Every little thing helps. S is applying to highly rejective colleges and showing NMF would be a nice award to put on his application. Does it matter in the end, of course not. But the kids that do well and have this award should be proud of it, just like every other accomplishment they have.
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Agree that NMF was a much bigger deal a generation ago. I remember sweating out the results back in the 90s b/c it could unlock full-tuition scholarships at a wide range of schools. These days, D22 barely cared one way or the other, and I donât think any of the schools she was interested in (at different levels of selectivity) would have offered anything more than a token amount for NMF.
Also agree on the bumpers for teen drivers. 
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Keep in mind that a 219 would make him a semi-finalist in more than 1/2 the states. Colleges see a commended student from MA and know that they would have been a semi-finalist a lot of other places. Doesnât help with specific scholarships but if youâre worried about the colleges knowing heâs capable of the work.
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Thatâs interesting, it is good to know that the schools look at the commended as something.
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We have nearly the same situation, although I am not a NMF. Lol. S22 is and is at Bama. My daughter got a 1430 as well, but only 208. The November SAT would have been a 218, so it was in her reach. Sheâs is more against paying for college though so I was hoping this would work out for her. Hopefully we can find some great deals for her.
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Well, there are still many colleges with defined merit scholarships. We will be looking there. Again, as I told my daughter, the benefit of not being a NMF is that you have more universities in play. We wonât get the deal S22 did, but I am sure we will find the right school on budget. She has a list of twelve right now. It is just a matter of winnowing that down to a manageable application number (probably six to eight). That should not be too difficult.
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We are still working on figuring out she is looking for. My son is engineering and thatâs just so much more straightforward!
Wow, all this NMF talk! My D2021 was a NMF (actually ended up being a $2500 scholar) and wasnât interested in taking advantage of the scholarship opportunities. Her $2500 one time scholarship went to UPenn her freshman year. Nice honor but didnât put much of a dent into our payments obviously!
Our D2024 is nowhere near being a NMF⊠anyone here with kids with very different standardized testing scores?
NMF just tells colleges the applicant is good at standardized test which you can also demonstrate with a high SAT or ACT.
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Yup,
big brother DS2022 is a great tester/got 36 on ACT,
but DD2024 didnât even get commended.
Brotherâs into STEM,
sheâs into History/Undecided.
Completely different paths and college lists.
Iâm relearning it all new, from a different Humanities angle (since I was also STEM).
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Yes itâs a totally new experience for us too! Different college lists, majors, etc.
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My older one was not a test taker and is an acting major at a conservatory. Each kid is different l!
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My Son based on october SAT would have been a index of 218 also. Did worse in reading here than the SAT and PSAT really focus more on reading and writing than Math it seems a bit unfair but we knew going into it that his chances were low for NMF and we knew we would end up with commended.
IN CA most schools are test blind and I have heard that this is one of showing you are good test taker by indicating this in the award section. Not really sure if it helps but what I have heard.
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I think people are speculating but I doubt it is true. Recently, a student at UCSB asked to see his application. He posted what he found here. Each UC evaluates differently but, based on what he wrote, UCSB evaluates academics separately from the Activities/Awards and PIQ.
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Here too. The math was the same on the SAT and PSAT but she has a 750 English SAT.
They way these things go is that the weaker you are the greater the negative impact (unfortunately) while having little impact on the strongest players. While the expectation is a negative trend, NJ has so many tippy top students that there are probably still a significant number of high scorers and there will be little change if any.
I think the real impact will be with the class of '26. Even in our excellent school district I have heard several 9th grade teachers comment on how large the gaps are for these students, and how many are unprepared for HS math. The classes that spent the bulk of formative middle school years (and younger) under covid restrictions are suffering the most for it.
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Makes a lot of sense, the kids who are in the âregularâ classes seem more affected than those in the honors and advanced classes. Although my S says that the kids in his honors pre-calculus class who are younger than he are (so 9th and 10th graders) are definitely the weaker students, which had never been the case in the past. This certainly supports your thoughts.
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I have a S26 and can see that. Heâs very behind in some classes compared to my older kids. Heâs struggling with the homework more for sure.
My D24 got 1390 in PSAT with Math and EBRW being evenly split. She isnât worried much about NMF given the extreme competition we have in NJ.
Ironically her EBRW was 780 and 720 in Math in SAT which she took a couple weeks later 
My D Math teachers were awful in middle school and transitioning to high school during COVID made it a long 3+ years of significant gaps in her math foundation which is showing up in her HS math grades now
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