@Celesteroberts That’s an interesting theory, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it was true.
I am from Illinois, if that gives anyone hope.
And thanks for the congratulations everyone!
@4everEpical do you know if yur school puts semester grades, year end grades, or both on transcripts?
Many people don’t know which way grades are reported by their schools. Obviously, someone who had a B year-end grade, but a C for a semester grade (not reported on transcript) would not have the same concern.
@mom2collegekids My school puts in both semester grades and year end grades (I had one semester C, which I brought up to a B )
I would be curious whether NMSC makes exceptions to corporate sponsored kids since they have not even announced others.
They do not announce Corporate-sponsored awards until late March. This release of information seems to me to be probably be in violation of NMSC rules but maybe since it was a personal question and not a public release of info?
But it is not unrealistic to assume that the corporations do have Finalist names and select their winners in this time frame. I have always had the suspicion that, when NMSC meets in late January to compile a list of the $2500 from the total pool of Finalists, they take into consideration whether one of those potential $2500 winners would instead benefit from being awarded a larger corporate-sponsored scholarship. That may also mean more kids would be scholarship winners in the end. Of course, they cannot do this with college-sponsored scholarships because Finalists are allowed to change their first choice until the end of May.
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@mom2collegekids My school puts in both semester grades and year end grades (I had one semester C, which I brought up to a B )
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Ahh…so you had a B as a year-end grade. I wonder if that trumps the C?
if it lists a date for notification for principal and receiving of certificate, is that the day they send them out or the day the principal or the day the principal receives them
The semifinalist materials from NMSC state:
Note that February 3rd is the date the Finalist certificates are mailed, not received.
This thread is discussing rejection letters that semifinalists who will not become Finalists typically receive sometime around mid-January. As far as I know, the NMSC does not publish the date that they mail (or start mailing) these rejection letters.
I think it is pretty hilarious that they consider 1 C terminal, when who knows under what conditions that student got a C and there are many kids who have gotten one or more Cs and did very well at top colleges.
Unless perhaps one C is terminal for some, or in some subjects (a C in an AP class vs. a C in a regular class)…
^^^
It does seem crazy. I wonder if the guideline of 16000 NMSFs and 15000 NMFs forces them sometimes to dump kids with one C?
^^ This has been common speculation and I have no evidence to support or debunk it. BUT, why would NMSC really care whether the number of Finalists is more than 15000 or even if all 16000 made it as long as they have some baseline standard for “good student”? It isn’t like they would have to increase the amount of actual scholarship money they give. And who would even know since Finalist names are never officially published, unlike the semifinalists?
I do understand that they have some standard and it seems they do not want to invest the time in the substantially extra effort that a holistic review would cost, but I don’t understand why even the simplistic standard they seem to use appears to change from one year to the next.
Is it common speculation that the $2500 awards are given to NMF with high test scores? I wonder what criteria they use to pick the college-sponsored awards.
@albert69 Yes, it is commonly thought that the $2500 awards go to NMF with highest test (PSAT and/or SAT) scores but other factors like the essay and EC’s may come into play also. The kids $2500 I have seen have all of these.
From the paperwork sent with the Semifinalist notification
That is, NMSC neither sets the requirements for nor chooses the college-sponsored winners. The school has full responsibility and can use whatever criteria they want beyond the requirement to be an NMF who has applied to the school and named them first choice by the deadline set by the school. Naturally these school criteria can vary widely from school to school.
@STEMFamily Well, maybe I have a good chance for a college sponsored award since not a lot of NMFs go to the college I am planning on going to. They maybe enroll about 15 NMFs each year and they give 3 official awards (though they give an “unofficial” full ride.)
@albert69 Are you sure the full-ride package is guaranteed for all NMF who attend? In that case, it probably doesn’t matter at all whether or not you get one of the e that includes some portion of official NMSC award. I would guess that the package is the same full-ride for everyone, regardless of whether any of the award is comprised of a part designated as an official college-sponsored NMSC award.
The only difference in that case would be whether or not you would be designated as a National Merit Scholar or not but I don’t really think that in itself is worth anything.
Yes, I am sure the full-ride scholarship is automatic. On the scheme of things, getting the college-sponsored award wouldn’t mean more then giving me NMS status, so I won’t be overly concerned if I don’t get it. My older sister was a NMS, though so I would like it just for bragging rights, but no, it it is not that important. @STEMFamily
I read somewhere that 50% move on to finalist. I swear it was on the NMF website!
Do you mean Achievement?
Wait just was on their website. It says 16,000 semi finalist and then 15,000 to finalist. Then to 7,600 winners. Not bad stats I would say.
More than 50% of NMSF go on to NMF. 15 out of 16 do.