<p>Hey everyone I am a potential NMSF. I have 2 C's my entire high school career. I was going through tough times. Those C's were in my sophomore year and my junior year. My EC's are very strong, all the staff at my school loves me so I know I will get a great recommendation. I have over 1600 hours of community service. I think my SAT should be above 2100. Do I have a chance of becoming a Finalist?</p>
<p>I’m assuming your PSAT score was at or above the cut off score for your state - if that is the case the yes you do have a very good chance of advancing to NMF status .Most do - but only 50% of the finalists actually receive NMS scholarship $$- either from sponsoring colleges , sponsoring companies or NMSF itself</p>
<p>Soup, you probably are fine</p>
<p>Were those C’s semester grades or quarter grades?</p>
<p>If they were quarter grades, what were the semester grades? Usually quarter grades are not on the transcripts.</p>
<p>Soup,
Don’t worry too much. My son was just named a Finalist and he had a total of 3 semester C’s (1-C+, 1-C and 1-C-) on his transcript. They were all in his freshman and sophmore years. Good luck!</p>
<p>I had 4 C’s and 0 volunteer hours and just made it!!</p>
<p>Glad to hear that you guys all made it.</p>
<p>I do have a message from a parent whose child was rejected and that kid had a few C’s. So, I don’t know what the limit is…or if the overall GPA is considered as well.</p>
<p>Awesome thanks everyone! By the way, what are the ways I can increase my chances for finalist?</p>
<p>My son’s principal told us that 2 of 7 NMSFs at his school did not make NMF because their senior schedule was considered to be unchallenging and not worthy of the finalist award. If that is true, the qualifications are not only for past academic achievements, but also forward-looking for potential achievements. Has anybody heard of such a requirement? I suppose it could be true since NMSC doesn’t release the list of qualifications necessary to make NMF.</p>
<p>My son’s principal told us that 2 of 7 NMSFs at his school did not make NMF because their senior schedule was considered to be unchallenging and not worthy of the finalist award. If that is true, the qualifications are not only for past academic achievements, but also forward-looking for potential achievements. Has anybody heard of such a requirement? </p>
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<p>I find that very hard to believe…</p>
<p>Do you know any of the families of these 2 kids? If so, their rejection letters would have said why they didn’t make it.</p>
<p>As long as the student has fulfilled the req’ts to graduate…and may have done so early…why would NMCorp care if the last year’s schedule was filled with fluff classes? There could be a legit reason for that. I know a top student who did that because senior year was spent going to college music conservatory auditions and the kid needed a light load. </p>
<p>Heck…some kids may have a light high school senior year, but they’re taking CC classes at the same time.</p>
<p>Frankly, this principal should NOT have been telling others this…violation of student privacy since it’s easy to find out who those 2 are.</p>
<p>I have never heard of this, either. And I agree, revealing this is an invasion of privacy. If the families want to disclose that is their business, but school administrators and teachers should not be saying anything.</p>
<p>Moreover I find “light load” a little ambiguous: does it mean less than full-time or a full slate of easy coursework? I find it particularly difficult to believe the NMSC would want to be rendering judgment in the latter situation, but a little easier to understand if they have some kind of “full-time student” requirement to advance. If this is true, I can only suppose NMSC contacted the high school to discuss the situation in detail and ascertain what other commitments the students had before making a decision.</p>
<p>understand if they have some kind of “full-time student” requirement to advance</p>
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<p>Good point. If these kids are doing that “half day” thing (without attending CC classes or something), then maybe NMCorp doesn’t like their “less than full time status”??</p>
<p>ChuckTaylor - I wonder if your principal was just trying to send a message about senior scheduling. Not sure if this is true everywhere, but our district gets extra funding or something like that based on how many kids are enrolled in AP classes, and the administration says all sorts of things to try and “scare” juniors into taking as many AP’s as possible their senior year (because of the demographics of our school, many kids want to take the dual credit route). Just wondering if that could be behind his statement - because I’ve never heard that reasoning anywhere else.</p>