<p>My son has to choose which two colleges to notify about his NM commendation status. We're thinking that this could be important in that next fall, with a straight face, he'll most likely be sending in about five or ten applications, each ending with some statement about how this particular school is really his one true love. </p>
<p>And if this were a face to face dialog each school (except two) would say: "But if you really love me, why didn't you name ME as one of your special ones back on May 26?" Fortunately, it's not a face to face dialog, so maybe it's not worth thinking about it.</p>
<p>But how does everyone else deal with this problem? </p>
<p>And is there anything else we should be thinking about related to this?</p>
<p>Yes, he should be considering which schools pay attention to students showing interest. Many of the top schools don’t care because they have such high yield rates, while there are schools like Emory and WUSTL where showing interest can affect admissions.</p>
<p>Here’s what I did.
Northwestern and Rice were the only two schools I was looking at that gave scholarships to National Merit people. I chose those two. (Rice also waived my application fee as a bonus). MIT, Stanford, Princeton, Cornell, Carnegie Mellon all did not give scholarships, so I thought “why bother?”</p>
<p>Ironically, I ended up choosing not to apply to Northwestern and Rice.
I’ll also never know whether not expressing the interest hurt me at MIT, Stanford, Princeton (all rejected me) or CMU (waitlist). Oh well.</p>
<p>Like entomom said, my general impression has been that top tier schools don’t consider interest. Perhaps your HS GC can help identify those schools on your son’s list that do factor demonstrated interest. Or you can research each of them to figure it out! Or maybe just send the letter to two you probably won’t visit.</p>
<p>Note, also, while it’s a super test score, commended status isn’t really the equivalent of a secret password to the kingdom. Schools will not give any thought to which two you chose and which you did not. As best I could tell from our commended kid and friends, it simply got us on more mailing lists. For admission purposes, it’s still grades, rank, SAT and subject tests that rule, plus ECs, hooks and all the rest. </p>
<p>I know commended letters are out, but semi-finalists won’t be announced until fall. If your son’s score is likely to put him at semi-finalist status in your state, that is a bigger deal. Provided everything else corroborates the score, it’ll put him in line for some attractive merit scholarship monies at certain schools. (There’s as lot of info on the Financial Aid boards re: which schools give the most generous merit money, if you are interested.)</p>
<p>"I’ll also never know whether not expressing the interest hurt me at MIT, Stanford, Princeton (all rejected me) "</p>
<p>Princeton, MIT, Stanford don’t care about demonstrated interest. They also get so many apps from NM students that that’s not important to them either.</p>
<p>It’s best to have the info sent to colleges that care about interest.</p>
<p>HYPSM-level schools get so many apps and have such a high yield that they don’t care about demonstrated interest. Most small LACs do care, as do many private universities just a notch or so below the HYPSM level. Schools like Emory and WUSTL, for example, have significantly lower yields. To keep their acceptance rates down (and selectivity up), they’d prefer to invest their time and energy in wooing—and offer admission to— people who are genuinely interested in them, not people who are just checking them off a long list. So signals of genuine interest might make a difference with these schools.</p>
<p>That said, however, the National Merit commended notification is such a minor part of all this that I don’t think any school would feel slighted for not receiving it. My D chose to send hers to two small LACs that most definitely do care about demonstrated interest, as a signal that she’s serious about them. Maybe they’ll notice, maybe not. But I very much doubt that will be perceived as a slight by any other school. They have too many other things to worry about.</p>
<p>Agree. I didn’t mention NMS scholarship schools as I thought the OP knew their child was going to be commended and not semi-finalist based on past state cut-offs. But definitely consider sending NM notification to scholarship schools if there’s a chance your son will qualify for SF level.</p>
<p>Daugther’s original first choice school did give NM money for those who enrolled and also gave a few nice merit scholarships, so she listed it as NM first choice. On all of her other applications there was space for academic awards. Semi-finalist is certainly an academic award. Additionally, her school has all students send a resume with all applications and the NM status was also listed there. Schools know that kids only get to put down one school and they also know that money may be the deciding factor.</p>
<p>Money talked to us and when number 1 offered no additional merit money, the NM choice school was changed. You will be amazed at the mail and offers your son will get.</p>
<p>Actually my son did do very well - 234 - so I figure that’s a lock for NMS. But this is our first child so we’re taking things one hurdle at a time. I was planning to start thinking about that over the summer.</p>
<p>But now that you mention it, I’ll consider the points raised and maybe throw in a couple more questions for clarification, if needed.</p>
<p>I got commended and didnt ever send notifications to two schools mainly b/c I never got the letter that told me I was commended (i called the PSAT office and verified that i was commended). i am going to an ivy league school. go with the schools that give you aid, the top colleges could care less about being commended</p>
<p>If the notification of commendation status counts for anything, it is expressing interest in a school. However, it may carry no more weight than calling the admissions office.</p>
<p>The common dataset for a school contains a section, C7, on the relative importance of factors for admission on a scale of “not considered” to “very important”. “Level of applicant’s interest” is one of the factors. For most school interest is not considered, but at some schools it is. The only school I have seen that rates interest as very important is Brown. The common dataset at least can provide some idea of whether the values an applicant’s interest.</p>
<p>^^Thanks, that’s very helpful. We weren’t considering Brown, but we’ll probably send the info there just for the heck of it. It would be funny if he winds up going there now.</p>
<p>Looks like Emory also cares, so they can be #2 - they weren’t on the list an hour ago either.</p>
<p>I’m trying to recall if Brown had a sign-up list when we visited…it’s been several years, too long to recall since we visited several schools that trip.</p>