<p>*There are kids who are ill on the one and only day that “counts” for NMS. *</p>
<p>Not true! Kids who are sick on PSAT day can use a SAT score taken within a defined time. </p>
<p>Yes, it is appalling that the GC was not more pro-active. </p>
<p>Another mom recently posted that her high-stats child was discouraged by the GC from taking the PSAT! Some GCs are just incompetent people who think schools are job programs for adults.</p>
<p>Yes, there are other big merit scholarships available for students with high SAT or ACT scores. However, some are not as generous as the ones for NMFs.</p>
<p>However, if the student’s stats are high enough, there are schools that will give free tuition, etc, which can be worth $80k+ or more!</p>
<p>Laffter…what are your D’s SAT or ACT scores?</p>
<p>And, yes, I would contact the principal and let him/her know about this lapse. The GC needs to be more proactive with students who demonstrated high PSATs their sophomore year and make sure that they retest their junior year. The letter doesn’t have to be a “hate letter,” just a gentle correction.</p>
<p>AUTO SCHOLARSHIPS…$$$ CC Important links to Auto Scholarships based on ACT/SAT and GPA… </p>
<p>But I don’t understand any school/GC that doesn’t automatically have high potential kids take the junior year PSAT. That should be a given like state testing.</p>
<p>I realize that everyone here is pretty much ready to blame the guidance counselor. I must point out that working in a high school, it is not uncommon to find students who are bright and motivated that simply do not pay attention to the MULTIPLE printed handouts and classroom presentations given by guidance counselors every semester of every year and repeatedly manage to miss deadlines, details etc. that cost them thousands of dollars. I have tried to boil things down to bullet points because I know kids won’t necessarily read a whole paragraph that they deem “boring”. In addition to the information given by the school, there’s the college board website that spells it all out for you.</p>
<p>If there was truly misinformation given by the guidance counselor that is different - but I have a hard time believing that anyone employed in the field would tell a kid that their sophomore score would qualify them - unless that at the time the information was given out, the kid was telling the guidance counselor that they were going to graduate from high school a year early (in which case that score would qualify them, as long as they were correctly identified as a junior). In addition, your score report had a little asterisk next to the score telling you whether or not you were in the running for National Merit - so if you read the score report sophomore year you know you weren’t being counted in the running for National Merit.</p>
<p>The good news is that strong SAT or ACT scores, combined with strong grades will also get significant awards at most of the schools that pay top $ for NMF. It won’t be as much, but it won’t be insignificant either.</p>
<p>Don’t waste any time worrying about things you can’t change - move forward and look for your next opportunity. Best of luck!</p>
<p>I realize that kids don’t often read or process whatever info is given them at school. But, schools know this, which is why important info needs to be sent home to the parents. </p>
<p>Frankly, I think it is just weird that a school that gives the PSAT to sophomores, doesn’t have a system in place to make sure that all high-scoring sophomores retest as juniors. </p>
<p>I’m just glad that my kids’ high school requires that all kids take the PSAT for soph and junior year.</p>
<p>I teach in a high school that requires and pays for all sophomores to take the PSAT and then encourages juniors to take it, although juniors pay for it except need-based ones who apply beforehand for assistance to College Board. When my son was a junior I encouraged him to take the PSAT, but I didn’t know anything about NM. He was given all of the information to sign up junior year and I didn’t bother him about it because I felt it was his responsibility and I didn’t think it was a big deal. (If I had known about NM I would have bugged him.)</p>
<p>When my daughter was a sophomore, she scored the highest in her class and I was then specifically told by one of our guidance counselors about NM, although I still was unaware of how lucrative it can be. My daughter’s awards from this designation so far total over $130,000. I have since talked to our principal and guidance counselors about having special meetings for parents and students about NM, especially for students who scored high as a sophomore. They started doing this, this past school year and hopefully more juniors at our school will take the test and put effort into it. </p>
<p>I really feel bad for you and your daughter, but with high grades and SAT scores she will have many opportunities. Even worse is my daughter’s boyfriend’s older brother. His PSAT score was 1 point below what was needed to become a semifinalist three years ago and the two years his score would have made the cutoff.</p>
<p>It seems that the thing that the GC did not know was that a high scoring sophomore wasn’t going to be taking the PSAT as a junior. If I recall, the PSAT answer sheets passed out to the kids are quite clear that scores in the earlier years are not eligible for the competition. </p>
<p>The above advice from a previous poster is VERY good–since you are the one to suffer the damage from any misinformation, you must take responsibility to get all the information you need. </p>
<p>Unless your kid is thinking of going to a school that gives a big scholarship for NMSFs, you really haven’t lost much. Just be sure to read all of the information having to do with applications, though. You don’t want to have anything important fall through the cracks or miss a deadline.</p>
<p>Most students tune this out, they think “I’m not going to qualify so why bother.” My son is an excellent student. A few B’s snuck in there, but the important thing is he’s self sufficient. I don’t know when he has tests or what projects he has going on unless they come up at dinner. He doesn’t need an executive assistant…
However, despite being told multiple times by a very capable and caring GC, there is scads of information he just doesn’t bring home to me. To be honest I didn’t understand the gravity of NM. I found his scores shoved next to his desk one day late in the spring. I started really reading, saw that stinking ‘*’, realized the date to notify was past and was NOT happy with my son! This is not a one-off event, but perhaps the most costly. He just doesn’t absorb, or pass on, what he does not deem important in the fairly near future. To be fair, they are BOMBARDED with information. It is hard to weed out what they have to pass on and what is ‘noise’.
As it turns out, his top two schools wouldn’t have done anything for NM. His safety would have given him four free years of an honors college education…well over $100k. He would have had to have named them as his first choice, which he would not be willing to do, so in the end… He does qualify for merit aid there, but it’s not as generous and the NM would have been.
It was NOT his GCs fault. It was his…and mine.</p>
<p>Since I have learned about opportunities the NMF designation can offer, and I say can because not all NMF want to attend a school with big NMF money, I now tell all of my juniors about what it can mean regarding scholarships and encourage them to sign up to take the PSAT. Even so, a lot of them don’t listen and those who early in junior year are expecting to attend an elite school that doesn’t offer the big dollars really don’t listen, because they can’t even fathom going to a “lesser” school that would offer money like that. When mid senior year rolls around they tend to regret not listening because they have now found themselves going to one of the “lesser” schools because they either didn’t get into an elite school or they can’t afford it.</p>
<p>To be honest, even if a parent makes sure their child signs up for the PSAT, the child still has to understand the importance of the test or just be the type of child who pushes their self on every test. I know many, many kids who didn’t do well on the PSAT because they didn’t take it seriously, but knocked the SAT out of the water.</p>
<p>She’s going to retest, but here are her scores: SAT math and writing both 710, CR 650. ACT 33 composite; can’t remember how it breaks down. Her gpa is at 3.76, unweighted. Hopefully she can bring the test scores up,but if not we’ll use score choice and submit these, no big problem.</p>
<p>^^Oh he took it, he took the test seriously, he did quite well obviously. It just didn’t click with him that he should follow up on it, or at the very least he should give me the scores.
He is not applying to Ivy League schools, so his is not a matter of not wanting to go to a ‘lesser’ school. His two top choices are in state, have his major, and are very well regarded. If they don’t work out we are hoping that he will be happy at the safety we have identified with the help of cc’ers. The merit aid also makes it a financial safety as it’s several states away. Learning how much sweeter the deal could have been makes me cringe…just a bit.
I will be far more on the ball with the THIRD child…my gosh how many children does it take for me to get it right?!?</p>
<p>I don’t understand blueiquana. If you take the PSATs as a junior, you are automatically entered into the NM “competition.” There is no need to notify anyone till the fall when you are given a packet by the guidance counselor to apply for finalist.</p>
<p>Laffter: You D is obvioulsy very smart. She is going to end up somewhere wonderful. She iwll have lots of options - perhaps just a handful fewer. This NMSF thing won’t amount to a hill of beans in a few years.</p>
<p>My youngest child also attends a public high-school where all sophomores are administered the PSAT, at school expense, but juniors only take it if they choose to sign up for it, and must pay for the test. </p>
<p>My older children were at private schools where everyone took the test both sophomore and junior years (at parent expense). Does anyone understand why some public high schools choose to administer and pay for the test in sophomore year only, rather than junior year? This isn’t going to affect us - my current high-schooler is a rising junior and is planning to sign up for the PSAT in October – just curious, I guess.</p>
<p>I would add that the communication coming from high schools is often written in such a way that would be laughed at in the business world. I’d be fired if I buried the “what to do next” in paragraphs.</p>
<p>Instead of:
“In order to register for X, you have to fill out the form which talks about blah blah. That form should be sent into blah blah blah by blah blah blah date. Also, another form that’s enclosed is the Y form. People who are doing B should also do Y. That form will go to the blah blah blah.”
(then 2 paragraphs later)
“Forms for Z are due blah blah blah. Sophomores need to fill out these forms”</p>
<p>Apparently, none of them have learned that in the business world, you’d color code the forms and give direction as follows: (this won’t let me tab, but you get the idea, there would be three very clear columns)</p>
<p>Who Fills Out What By When
Freshmen Blue form Due Aug 5 to XYZ
Freshmen Yellow form Due Aug 5 to ABC; include check for $20
Sophs and jrs Orange form Due Aug 10 to DEF
Everyone Purple form Due Aug 15 to GHI</p>
<p>Communication from schools is SO behind the times, IMO.</p>
<p>Our local HS requires all freshman, sophomores and juniors to take the psatnmsqt, and they pay for it. The folks around here are pretty spoiled.</p>
<p>I can sympathize with the OP.I was the parent who checked the school’s website daily, read every paper brought/mailed home, attended every parent meeting, etc. and was still very disappointed to find out about several things my child might possibly have qualified for…after the fact. This has happened to some other very involved parents here so it sure seemed to me as if there was a lack of effort on the school’s part.</p>
<p>Keeping track of it all is such a challenge. I have no idea how kids w/out involved parents are able to cope and even take advantage of part of the opportunities potentially available to them (like Questbridge.)</p>