Free Room and Board? I agree for many people it doesn’t mean much
So scores from our whole school are delayed a week. I hope there’s not an issue!
@fencingmom how did your d take the official PSAT in September? It can only be taken in Oct of 11th grade for NM.
I’m not sure the test is learnable and beatable for everyone. Just to add my daughter had a friend that basically $200,000 to go to Alabama because she was a NMF.
3242. I believe OP is talking ACT?
@3scoutsmom: @fencingmom spoke of studying for and learning the ins-and-outs of the ACT.
It doesn’t sound as if the PSAT was something to which she spoke at all, other than inquirying about the fuss over the NMS program.
For specific schools NMS is very valuable. For others not at all.
For example my daughter was looking at University of New Mexico. NMF is full tuition, room and board. No essay, no application, you just get it.
She’s still going to apply, but now she has to apply for Regents which is a competitive scholarship and I doubt she will get it.
@fencingmom For families where $$ doesn’t matter or where students are only applying to schools that don’t give merit for it, it doesn’t matter. For families seeking large merit, NMF status can be a windfall.
We have a Dd who is currently attending USC Columbia as an OOS Top Scholar. USC allows the NMF scholarship to stack on top of the McNair TS scholarship which makes our cost very low every semester. She was offered full-tuition at Fordham bc of her NMF status. Several schools offer full-tuition/full-rides for NMF.
Guess I’m confussed about how studying for the ACT has anything to do with NM? other than for confirming score for this year. It’s much harder to nail a one shot test then a test you can keep retaking. DS got a much higher score on the SAT only a week earlier than he got on the PSAT.
As for the fuss for NM my DD16 is at OU(oos) on $200K+ NM scholarship, DS18 is at UTD on $100K+ scholarship(is) and DS20 hopes to get NM too and will also go to UTD on their $100K+ scholarship(is). So NM will save our family a minimum of $400K - the boys will also do the Fast Track program at UTD and graduate with both their BS and Masters under the scholarship so there’s also the value of that.
For families that won’t qualify for FA and have no “hooks” NM is a big deal.
The OP original point is actually correct. Of the millions of kids going to college for the class of 2020 maybe a quarter of 1 percent(my number is probably high) are going to get free college because of NM. I understand it’s important for those people. But clearly it would be more important for the majority to study hard for the ACT/SAT.
Hi, all! I’m still trying to pick up my jaw from the floor… D did one point better than last year’s cutoff for our state. The worst part, unless she studied in secret (yeah, right!), she hasn’t prepped for PSAT, just a coulple of hours for the ACT. Not trying to brag (and I am sorry if I sound like it, none of our friends kids are at this level, so I usually try to keep mum about D’s achievements); my first reaction is “how the hell am I going to motivate her to study for future tests.”
Here is the question: if she took ACT after PSAT, would it still count as score confirmation? Thanks!
Yes
Congratulations to all the good news!
DS got his score and he actually dropped 10 points from last year, and his EBRW (700) is worse than last year while his math is 760. Our state’s cutoff has been in the 222 range, I don’t know whether he would get the commended status or not.
Shrugging off the disappointment, moving on here. 
@typiCAmom
It will count! Congrats!
Thanks everyone! She’ll be thrilled that no more testing is necessary! However, since ACT and SAT are run by different orgs, does it mean she’ll need to take an extra step to send ACT scores to College Board? Thanks!
Thanks for all the replies. I get it, the NMS equates to big money scholarships on top of what the NM gives to its finalists. Makes sense.
The reason I mentioned ACT was because a few people had asked if kids prep for it. @Nicki20 I truly think that even for the average student, the test is learnable. I don’t believe that a kid is a “bad test taker” – I do believe kids are ridiculously stressed out which causes errors on tests but that’s not inherent to the student. Stripping away this…noise, and understanding what your child really needs to master these tests is a total task, believe me. Is it knowledge gap (can be learned), conceptual understanding (can be learned), time management (can be practiced and honed), test taking strategies (more than one, try them all), nerves (kids can be desensitized to the institutional testing environment). If you try to address it all in one go, it becomes a soup with too many ingredients and chaos ensues. A measured approach is much better.
Just realized I was wrong, D20 will not make the NM commended cutoff (was looking at 2017 #), but @makemesmart , your S will!
Our state has a high cutoff so ds’s score didn’t make it. If math could be the section that counted twice, he would be in.
Does being commended do anything?
My D20 should be Commended based on her score. I’ve read that there are “Special Scholarships” open to commended students but I don’t know what they are, how much, or how one applies. From what I read, it sounds like they are offered by some of the same corporations that offer them to NM finalists. A lot of those look like they are offered to children of employees of those corporations which wouldn’t help us. Anyone have any more info on these?
I’ve also read that it is just a nice line item for your student to add to their college application.
@CAtransplant my husband’s company sponsors NMF corporate scholarships and my oldest (who was commended but not NMSF) applied but didn’t get it. I’m not sure how many they give out or what their selection criteria was but she had to fill out an additional application (this was 4 years ago so I’m fuzzy on the details). It was only open to the children of employees, iirc.