<p>I scored a 211 in New Mexico, where the highest score requirement in recent years has been 210. My school hasn’t notified me of being a SF, but we usually don’t have any, so they’re not used to dealing with this process. Should I call the corporation directly or wait until Wednesday?</p>
<p>Wyvern66, the cutoff in NM appears to be 208 this year. You should start with your school; check with your guidance counselor and ask if they or the principal has received a mailing on this. If they have no info, then one of you should call. You will not run out of time if you don’t find out for a few more days. :)</p>
<p>Here in MN, D2 forgot to tell me that her guidance counselor called her in late last week and gave her the letter with the info. D2 quizzed her on what is needed to make finalist (since our school had 4 semifinalists, but only 3 made finalist). The counselor said she couldn’t give details, since D2 knew which kid did not make it. But she said as long as D2 does her part (app, essay, etc.) on time and with diligence, and sends in an acceptable SAT score (she has one), the counselor did not foresee any issues. She told D that if there did turn out to be any issue with D’s school recommendation that she (the counselor) would talk with D before it is sent in. D asked specifically about her service hours, as she is short of the school’s required mark right now because of trouble getting confirmation from the organization she volunteered for last spring (but is still working getting that signoff). The counselor assured her this would not be reflected in the school’s recommendation.</p>
<p>Thanks, intparent, I think I will bug them tomorrow haha.</p>
<p>208 in AL 
Somehow I knew I’d miss the cutoff by one point</p>
<p>SkeezeyJ, so sorry to hear that! I’m in the exact same situation with a 215 in TX. :/</p>
<p>Moments like these can definitely be challenging, but, as trite as it sounds, when one door closes, God can open another window of opportunity. 
</p>
<p>Maybe your college search will take a slightly different slant now, and you’ll find a different scholarship, like for the ACT/SAT, or maybe you’ll even find a college that’s an even better fit for you now. . . just a thought. . . one that definitely comforts me sometimes. . .</p>
<p>Still, though, I do feel your pain. So sorry for the rough week.</p>
<p>Blessings.</p>
<p>Oh, also. . . Congratulations on qualifying for Commended Scholar. You are obviously very bright and still did a great job. :)</p>
<p>Descartesz, thanks so much for all of your time and work in posting this data. One question: what IS the cutoff for MO? Many of the prior posts said 211 (and that is what our GC said) but then a few, including your post here, say 210? Just wondering- thanks!</p>
<p>Either I haven’t been notified, or I didn’t make it. WA with 224. No semifinalist. Everyone else at my school already received their national merit awards. :(</p>
<p>Mandoggy-</p>
<p>Check with your guidance counselor. You should definitely be NMSF in WA. (A 224 would make it anywhere.)</p>
<p>Also, did you pm Datnab? Mention your High School, city and state. Datnab has been kind enough to let anxiously waiting '13ers know if they are on the official list.</p>
<p>From what I’ve read on this thread, everyone (other than homeschoolers) got a letter from their guidance counselor with the information to log in and complete their application. I’ve asked DS’s guidance counselor twice to please check the letter and see if log in information is there but she says we will get a letter in the mail from NMSC with the log in information. Has anyone else gotten something directly in the mail? Or was it in the letter the school received? Thanks for any help.</p>
<p>We have the same issue. GC and Principal both said she really didn’t have anything to do it was all information that they had to send in. I know this isn’t right and D is working, playing 4 sports etc, and so she needs to get started on this now! Post if you get anymore answers from your GC. Thanks</p>
<p>Here in NJ with nothing yet from GC or school, although school has only been in 2 days. S is confirmed by Datnab (thank you!) but if we don’t hear anything on Sept 12, I guess I will call College Board.
Thanks to all posters for keeping us up to date!</p>
<p>How did you contact Datnab? I sent a PM several days ago with no response. :(</p>
<p>Our principal had a meeting with the NMSF kids from our school and handed out the letters (that were from NMSC) to each kid. The letter has a user id & password to log on to your personal account & then you set up your own user name & password to complete the application process.</p>
<p>D finally talked to G C. GC was not aware you could be a finalist once you received the semifinalist letter!! Principal is going to get D the login information this afternoon. Guess who will be in GC office soon to make sure she takes care of the stuff she needs to…</p>
<p>^^
Every year, approximately 1000 NMSF kids fail to move on to the NMF level. Examples like these make you wonder how many of these failure to advance situations are due to incompetence or ignorance within school administrations, rather than anything to do with the students themselves.</p>
<p>WangMa: Post #626 is correct, superseding all prior lists. MO cutoff is 210.</p>
<p>Mandoggy: If you have 224 and are a highs school senior this year, you qualify as SF. You will be able to confirm this by calling the NMSC on Wednesday, Sept. 12.</p>
<p>Everyone: Not all schools have yet made notifications. Presumably they will before or on the media embargo date of Sept. 12 (although one poster has already indicated his/her school will not notify until Sept. 19!). If you took your test last year as a HS junior and your scores are equal to or greater than the cutoff score indicated for your state in post #626 then we are as sure as we can be at this point (that is, comfortably sure but not authoritative) that you have qualified for NMSF. You will be able to call the NMSC starting on Wednesday to absolutely verify this.</p>
<p>I sent a PM also but got an answer back in a day.</p>
<p>Situations like Mandoggy, Wyvern66, and cjcrawf are why we need places like this to check. Some schools forget to verify students in the spring, and they don’t have any semifinalists as a result. Others don’t give the students the information to do their part, so they don’t have finalists. And others wait until a week after the publication date to notify students - do they honestly think that’s reasonable? The students have “paperwork” to complete, and they are cutting out a week of time to do it. If your school won’t give you the information before the 19th, I would call National Merit Corporation after the 12th and ask for it - the name will already be public record at that point. Maybe they will insist the school has to give the login information, but if they do, you could then complain on the record that the school refuses to release the information.</p>
<p>They need to provide better, more clear instructions to the schools, letting them know it is acceptable to inform the individual students, just not release the names to the public.</p>
<p>I went ahead and called NMSC and talked to someone in Educational Services. She said that the school should have received a temporary log in which would allow the school to print a “congratulatory letter” for DS and that letter would have the log in information that he needs. I asked what to do if his school didn’t receive that temporary log in and she said the GC should call the NMSC and ask to talk to someone in Educational Services and that they could walk them through getting to the letter that the student needs. If anyone needs it, the number is (847) 866-5100.</p>
<p>So I sent an email to the GC and will see what I get back.</p>
<p>Datnab,</p>
<p>I sent you a PM. Thank you so much!</p>