<p>It’s official - just received word from GC in Texas. DS made the NMF cut. 3.41 weighted GPA (at time of submission, now higher), mostly B’s (only 11 A’s) and 1 C+ freshman year. Appears he made it by the “hair of his chinny chin chin.” Since he is such a border-line case, I’ll provide his specifics, in hopes of helping others. He had severe birth trauma (delivered 27 minutes after my heart stopped in labor) and went through 10+ years of therapy, 5 days a week, for a myraid of learning differences resulting from the ordeal. He is dyslexic, dysgrahic, has ADD and had substantial speech and motor delays. He is a very gifted writer, so his essay was fantastic. He’s at a quite rigorous parochial school that provides almost no accomodations for his LDs, but he has a great relationship with his faculty and I’m sure his recs were stellar. He has few ECs - but is a “true intellectual” -has written his 1st novel (yet unpublished) and reads 1000+pages a week outside of class. 233 PSAT/2260 SAT (only took it once and scored uncharacteristically low on the CR - 710).</p>
<pre><code> NMSC is not terribly transparent about their selection criteria - and in all honesty, some of their decsions don’t seem fair. I’m grateful DS made the cut, he does deserve a break after all he’s been through. But so do many others. I’m sorry for those kids, and their families, that are disapointed. But I post this, as it appears to me that it is not just a numbers game. I think my son’s story mattered. Hope this may help others going forward.
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<p>jennieling - I agree, there really is no reason to worry. I have noticed an uptick in mail coming for our son this week so that may also be an indicator. One in particular was from Oklahoma about their National Scholars Program which is for NMFs. They didn’t say in their letter he was a finalist but they mentioned that students don’t find out until mid-February and that colleges find out before the students do. One of his top choices is dependent on the scholarship. It’s just been a long week as we’re also waiting to hear about valedictorian/salutatorian. It looks like it’s going to come down to hundredths of a point and he’s supposed to hear “by the end of this week” according to his counselor. Call me “patient in Virginia” or at least “trying to be patient in Virginia”.</p>
<p>3kidsand2dogs…Congratulations to your son! I know you must be so proud and excited! I’m glad NM looked past the grades number. Best of luck to him in the future.</p>
<p>Your son definitely deserves the honor. It’s not jutified to say that he has “few” ECs, considering the time he devotes to reading and writing. Colleges should recognize this.</p>
<p>Thank you for sharing. Best wishes for your family.</p>
<p>Thanks Soonermom95 and Meliora for the congratulations. I can’t wait until he gets home so I can share the great news. Thanks also to the several others that sent such encouraging private messages. Unfortunately, my account is new, and I have not yet earned the right to reply privately.</p>
<p>@3kidsand2dogs, I’m really happy for your son. Sounds like he has worked his you-know-what off to get where he is!
We still haven’t heard anything from out school, but haven’t heard no either. There were close to 20 semi finalists, so maybe they are waiting until tomorrow. Waiting stinks!</p>
<p>I like your user name, too. Mine could be 2kids3dogs!</p>
<p>Patesq, that is interesting that you are about to hear about valedictorian so soon. At our high school, it is not decided until a few days before graduation in May, once all of the senior’s 2nd semester final exams are finished. Then any student who has a 4.0 unweighted (our school does not weight) and at least 5 honors OR AP’s (NOTE: they could have 5 honors and no AP’s, which I don’t think is fair…) becomes valedictorian. Our public high school is pretty challenging, so out of 500-550 kids, there are usually between 2 and 6 kids who fulfill these criteria and thus become val. My son has the 4.0 so far, but I won’t count on it. He is in 3 AP’s and many EC’s which eat up time (esp show choir)–so we’ll see. In your school does the spring semester not count for val/sal?</p>
<p>jennieling - it seems odd to me too but they decide val/sal after 1st semester senior year; 2nd semester grades don’t count. My high school didn’t decide it until after 2nd semester grades were in either. I guess it’s because graduation is as early as 9:00am the day after exams. With as much trouble as they’re having getting an accurate calculation this year, I’m not surprised they don’t want to leave it until the last minute. And, the students wouldn’t have much time to write their speeches. At our son’s school, unless there’s a tie down to the thousandths place, there is only 1 val and 1 sal. They are always kids that have taken a bunch of weighted classes (APs and/or dual enrollment classes) as it’s impossible to have a high enough GPA without those classes. For a while, it looked like there might be a tie but our son decided to take an extra class last summer so we think (and his counselor thinks) he held on to the #1 spot. We should find out soon.</p>
<p>Patesq, that is very exciting! Let us know how it comes out for your son; hopefully he will get val!! At our school the val is not always the one who gives the speech. There are 2 speeches and kids write a speech and “try out” for it (although I don’t know if they have to be fairly good students–ie a fairly high GPA. From what I’ve seen over the past several yrs, they are often not the val/sal, although sometimes they are, but they are bright kids-NHS, etc). Wish our school did not count 2nd semester for val/sal!!</p>
<p>Still haven’t heard about NMF but he did get valedictorian!! It hasn’t been announced publicly at school - the principal wants to do something special but his counselor let me know today!! The val and sal both give speeches at his school and get to sit on stage for the whole ceremony rather than in with the other students. Now, how early do I have to get there to save good seats for our crew?</p>
<p>^^Congrats on his being #1!! ^^
Still haven’t heard about NMF here either. Left message for GC on Fri and she never called me back. Lots of notes & press releases about athletic letters of intent, though. Kinda crazy. Please don’t think I’m anti-athletics, our son was a two sport athlete and had college offers, but it just seems a little odd.</p>
<p>D just received a letter from NMSC telling her that she is a finalist. We live in AZ. Her school told her that they didn’t receive anything from NMSC (the letter to the school might have gotten lost somewhere).</p>
<p>I got an email from my son’s counselor telling us yesterday of the NMF status (he graduated early and is no longer at the HS) and then we got the letter today in Indiana (although we lived in WI when he took the PSAT so is classified there).</p>