<p>Hi! I know that I’m combo breaking a discussion here, but I just kind of wanted to give some input about this…</p>
<p>I got a 2280 on the SAT, I have a 3.4 unweighted (not sure about weighted, probably around 3.8?), and I have many many extracurriculars, including a full time job, girls varsity tennis team captain, Key Club President, etcetc. However, I got a letter last week telling me that I won’t be moving on to Finalist standing.</p>
<p>My school counselor and I called National Merit together, and basically, they said that they DO NOT look at your GPA as basis for whether or not a semifinalist moves on to become a finalist. My problem was that although I’ve challenged myself and taken Precalculus, AP Calculus AB, and AP Calculus BC, that fact that I’ve recieved 5 Cs in those classes that show that I’m not Finalist material.</p>
<p>Personally, I understand that I’m not the ideal candidate for Finalist, but I’m still appealing because I feel like I owe it to myself to explain that math is difficult for me, but I’ve tried VERY VERY VERY hard, and even my math teacher (the hardest teacher at my school, who I’ve had for all four years of math) that she’s never seen a student push herself so hard.</p>
<p>In the end, I guess National Merit has their own perspective and own way of viewing things, but for everyone that didn’t move on to Finalist, I think you should still appeal! My counselor told me “well, the door isn’t closed yet, so why shut it on ourselves?”</p>
<p>One, the student happens to have won several science competitions Intel, Semens USAMO etc and is a world class athlete. However, she got sick in freshman year was hospitialized and earned some Cs she missed the finals and some tests. Then had to go to the Olympics in junior year and got Cs one of her 6 AP courses, for missing work and tests, but still earned 5s on all her AP Tests. </p>
<p>Two, the student happens to be someone living in Africa where there was a famine for years, who was not being educated until age 12. Then, is introduced to schools in the US. The child is tested and has an SAT score of 900. By the time she starts freshman year, she has mastered basic math and english skills. Her grades through sophomore year are poor- no Ds or Fs, but lots of Cs and Bs. By the time she finishes junior year, she accumulates 7 or 8 APs (with 5s) and on track to take 7 more AP courses in senior year and earning straight As. SAT / PSAT and SAT Subject Tests are 2300+. </p>
<p>NM decides they have Cs and rejects them. </p>
<p>On the other hand there is a kid with 2130 (no subscore at 750+) on the SAT with a 210 on the PSAT who has never taken a single AP course or won any major academic competitions, but has earned Bs and As. Otherwise, has ECs that are local/ school level and no hooks disabilities etc. This is our NMF. </p>
<p>Now do you think Harvard, MIT, CalTech, Stanford, Yale or Princeton will say, the first two have C grades on their transcript, reject them, let us offer admission to the NMF? That is very unlikely. NM has its own standards. They do what they want, as Dune said.</p>
<p>Similarly, as m2ck has pointed out home schoolers do not face this challenge, so there also seems to be a double standard.</p>
<p>I also object to this rash assumption. It is being assumed that all homeschoolers advance to Finalist status just because some people on this board have not heard of any NOT advancing? And it appears that there is an assumption that homeschooling parents arbitrarily assign nothing but A’s to their students? Many, if not most, homeschoolers take academic classes outside the home through community college and university dual enrollment programs. These grades are NOT assigned by the parents. My d and other homeschoolers I know have and are taking difficult classes at our state’s two flagship universities: UNC-Chapel Hill and NCSU. I can guarantee you they are not “gaming the (NM) system”. The grades they earn at colleges and universities go on their transcript.</p>
<p>I am mad. Mad at myself. My junior S scored 227 on PSAT and I looked at the numbers of SF that make finalists and thought he will be a finalist, easy. Oh yeah, he picked up 1 semester C+ in advanced Chem his Sophomore year … now we get to fret over this for the next year…</p>
<p>How short sighted of myself to think that the standards would stay the same and even more short sighted that in my mind I thought the ones that did not make finalist were the kids who didn’t want to do the essay or had discipline problems or bombed or didn’t take the SAT or had relatively poor grades.</p>
<p>I wish I had just shut up and kept his PSAT score a secret and then been pleasantly surprised if he became a finalist…</p>
<p>My son … pretty oblivious and not worried in the least. Just worked on next years schedule and wants to take 4 more AP classes and 1 other honors course. For him, the AP and honors courses are a source of pride and he prefers to take the classes with other like minded students. </p>
<p>I encourage everyone to call and see whyy they were denied. Just found out they received my son’t entire academic record, NOT just final grades. We and our school encourage him to stick with classes where he was struggling and he was rewarded by earning all As and Bs except for one honors math class. We are starting the appeals process, but going forward I advise everyone to review the packet with the counselor. Defintely provide more information than asked for. Quarter grades should not be considered. I am a littel surprised to say the least.</p>
<p>There may be a set number each year, and some years, the field is not as competitive in terms of where the line is drawn. That is the case with a lot of processes. All of you have talented students. Congratulations for them making it however far that they did in the process.</p>
<p>One of the many attractions of the CC forums is the opportunity to learn from past experiences of others. From these past experiences, we evaluate and then form a framework of expectations we then utilize to guide our own actions going forward; our plans are made based on past historical data.</p>
<p>It is not surprising that, when the experiential framework is unexpectedly nullified, we feel uncomfortable, even dismayed. As noted above, the law is based on precedent, so too are many, if not most, of our daily expectations. I fully emphasize with those whose expectations have been challenged by apparently new parameters, regardless of the worth of these parameters. One feels one has a sense of the situation, and then the situation is found to be different than expected. I would not define that as entitlement, merely a rational reaction to unexpected change.</p>
<p>@imateakettle: I admire your attitude, and best of luck with the appeal!</p>
<p>@perazziman:
Could everyone on this thread who is an Olympian and USAMO-winner but didn’t make NMF please raise their hand? Did anyone here grow up in an impoverished African village that was decimated by the plague/famine/killer nano-robots? Anyone? No?</p>
<p>Before posting these outlandish hypotheticals, ask yourself: are these situations possible? Have they EVER happened before? Is there a reasonable chance that they could ever happen in the foreseeable future? If the answer to any of the above is no, they are not germane to any discussion. </p>
<p>I would say almost everyone here fits into the third category. No superhuman accomplishments, normal ECs, with great test scores and above average grades. Again, is there ANY evidence that NMSC is rejecting USAMO/Siemens winners? No. Moreover, it is very difficult to believe that these kids would struggle to maintain B’s in high school.</p>
<p>
This is always the best course of action.</p>
<p>@Aggie84: Were his quarter grades on his transcript or did they send more than the transcript? Odd.</p>
<p>@TXArchitect: I understand momentary frustration/sadness/whatever. What I don’t understand is “omg AP classes are a scam” “omg the homeschoolers are attacking” “omg NMSC is biased against Olympians/USAMO-winners/Africans.” That is not “a rational reaction to unexpected change;” that is being a sore loser.</p>
<p>NMSC can set whatever arbitrary parameters they want. Personally, I don’t think the parameters are out of place.</p>
<p>What is stopping anyone from homeschooling their kids?</p>
<p>The allegation that these homeschoolers and non-AP mongoloids would be straight D-students in an AP curriculum is a little extreme. A B-average is not that hard to maintain. What proportion of NMSFs actually have the explanatory circumstance to justify their grades? Severe illness and Olympic-summons do not occur that often.</p>
<p>Son: Has his priorities straight, not worried about one relatively minor “award”, focused on taking a challenging course load for the sake of social and intellectually enjoyment. </p>
<p>Father: Telling an internet forum full of high school kids and overbearing parents how mad he is that his son may not advance to full finalist status in a relatively inconsequential contest over a year from now.</p>
<p>I agree wholeheartedly. It’s far better for a student to take challenging classes to learn and to become a more critical reader and a better writer. Then it’s wonderful if the grades are high, but if there are a few lower grades, so be it. The student learns from that experience too. I don’t think it is ideal for a student to purposely limit his/her academic challenge just to “ensure an A” to try for Natl Merit. However, I don’t mean to downplay the fact that Natl Merit is a major financial help to some families. Does anyone know about Presidential Scholarship news coming up–state cutoffs , etc? I’ve tried searching it in CC but found nothing. I know that the cutoffs vary from state to state and that it is SAT- CR + Math or all of the ACT (sum of the 4 parts). It should be soon, I believe.</p>
<p>I read in a past CC post that the list of U.S. Presidential Scholars candidates will be posted on the program’s site the same day as well, so watch for that.</p>
<p>Dune01, I am guessing that you are a student, not a parent paying out $100,000+ for a college education. While NMF does not carry much weight in admissions or add merit aid at top schools, it is a huge deal for kids who want to take advantage of the great scholarships at some schools further down the ladder. It is a huge deal for those kids and their families – just because you apparently are lucky enough that it would not matter to you does not mean it is a “minor award” to them. To some families it is the difference in 10s of thousands of dollars in scholarship money.</p>
<p>To some kids and their families, it is the difference between living at home while attending a local community college and the experience of attending a reknown state flagship college.</p>
<p>I have a son who attended a mid. school where whites were 10%. More than 70% were eco. disadvantaged. Nobody made Duke TIP or went on to become NMSF. He had an SAT of below 1200 in Duke TIP 7th grade. He was considered suitable for alternative schooling by his suburban high school & assigned a corresponding gpa when he started high school. He is graduating w 12 APS & 11 honors courses. SAT sub 750+. Psat 219, higher on each sec of SAT. He earned his C in 9th grade in AP Computer Science fall semester.</p>
<p>Dune01, I guess I was not clear in my prior post. I am not mad at NM or the possibility of my son not being a finalist. I am mad at myself for arrogantly assuming he would be a finalist and not contemplating requirements can change.</p>
<p>I also object to this rash assumption. It is being assumed that all homeschoolers advance to Finalist status just because some people on this board have not heard of any NOT advancing? And it appears that there is an assumption that homeschooling parents arbitrarily assign nothing but A’s to their students?</p>
<p>I don’t think homeschooling parents just assign A’s to their students. However, I have a hard time believing that there are homeschoolers that make NMSF who later get rejected for C’s. They may have a few B’s, but if their parent wants them to move onto NMF, they’re not going to put C’s on their report cards…even if it means assigning “extra credit” or whatever to bump their kids’ grades. </p>
<p>The same goes for discipline issues. Those in regular schools might have a suspension or something that gets reported. A homeschooler isn’t going to have that.</p>
<p>Off topic, but I was very amused yesterday to read in another thread a student asking about his chances. He said that his school didn’t rank, but he “thinks” he is the number 1 student. Then later in the same post, he said that he is homeschooled. How many siblings does he have in the same grade that might have beat him for that #1 spot??</p>
<p>Tjmom…I wonder if this student takes classes at a homeschool tutoring service or something similar, where grades are given and there are other kids (not siblings) in his school? There is a common misconception that all homeschooled kids are taught and graded exclusively by their parents. By high school, many “homeschoolers” are taking classes away from home and get “real” grades.</p>
Good luck to you as well.</p>