…C’s for semester grades, a discipline problem at school, didn’t submit the forms, etc. </p>
<p>Exactly, PSAT score has nothing to do with the class rank. It has everything to do with the preparation to the PSAT. Mine decided not to prepare and got lower score than semi-finalist, just as simple as that and she seemed not to care either. In her list of UGs later, it actually would have made a difference only at one UG, which she ended up not liking much anyway. </p>
<p>She has a week between now and her PSAT, right? Oct. 15. If it were my kid… cramming for the PSAT would be on the calendar for the next week. To be honest, for one of my kids who needed a SAT boost in a short timeframe, she stayed home from school one day and just studied for the SAT with my help. It could pay off for you big-time if your kid could beat the NM cutoff. If it were my kid… that is what I would do starting tonight with her.</p>
<p>Scores do not have “everything” to do with prep. Prepping will almost always help but there are plenty of high scoring kids who don’t do any prep. </p>
<p>Now for a student like this who knows she will be seeking merit money, doing sone test prep is not a bad idea. </p>
<p>“Scores do not have “everything” to do with prep. Prepping will almost always help but there are plenty of high scoring kids who don’t do any prep.”
-Yes, while you speak from your personal experience and I ma glad that you know plenty of kids like this, I do not know a single one out of the pool of very strong students, where my own D. is only one example.<br>
And while NMF status may be important in some circumstances, even many privates do not care about it. Actully in purusit of OOS, why OP would not check privates that are very wll known for the Merit awards (and my D. got one without NMF at one private - $27k / year was not too bad at all, but she ended up attending at state public)</p>
<p>What was her actual soph PSAT score that put her in the top 20? </p>
<p>The OP said that her daughter scored in the top 20 of her class on the PSAT as a sophomore. I’m saying that doesn’t matter as far as making NMF. All 20 could be in the highest scores of the state or none may be NMF at all. At our school last year there were 6 in the graduating class, but not the val (who had a 4.61 gpa and never had a B), and of the 6 only 3 were in the top 20 of the class ranked by weighted gpa. </p>
<p>I guess a better indication that OP’s daughter might have a chance is what her actual sophomore score was. If it was close to the 220 state cut off for this year, then she has a good chance of improving it and making the cut off. If it was lower, then don’t count on it.</p>
<p>^regarding Ivy cut offs, the 0 to 10% sliding scale now goes to 180k.
In other words, if your daughter gets back into AVID and applies through them to Top 25 Universities and LACs, she’d get a LOT of aid as long as you make under 180k. At HYPS you’d pay less than for Adams State if you make120 to 180k, and nothing if you make 65k or less. Vassar has great aid too and I bet they don’t often have AVID applicants from NM.
(AVID = special reading + no application fees).</p>
<p>A kid who may be considered for NMSF does not belong at Adams State, sorry. There are TONS of better schools where she’d be challenged more and would get decent merit aid to make costs comparable to the 20k you’re looking at OOS (Wooster, Allegheny, Earlham, Hendrix, Hiram, or Muhlenberg or Agnes Scott or Hobart&William Smith or St Lawrence or Beloit or Rollins…perhaps even schools like he 7 sisters, St Olaf or Dickinson … depending on the kid’s preferences and interests!) If she does make NMF, she’d have lots of full ride options (even full ride plus, meaning tuition, room&board, books, sometimes a laptop or a stipend…)
The suggestion by intparent that she stay home for one day and preps with you for the PSAT is a good one. It could make a huge difference financially speaking. What’s ONE day when so much is at stake, and so little time’s left to try and make it?</p>
<p>What’s your income, roughly?
What’s your daughter’s GPA and predicted PSAT score?</p>
<p>^The state cutoff for NM varies ranges from 207-210. It is 210 for graduating class of 2015. Is the 220 a typo?
If the high school is a largish high school, then even if they don’t have many NMSFs regularly, and not knowing the student’s actual first time score, I would still guess that as a top 20 scorer the advice to prep is very good. Some students ace these types of tests repeatedly with no prep, and others can’t move their low scores up despite long hours of prep, but there is a large contingent in the middle who can boost scores significantly by studying. And it can’t hurt. Good for SAT practice, so useful in any case. Good luck.</p>
<p>Yes, cutoff was 210 this year for NM, which isn’t that far above the nationwide commended cutoff (201, I think).</p>
<p>The full list of NMSF in NM this year is at <a href=“http://www.abqjournal.com/466579/news/scholarship-semifinalists.html”>http://www.abqjournal.com/466579/news/scholarship-semifinalists.html</a></p>
<p>There appear to be only 3 schools in NM that have >10 NMSF, so to OP could use this info and her knowledge of her daughter’s sophomore score vs 210 to get a feel for whether intense prep for a week could be productive. Note that PSAT scores would likely rise naturally somewhat over a year due to more knowledge–particularly if the math class the student has taken since the last test include material covered on the test. (It think the math on the test tops out at Trig and a bit from PreCalc, but I’m not sure on that.) </p>
<p>@pmomof3</p>
<p>My advice;</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Forget the web search for scholarships. it’s a lot of work for little to no payoff.</p></li>
<li><p>Concentrate instead on college scholarships, both merit and need-based. Don’t give up on out-of-state schools because there are many that give good aid if you are at the top of their applicant pool. Many OOS schools are looking to improve their stats. Look especially at OOS state schools that are not “name” schools (but still in the top 100-150 in college rankings) and that have automatic merit scholarships for a person in your D’s ACT/GPA range.</p></li>
<li><p>I TOTALLY AGREE ON DEBT: Graduating from college with no student debt is a gift from heaven, especially if you are continuing on to grad school.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>We found that we could get very little in scholarship aid from the in-state schools (Colorado), but where my son went (Ohio University), merit scholarships got the OOS tuition down to about $3000 per year. Fees, books, R&B added another $10K/yr to that, but we somehow made it. </p>
<p>This is where the research comes in. It takes a LOT of time to find out the NET cost at each school, but well worth it.</p>
<p>Hi all…sorry for delay in reply. Busy work days. Thx again for your help.
our take home pay is approx. 75k per year. We have about 2 more years to pay off husbands car…then we are debt free. We don’t have much in savings but trying hard to build a 6 mo emergency fund. Doing some figuring …I believe we could pay about 6-7k per year to help D w college expense. We are 52 and 56 yrs young :)…so trying to save for retirement too. I am hopeful that she’ll get merit aid but won’t get hopes up about need based aid. She likes animal sciences but does not want to be a vet. She is interested in animal advocacy and/or research. She really liked the idea of being a zookeeper until she found out they don’t make much $. She …however has not given up totally on becoming a zookeeper. She is just confused and not sure about what she really wants to do. Not interested in engineering. Maybe psychology …study how the brain works. Likes film and video. Slightly interested in computer science. Shes kinda all over the place. I am just now learning about the npc’s on the college websites. Thx also for the links above. Once I learn the npc’s then I can get her to start doing it and I will tell her what we can contribute. I think she will start websearching colleges when she has a better idea of what she wants to study. College is just so different for kids …not like when I was in college in the 1980’s. She has not taken her act test yet…will do so in December for first time. Her junior year psat test is next Wednesday. Thanks also to the NM mom explaining about the NM lottery. I hear so much conflicting info. My D is at Cleveland hs in RR and college Prep there is ok …not the greatest so I am trying to work w school counselor to good …correct info. He did awnser my call w my question about how to figure her weighted Gpa which hovers at about 3.6 I believe. Hard w a class of close to 500. Also I am teaching her how to apply for general scholarships bc I believe that even the little ones can add up. </p>
<p>Also…D found out that she is class rank #99 out of around 500 students in her hs junior class.</p>
<p>Oh Lordy…just checked her sophomore psat score. It was 131…hmmmm. I just now VERY HIGHLY recommended that she bite the bullet and to some serious studying for that test next Wednesday bc it will open up a ton of oos doors for her. She has fall break tomarrow and Friday so she said shes gonna buckle down and study for it. </p>
<p>If she really had 131, there honestly is not much chance that studying content will get it up over 200 for NMSF. (I did have a kid that went up almost 30 points… but from a year of intense IB classes, not studying. But I think that was an unusually high increase.) </p>
<p>However, taking some practice exams to become familiar and relaxed with the test format would be helpful. Good luck! </p>
<p>Provide her with practice exam, then go over her errors one by one with her, and find similar questions for her, have her do all these questions until she gets them right several times and only then she moves on to another type of question. It’s very meticulous and she’ll need your help. She needs to be very familiar with the format, with time-cutting tricks (use Kaplan or Princeton Review, they’re basic but clear, or Up your Score which reluctant test-takers enjoy more), etc.
There isn’t any scholarship money to be had at 131, even if that score is a sophomore’s. That may mean 150 PSAT junior year and it’s unlikely there are scholarships at that SAT-equivalent level. Don’t tell her, don’t scare her, but as a parent, you need to be realistic about it. Even with an extraordinary jump to 170 PSAT, NMF isn’t happening and many scholarships aren’t, either. </p>
<p>So she’s top 20%. Pretty good. Can she increase that a bit during Junior Year? </p>
<p>Start looking into “Colleges that Change Lives”. They provide need-based and merit aid for a variety of stats. They have a website and there’s a book your library may have.</p>
<p>I second getting the Colleges That Change Lives book. The book presents a different view of colleges that excludes brand name, prestige and focuses on student learning and support.</p>
<p>While I don’t like to discourage a child, one needs to face reality. It’s unrealistic to expect a student who scored 130 as a sophomore to score over 200 as a junior. Now if your daughter sees this as a fun (yes, fun) challenge, encourage her to go for it. But if she sees this as a stress point, back off immediately. (Given that there is only a week, I’d choose the latter. If she hadn’t expressed interest after receiving last year’s score, chances are getting 200+ isn’t a realistic aim.)</p>
<p>Instead of always aiming for what’s out of reach, help her find the college that’s just the right level. That would be colleges for the B+/A student. Some CTCL schools may be a bit lower (B/B+) but that means your daughter may qualify for significant merit aid from these schools. </p>
<p>I’d spend fall break looking over types of colleges and seeing what fits her stats now, not what she wants if her stats go up. </p>
<p>What is CTCL? Yes …well now I am bummed for my D and glad I didn’t say anything to her about how much she needs to up her score bc she for sure does not need that kinda stressDang…she is more than likely not going to make the score needed. Not happy. I have the book recommended above…Colleges that change lives. Would LOVE for her to go to one of those but I continue to get sticker shock when I go to the website coa link. I just don’t see how its possible for her to go to one of those…esp the highly selective and highly $$ ones. Shouldn’t we look at colleges when we know what she wants to study? I think the Up your score book would be good if she/I can get our hands on it quickly. </p>