<p>He's in Texas. He got a 219 on the PSAT. He will graduate in 2015. Someone said the cutoff score will be announced in September this year? They said last year it was 219 I think but that this year's PSAT was the hardest ever and so the cutoff score might drop?<br>
Clueless, please help. Thanks!</p>
<p>You are correct in that you will not know for certain until Sep. If his score is at the cutoff or higher, he is a semifinalist; one of approximately 16,000. During Sep and until the deadline in Oct, if he is indeed a semifinalist, he will create a portal at NMSC (all directions will be provided) and will populate some info regarding himself. His school will also have to file some paperwork on his behalf. From this they will determine if he makes finalist; one of approximately 15,000. Scholarships through NMSC (“official awards”) are of three varieties for which he can only receive one of any type, but are small relative to awards he can receive direct from certain schools (“unofficial awards”) who offer them because they wan’t to attract finalists to their student body. Please read up on threads here regarding these large awards, especially BobWallace’s posts. One good hour of reading and you will understand. Also read everything that NMSC publishes at their web site.</p>
<p>So how do they pick the finalists?</p>
<p>Never is it stated explicitly what will differentiate, but again, read some things to get an idea. For example:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.nationalmerit.org/Merit_R&I_Leaflet.pdf”>http://www.nationalmerit.org/Merit_R&I_Leaflet.pdf</a>
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/national-merit-scholarships/1612896-what-s-the-real-difference-between-nmsf-and-nmf.html”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/national-merit-scholarships/1612896-what-s-the-real-difference-between-nmsf-and-nmf.html</a></p>
<p>Here on CC I’ve read things like, “at least a 1960 on SAT to confirm”, “no more than 2 C’s grades 9-12 … maybe even no more than 1”, but again, NMSC doesn’t come right out and say these things.</p>
<p>ok, thanks so much. </p>
<p>For finalist, you usually just need to maintain a good record at school, score no C (may be 1), and get an SAT above 2000 (a little bit different in calculation than composite). To be a NMS is a different story though unless you pick one of those schools that automatically grant you the NMS scholarship as finalist.</p>
<p>NMCorp doesn’t really pick finalists in the sense that you may think. Instead, there are certain things that eliminate some NMSFs from becoming NMFs. Poor grades, discipline issues, etc.</p>