<p>Can someone explain how the process is suposed to go?
My son has achieved semi-finalist status. I only knew this because I searched and found a list of semi-finalists online (an online newspaper, not even local to me).
I thought the school would congratulate my son so I've been waiting to hear from them. I also thought the school was the one to get the application and instructions for the next steps.
We haven't heard anything from anyone until today.
I happened to look online and found that the dealine for application was a few days ago.</p>
<p>I immediately caled NMSF directly (they're very nice by the way), they said they would accept the application if we get it done right away and I should call my son's school.
I still hadn't heard ANYTHING from my son's school.</p>
<p>Since I couldn't control my anger at this point, I had my wife call the school. The school said "we should have gotten all the paperwork at home, they had nothing to do."
After some back and forth and making them call NMSF, the school now says they have the paperwork.</p>
<p>So, what should have happened?...Did I actually get something in the mail (or email) and missed it?<br>
Or, was I correct in thinking the school got the only notification and instructions.</p>
<p>BTW...Now I have absolutely no faith in our "guidance" counselors.</p>
<p>The school gets everything. They have to give your child a login to start the application. We got nothing directly in the mail to us. You did not miss anything on your end. That is very frustrating. It is good that you can still apply after the deadline.</p>
<p>Your school blew it, but NMSC is very reasonable with the “deadlines”. The procedure has changed over the past couple of years, but I believe the way it now works is that the students’ packages are sent to the school. The package contains a password your son needs to complete his part of the application online. Then the school must provide a ref letter, transcript, and other info. If your son’s counselor has no experience with National Merit applications, then he/she may not realize what a big deal it is, and this could fall through the cracks, so I think you should get all the information as to deadlines and requirements and meet with the counselor/ counselor’s supervisor/ principal, etc., to push this along! 15 out of 16 semifinalists advance to finalist, so just be sure everything gets submitted. And be nice, because you do need a ref letter from the school! Follow up with NMSC to ask if they have received everything. As you said, the folks at NMSC are very nice. Good Luck!</p>
<p>Thanks for the note…
I find it even more frustrating that the school either…
still doesnt know they dropped the ball
or
maybe even worse, isn’t admitting that they messed up…</p>
<p>NMSC must be getting used to missed deadlines caused by GCs. Just be glad you found out in time! and congrats to your son! Do push the process along–it’s well worth it.</p>
<p>Yes, they are most likely aware that they screwed-up and yes, they aren’t likely to admit it. The primary reason for not advancing from NMSF to NMF is failure to submit paperwork, and, after seeing a few posts like this every year, I now wonder how much of that reason is due to the failure of high school administrations to execute their role in the notification and application process.</p>
<p>As far as I know, the NMSC has always relied on the high schools to play point on test registration, session administration, results notification, awards recognition, and local press communication. I can see the advantages of this scheme, especially in that by allowing the high schools to administer tests it also allows most tests to be delivered in class rooms during the school day. But I suspect the NMSC has long tolerated situations like this where a few high schools drop the ball at critical times and, with the advent of the internet, these situations are much more exposed than they used to be. If they asked me, I would strongly urge the NMSC to move to a process that directly notifies high-scorers and semifinalists of their status in parallel with the high schools. They should also make sure, if they don’t already, that the high schools are aware of and abide by the expectations that they will put priority on helping semifinalists to complete the application process. They should monitor high schools of semifinalists before the application deadline and should follow-up with those who are making no progress in submitting applications.</p>
<p>OP, I am glad you have been extended some flexibility on this and wish your son good luck.</p>
<p>It gets even worse, and I get more infuriated.
My son brought home a letter of recognition from the NMSC dated AUGUST 21, addressed to HIM but sent to the school.
The counselor just stuck it in a file.</p>
<p>So in reality my son should have had since August to work on his application. He’s now cramming it into one night (along with his normal school workload tonight).
Im hopeful now that most semi-finalists advance as long as they apply, Im not sure this application will be his best work considering the situation.</p>
<p>There has to be a better way.<br>
My sophmore daughter takes the PSAT this saturday, you can be sure I’ll be watching the process for her even more.</p>
<p>In reality, while some students were notified (privately) that they had achieved NMSF status in late August, they were not given the information to access the National Merit website until September 12th or thereabouts. I may be wrong, but I don’t think they were even able to start working on their applications until then.</p>
<p>Not that your situation doesn’t stink - it does. Hope this makes it a little less aggravating for you.</p>
<p>Keeping my fingers crossed tightly that our school gets everything submitted also!!!</p>
<p>Don’t worry about it, the “true” deadline for all materials, including the counselor recommendation is November 1st. There is still plenty of time, and is the reason why NMSC seemed to be so lenient… Because the deadline really isn’t till 2 weeks from now.</p>
<p>Reading CC, you might think that NMSF status is very common, but nationwide there are probably hundreds if not thousands of schools who rarely have a student who qualifies. It still is a bummer that the counselor did not take the time to read the letter. I agree that your son probably would not have had lots of extra time. The turnaround is pretty quick for the applications, but if it has not changed much, the main part is a summary of activities. The school does have to complete part of the application and it seems as though the principal did that part. Once the application is complete, it is smooth sailing.</p>
<p>Many parents and NM winners are not well versed as to what it all means. I found College Confidential early in the process ;), which helped me know that my daughter would be a semi-finalist. My daughter’s BF went to school in a very affluent area of Connecticut, but was not among the privileged class. He made NMF, but did not know that could mean full scholarships at numerous schools. He will graduate with debt ( but did find a beautiful, brilliant GF) that would not have been necessary had he had some guidance.</p>
<p>The next thing to check is whether either parent’s company gives money to NMF.</p>
<p>Again, thank you for all your words of advice and encouragement.</p>
<p>My son and I were up late last night completing his portion of the application. This morning in my haste I realized that I may have made a costly mistake.</p>
<p>I had him list “undeclared” as future career.
I realize this morning after reading some more that corporate scholarship awards are often based on career choice.</p>
<p>Perhaps I should have had him list a career choice that is associated with corporate scholarship money.</p>
<p>HudsonValleyDad…The vast majority of the corporate sponsored scholarships go to students who have a parent that works for the sponsoring corporation. Unless you work for one of the companies, I doubt you’ve affected your son’s chances. If you do work for one of those companies, the overriding factor in awarding a corporate scholarship is your employment status as opposed to his career choice. You should be fine.</p>
<p>I’d have a hard time controlling my temper if I had to deal with your situation, but since you need to have a working relationship with the school to ensure their portion gets accomplished properly and in a timely fashion you’ll probably just have to smile and at least pretend to be understanding. I would make sure that THEY understand this is potentially worth $100K plus in scholarship money to your son, depending on which universities he might be interested in attending. If places like U of Kentucky, U of Central Florida, etc. might be on his radar you’re looking at basically full-ride money. If you haven’t seen the list of school-sponsored scholarships check out the thread. Once the SF application is completed, I’d make sure to impress upon his HS the amount of money they might’ve cost him. Congrats to your S on making NMSF, and Good Luck to him on his college search!!</p>
<p>Wolverine is right. Unless you work for a company that sponsors a corporate scholarship, your child will not likely get one.</p>
<p>I think there are only 2-3 corporate scholarships that award to “other kids”. And, those require some really unique majors…not likely ones that your child would be seeking.</p>
<p>I also agree with the above that I would have a hard time not making a federal case out of the school’s cavalier attitude about all of this. They have behaved like stereotypical people in gov’t jobs…just pushing papers without using any thinking skills. The GC needs to be reprimanded, the principal owes your son/family an apology, and the district office should know about this.</p>
<p>Just FYI, HVD, regarding your D. Sophomore PSAT-takers are not eligible for for the NMS competition. Only junior testers can participate. The chief reasons for sophomores to take the test are (1) practice for the junior-year PSAT and the SAT and (2) get feedback on what areas to work on.</p>
<p>I’ll also add that it isn’t clear how much of a role the application plays in eventual scholar selection. You must file a complete one, presumably, to advance to NMF, but most scholarships are “aligned” with employment or college selection and of those that aren’t, mostly the NMSC’s own awards, no one here knows how much influence the essay and activities list plays in those decisions. Factors already determined, like SAT score and class rank, probably are more decisive. At any rate a less-than-optimal application probably won’t have a big impact.</p>
<p>Finally, it isn’t just government workers who slide into the “just push the paper” behavior. Plenty (plenty!) of those in the private sphere, too.:)</p>
<p>HVD - As a fellow parent whose kid’s school was not on top of this, I feel your pain.</p>
<p>IMPORTANT TASKS NOW:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>If you have not completed the parent authorization yet, do that immediately.</p></li>
<li><p>Have SAT scores sent to NM</p></li>
<li><p>Call the GC daily to get the Counselor’s portion done. You can verify it is completed on the student’s login to the National Merit App.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Our school rarely has NMSF. In the past, the package was a think paper package (or so I am told). Our GC was “waiting” for the package and did not realize the one page letter is all that is now given with everything on-line.</p>
<p>Just wanted to add, while I think the high schools do have a level of responsibility, I am more frustrated with National Merit Corp for not notifying the students directly. I don’t understand why they notify the student for commended status, but not semi-finalist status.</p>
<p>So glad you are able to get his application in, even though the school (not you!) missed the deadline. I think NM is flexible with deadlines for exactly this reason. Some schools are clueless.</p>
<p>We received nothing from NM at home, because the package went to the school, and it was up to them to notify us, which they did. However, our daughter did begin to receive a lot of mail from top schools mentioning her status as a “top student,” (we just thought it was random) long before we knew she was a NMSF. So if you have any other kids in the pipeline and they start getting letters like that, pay attention and start looking online for lists of semifinalists since your school sounds like they’re not on top of this at all.</p>
<p>Just wanted to add: Have your son’s SAT scores sent directly from College Board to the NM corp right away. (I can’t remember the code, but it’s easy to find on the College Board site.)</p>
<p>So my day started with a carefully worded email to my son’s GC, his principal and everyone I thought might have some culpability in this.<br>
I very clearly told them I wanted their work to be done TODAY.
The principal called and assured me they would take care of it. He never did appologize. I really had to hold back, since I/we still need their cooperation.</p>
<p>My question for the group now is: How much does the school have to do to complete their portion of the application? I cant get access to it so I dont know. I can only see that they still haven’t completed their part. !!
I would have expected them to be done by now, I assume it’s only a matter of issuing my son’s transcript.</p>
<p>Does anyone here know for sure what the school needs to do to complete their part?
Are there and GCs lurking here that could lend some insight.</p>
<p>Im hesitant to call the school and tear into them until I know the facts.</p>
<p>I have never seen the school-portion of the application but it is more than a transcript. I know that the school principal or principal-designee (usually a GC) needs to write an “endorsement” of the applicant which I have always assumed was similar to the GC recommendation competitive colleges usually require. (I know our high school collects input from two classroom teachers in order to help support what the GC writes.) I am unsure if more than this and a transcript is expected from the high school, but I strongly suggest continued polite patience as somebody in the school administration actually has to say nice things about your son.</p>
<p>BTW, there is a step in which an inquiry is emailed to a parent requiring logging in and granting approval before the application can be submitted by the applicant. Make sure you have executed this step otherwise the school can’t go forward.</p>
<p>Im pretty sure we’ve done all we can.
My son completed his portion of the application - essay and activities.
I completed the parental consent.
and I’m having his SAT scores sent by the CollegeBoard.</p>
<p>I’ll have my wife call tomorrow and ask if there’s anything we can do to help.
She’s calmer than me and steps in whenever I get too heated.</p>