Official National Merit Semifinalist Qualifying Score Thread for the Class of 2013

Paying for College National Merit Aid
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<p>Momawe, I don’t know what your financial situation is, but CalTech uses a college match non-profit called Questbridge. It is for high-achieving low(ish)-income students - here is the link at the Caltech webpage. [QuestBridge</a> Applicants - Caltech Caltech Undergraduate Admissions](<a href=“http://www.admissions.caltech.edu/applying/questbridge]QuestBridge”>http://www.admissions.caltech.edu/applying/questbridge)</p>

<p>Do have your student use every opportunity he has in his favor to make him stand out to schools! Colleges really like first-in-family attending college applicants. Have your student make sure it gets mentioned. </p>

<p>Also, there are lots of great engineering schools & programs out there - Harvey Mudd, Olin, Stanford, Princeton, Rice, etc (Harvey Mudd is my favorite because my daughter currently goes there!)</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

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<p>descartez - Thank you for the clarification - new to this site. We have an academic award ceremony tonight, and usually they announce the NMSF at that. Guess we find out then! I’ll also check in with his CC.</p>

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<p>No word yet for LA. I was hoping some from
North Louisiana where they are still in school would post. Everything here is shut down due to H. Isaac. So any thoughts/input would be welcome. School wont resume until friday at the earliest.</p>

<p>Hope it doesn’t increase a lot over last year. Sounds like it will go down, but just want actual confirmation! </p>

<p>When power comes back I’ll post my thoughts about the standardized testing madness and NM importance. </p>

<p>Congratulations to all. It is exciting to think about all these obviously gifted young adults moving in to their college years! And I include anyone who is checking this thread as you obviously care, have worked hard, and scored well - whether or not the PSAT captures your talents fully.</p>

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<p>momawe - I missed your other posts but I am interpreting neither of you (husband and wife) went to college.</p>

<p>Most top schools have programs (UPenn, Yale, Princeton come to mind) where they are paying special attention to first generation college students and do a lot to ensure that about 10% of their class meets this criterion. It also means they are spending a lot of their financial need money in this area because most families in this category tend to meet full need requirements, i.e., entire costs of the education are funded by the college.</p>

<p>Questbridge usually covers most of these colleges but Harvard is one school which does not work with QB.</p>

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<p>McMomma–I’ll wager even money he’s good at 214. Good luck to him.</p>

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<p>If your child is a commended student will they get a letter in the mail and will the school be notified? Will the school notify your child? We already received the letter in the spring saying he was one of the top 50,000. I know he will be commended not semi-finalist</p>

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<p>Texas – 216 is in! Thanks clapuma for your diligence.</p>

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<p>mom2zach: Yes. I believe letters to Commended students go out in late September. They will also notify the high school.</p>

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<p>That’s good, at least it will be something to add to his college application, and maybe help him get a smaller scholarship. He number school is a private school, that is really expensive, we are hoping for some help, but not expecting much</p>

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<p>I think you just made several scores of people happy in TX, Internetgirl6191.</p>

<p>Last years cutoffs:</p>

<p>AL 211; AK 212; AZ 213; AR 205; CA 221; CO 215; CT 220; DE 217; DC 223; FL 214; GA 218; HI 216; 211; IL 216; IN 214; IA 210; KS 214; KY 212; LA 209; ME 212; MD 221; MA 223; MI 210; MN 215; MS 205; MO 213; MT 209; NE 209; NV 209; NH 216; NJ 223; NM 210; NY 219; NC 217; ND 204; OH 214; OK 209; OR 216; PA 215; RI 213; SC 211; SD 206; TN 214; TX 219; UT 208; VT 217; VA 220; WA 220; WV 204; WI 209; WY 204; International 223; New England Boarding Schools 223; Commended Scholar 202</p>

<p>Clapuma’s informed guesses for this year’s cutoff’s:</p>

<p>CA 219 (-2); FL 211 (-3); GA 215 (-3); IL 214 (-2); MD 220/221 (0/-1); MI 209 (-1); MO 210 (-3); NJ 221 (-2); NY 218 (-1); OH 211 (-3); PA 214 (-1); TX 216 (-3); VA 219 (-1)</p>

<p>Remaining states that need to be finalized:</p>

<p>AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, DC, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KY, LA,
ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MN, MO, MT, NV, NH, NM, NY, NC, ND,
OH, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TX, UT, VT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY</p>

<p>Updating NC, TX.</p>

<p>AL<=210 (post #212)
AK=?
AZ=?
AR=?
CA=?
CO<=214 (post #140)
CT=?
DE=?
DC=?
FL<=213 (post #107)
GA<=216 (post #154)
HI=?
ID=?
IL<=214 (post #178)
IN=?
IA=?
**KS=212<a href=“post%20#197,%20-2”>/B</a>
KY<=208 (post #109)
LA=?
ME=?
MD<=219 (post #149)
MA=?
MI=?
MN<=215 (post #219)
MS=?
MO=?
MT=?
**NE=207<a href=“post%20#145,%20-2”>/B</a>
NV<=209 (post #213)
NH<=217 (post #110)
**NJ=221<a href=“post%20#158,%20-2”>/B</a>
NM=?
NY=?
NC<=215 (post #237)
ND=?
OH<=213 (post #142)
**OK=206<a href=“post%20#137,%20-3”>/B</a>
OR=?
PA=?
RI=?
SC<=213 (post #136)
SD=?
**TN=210<a href=“post%20#152,%20-4”>/B</a>
TX<=216 (post #247)
UT=?
VT=?
VA=?
WA<=222 (post #116)
WV=?
WI<=212 (post #125)
WY=?</p>

<p>10(?) Boarding school regions
NE region=221
These usually are set to be equal to the highest cut-off score among the individual states in the region.</p>

<p>Internationals=?
This usually is set to be equal to the highest cut-off score among all the individual states.</p>

<p>Commended (national cutoff) = 200
Any person with a score equal to or higher than this cutoff who is not a NMSF receives commended status. This group represents the highest 50,000 scorers.</p>

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<p>Internetgirl THANKS for the update! Clapuma thanks for being a genius :)</p>

252

<p>squidge – if you do find out the cut-off score, please let us know.</p>

253

<p>Iowa - 207 is in. That’s a drop of 3 points from last year.</p>

<p>Is there somewhere that I can read speculation of why scores are trending down so much overall this year? Will there still only be 16,000 semifinalists? If so, will some state cutoffs increase over last year? Really surprised by the big drops.</p>

<p>Surprised and very excited here!</p>

254

<p>The semifinalists will remain the same number -16000. Each state has a specific number assigned based on the number of high school graduates in the state as a percentage of overall high school graduates. So if Texas has 10%, they get 1600.</p>

<p>Then they go down the list and cut Texas score at 1600th student starting with the highest score.</p>

<p>If the test is tougher, the score can drop.</p>

255

<p>Much as they try to statistically scale each test so that scores can be compared across versions and time it is not a perfect science. Fluctuations happen every year–it only takes a question or two to make a difference. It became clear in April this year, when the Commended cut-off is announced and state score distributions are released, that the test scores would be a lower this year, especially since last year’s scores were higher than average.</p>

<p>Yes, I expect there will still be only about 16,000 SF’s.</p>

256

<p>Looking for additional Georgia scores?</p>

257

<p>Internetgirl6191, Congrats! I guess I need to get on the phone and call the GC at son’s high school.</p>

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<p>I’m now going to fade into anonymity because I wasn’t supposed to blab until 9/12/12. Good luck!!</p>

259

<p>Does anyone have Florida information? With the hurricane, schools have been closed and no one here knows anything yet. </p>

<p>Mom2threeplusdog’s post (#107) is the only score (213, -1) but we don’t know the minimum qualifying score yet. </p>

<p>Sure hope Clapuma’s brilliant predictions continue to be accurate!</p>

<p>I’m dying!</p>

260

<p>Any word on the NV cutoff? earlier post someone made it with 209 which was last year’s score - and by the way, don’t know about anyone else, but my son and many of his friends from different high schools all agreed that the Oct 2011 PSAT was harder than sophomore year (Oct 2010), so perhaps that has something to do with the lower scores.</p>