<p>I was just notified yesterday that I scored amongst the top 50,000 in the PSAT, and was offered the service where NMSQT reccomends students to their two top choice schools. However...I know that I ultimately am probably a commended student (218 in NY), and so was wondering whether it was worth notifying my top choice schools of my score. Does this service actually help at all, since it really is 50,000 students (a vast number in comparison to actual admission pools). My top choice schools at the moment are Wesleyan and Barnard...should I have NMSQT send notice? </p>
<p>Any comments/past experiences would be helpful, since my school really wasn't able to give too much advice!</p>
<p>Just so you know, they don't send your score. They tell the schools that you are Commended and that you have expressed interest in their school. It will put you on their mailing list, but will not give you an edge in admissions or anything. It certainly won't hurt to name 2 schools, but it also won't matter.</p>
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50,000 students (a vast number in comparison to actual admission pools).
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<p>That's actually not correct. That is the top three percent (just over) in the nation. That is barely anyone, unless you are applying to the nation's top schools. Three percent. That is a huge honour. You personally scored in the 99th percentile, and although they won't see that- three percent of the nation that took the test (which is only a portion of the number actually applyin) is far from vast.</p>
<p>She, it is also incorrect to say that it doesn't matter. That is only true for the top schools (and even then arguably still untrue) and a very small number of schools. To be commended does matter in admissions at many places. It shows them that junior year, you were scoring among the top 3 percent (slightly more) of students in the nation. Many, many schools have the questions of whether an applicant has made Commended or higher in the National Merit competition; I believe all of the schools I am applying to do. If it didn't matter, it wouldn't be on there, and the competition would have become obsolete sometime in the past fifty years.</p>
<p>It can help to let colleges that might be match or safety school know about your status. It's a waste of time to let colleges like HPYSMIT know because they are the first choice colleges for many students with high scores, and have no reason to capitalize on the interest of high-scoring students on the PSAT.</p>
<p>Showing interest by listing some less competitive colleges that you'd be willing to attend might help you get merit aid or offers for fly-ins.</p>
<p>I didn't mean to imply that being commended was not helpful in college admissions. I guess I didn't word it correctly. Being Commended can be useful at quite a number of colleges. However, indicating interest at this point of the process by sending in your 2 choices through NM is not going to help much. It lets schools know that you are interested and that you are a Commended scholar. However, there are many opportunities in the process to indicate that without going through NM.</p>
<p>Every year there are lots of kids who really sweat over which schools to indicate on the yellow card. They have 5 or 6 schools they are interested in and can only name 2. They spend lots of time trying to figure out which 2 schools will it be most advantageous to name. I don't think it will matter much in the greater scheme of things which schools you name at this point.</p>