novice here-what can you do with the PSAT score?

Paying for College National Merit Aid
1

I saw a discussion that talks about 220 etc. and I do not understand what that scale means. My son got 760 in math and 700 in english with a total of 1460 for the PSAT (junior). i found on the internet that 1460 was the cut off for the National Merit Scholarship in our state, last year. I understand we won’t know if he qualifies until april/September.

If he doesn’t (or even if he does) qualify for the National Merit Scholarship, is there anything else you can do with a good PSAT score like this one?

2

@BluEyeL National Merit Eligibility is determined by the Selection Index which is calculated as follows:

76 (math) + 70 + 70 (Reading/Writing is doubled) for a total of 216.

You can find the SI for your state last year by googling NMF cutoffs by state.

3

If your son does qualify for NM, there are some schools that give automatic scholarships.

4

If your son doesn’t qualify for NM status, really, his PSAT score is not useful for anything else. It’s not like colleges use that for admission or other scholarship consideration.

If no NM status…oh well.

5

One other possibility, if he happens to be 1/4 Hispanic, is the National Hispanic Recognition Program. It is a national award to include in the Common App and there are some colleges that give scholarships based on it.

6

Thanks guys ! Too bad, he seems to only meet the cut off for the lowest level, I.e the commended student, whatever that means , so apparently it’s oh well :)) we are happy with the score though. Bummer on the English and that it counts more. He’s not Hispanic .

7

Commended still gives your student an “award” to list on Common App.

8

Thanks! I since googled around and it seems he can still say he’s a commended national scholarship student on his college admission application and that’s adding a little bit to everything else. Happy with that.

9

@BluEyeL If he hasn’t taken the SAT yet, he can link his PSAT account to Khan Academy. Khan will target prep to the areas he missed on the PSAT to try to increase his EBRW score. (Going to be difficult to increase that math score! Congrats to him!) Otherwise, I agree with all of the above posters.

10

Thanks! He already took the SAT, he scored 750 in Math and 670 in English. Since he did perfect in math in the PSAT and less in English, it is very clearly he will have to focus on English from now on. Will re-take SAT in March.