We’re safe for NMSF, but I’ll get my share of worrying in later as D18 has one of those nasty “C” grades on her transcript. It’s always something!!
This ledge is your ledge
This ledge is my ledge
From California
To the Massachusedge . . .
As long as they don’t go digging into mid-semester grades, S18 should be good. He had an event that he missed and had a 0 in his gradebook until he was able to make it up via writing an essay and get the teacher to correct that essay/update the grade. So he actually has an F as a mid-semester grade in a class from last year (semester grade is an A). At least he would have NMSF, even if he didn’t have finalist. But I think he would be the first NMSF from his school NOT to be a finalist. Not the exclusive club we’d like him to be a part of! 
any more info on cutoffs? dates? predictions?
A couple of more weeks to wait…
Son is still waiting with a 217 in AL. I guess he made commended though we have not been notified of anything. Will a 1410 on the SAT confirm? Can anybody take an educated guess? I know NMF gets you a full ride in several colleges but does it get you special consideration for admission at schools like Ga tech?
Last year the cutoff in AL was 215, it’s predicted to be 216 this year with a possible range of 214-218. So your son is in a good place, but its not guaranteed. As far as the SAT score, I might be wrong but I believe the SI has to be higher than 211, the commended cutoff. To find the SI divide reading by 5 and math by 10 and add those together. 1410 can be anywhere from a 202-221 SI depending on whether he did better in reading or math.
thanks @snowfairy137. He did better in the math.He also has a 1400 that may give him a higher SI. Do they superscore?? LOL
@amyandscott, any NM honor is a nice addition to college applications but probably not much of a boost for very competitive schools like GT. There are ~34k Commended students, so not a big boost. There are also ~15k NMF, and a school like GT probably has hundreds of NMFs who apply there, schools like Ivies even more. It’s a nice honor but even NMF is unlikely to be the difference between acceptance and denial at a prestigious college.
@traveler98 thanks for the info. I was fearful that this would not boost his chances at Ga Tech.
@amyandscott, definitely include any honor he receives because anything from NM is a national level award. It surely won’t hurt his application anywhere, and it probably does help to varying degrees depending on the college.
@amyandscott someone upthread probably already answered this for you but in order to see if your son’s SAT is a confirming score you will need to convert that 1410 into a “selection index” (similar to how the NMSQT index was calculated). Very easy to do. The formula I use is: [(2EBRW) + (Math) ] / 10. So, for instance, if his 1410 was a 710 in EBRW and 700 in Math that would be [(7102) + 700] / 10 = 212. Last year that would have been a confirming score, as the minimum was below the 209 commended (forget what it was exactly - either a 206 or 207 or something like that). While they tended not to do this all that often with the old test, NM Corp. could always change the confirming score from the prior year. Especially if the commended keeps increasing. So definitely call them once your son is confirmed NMSF to see what they are thinking about that. They don’t superscore but will use his “best” test (in terms of SI so yeah, it may well be that the 1400 gives a better SI than the 1410, depending on the underlying EBRW and Math scores). If he finds he needs to retake, he has till the December test IIRC (although you’ll want to double check that!).
@sewin2music, @3scoutsmom is right - but I would add that there are also several universities that will give you just as much based on either SAT or ACT alone. I think one of them is the University of Alabama? University of Oklahoma? Look around!
do you think being NMF would ever hurt your application at some schools with merit money on the line like BU or Northeastern because then they have to shell out more money?
Also, for BU and Northeastern they say “will be recognized with a four-year $20,000 tuition Boston University” if they are NMF. Is this 20k per year or 20k over 4 years so 5k per year?
Good question @kjake2000 . I am also wondering if the BU NMF scholarship is automatic. It reads that way online, but I am thinking it’s competitive. Does anyone know for sure?
As of 2 years ago BU was $20,000 per year but it is competitive, not automatic. They reject lots of NMFs. You have to show interest.
I think right now his best SI for SAT is 210. Biting my nails here.
I called National Merit this week and was told that although they can’t officially release the confirming score SI, it’s safe to say it will be slightly below the Commended SI by a few points or so.
Btw I was previously registered under Kayak3 but this site has not allowed me to log in for months so I’ve just been browsing and finally set up a new account today. Hi, everyone, and good luck to all.
Did they reveal any dates for NMSF state cutoffs?