<p>This is an interesting thread. My son scored 212 on the PSAT (he is a junior) and in the 99th percentile, and we were astounded by the email deluge, not having gone through this before, including Columbia, Brown, Boston U (several times now), Wesleyan and just this morning MIT. I would guess there have been at least 100 emails. My son will not be a semifinalist, though, as we know his score will be too low in our state of Maryland, so we are continuing to keep our expectations of actual admission way, way in check. Does all this attention give kids too high an expectation of their eventual outcomes?</p>