<p>I guess no one in OR knows yet 
just hoping my score is high enough</p>
<p>dang, why CT and NJ has to be so high? I got 213. I prob wonāt make it. =/ -_- >:|</p>
<p>yeah MrPrez, i live in OR and i donāt know yet either. what did you get, out of curiosity??</p>
<p>ā ā ā ā !!! I live in TX and havenāt gotten my packet yet, but I made a 215!!!</p>
<p>This is probably the most relieved I have ever felt in my life. I made a 2220 on the SAT (single sitting) so I cried for hours when I first got my PSAT score b/c TX always hovers around 215/216!!!</p>
<p>HOLY CRAP I CANāT BELIEVE IT!!!</p>
<p>wow I canāt imagine what Iām going to do when I get one or two acceptance letters hahaha Iāll probably hit the roof.</p>
<p>What do you get exactly if you are a āNational Merit Semifinalistā???</p>
<p>well first of all, making SF is a pretty good indicator that youāll be a finalist. Am I way off on this guys? according to their own website ([National</a> Merit Scholarship Corporation - NMSP](<a href=āhttp://www.nationalmerit.org/nmsp.php#semifinalists]Nationalā>http://www.nationalmerit.org/nmsp.php#semifinalists)) 16,000+ students make SF, and 15,000+ make Finalist, so itās a damn good shot. Once you make finalist, many state schools will grant OOS students in-state tuition right? Plus, it just looks nice and shiny on a resume :)</p>
<p>EDIT: apparently all you really have to do to be a finalist is fill out some paperwork and get an SAT score thatās āwithin your PSAT score rangeā to ensure it wasnāt a fluke, I guess.
At that point, the actual, competitive application process to be chosen National Merit Scholar begins. itās basically like a college app, it looks like: teacher/counselor recs, an essay, ECs, high school transcript, etc.</p>
<p>Summarizing:</p>
<p>AZ <= 215 (post 22)
CA <= 218 (post 24)
OH <= 215 (other thread)
FL <= 211 (post 27)
IL <= 215 (post 39)
MO ?= 213 (post 54)
SC <= 212 (post 41)
TN <= 216 (other thread)
TX = 215 (post 52)</p>
<p>Please, when you add your information, update this and repost.</p>
<p>lol i have a darkly humorous story about my unfortunate friendā¦</p>
<p>like I said, I live in TX, where the cutoff is apparently 215 this year. he made a 212, I believe.</p>
<p>hereās the thing, he used to live in New Orleans, but was driven to TX by Katrinaā¦coincidentally, the cutoff in Louisiana (or anywhere in the deep, deep south) is always considerably lower than TX (as in, around 208). So, not only did the hurricane take his house; it took his National Merit status too. Luckily, he has a good, light attitude about it haha</p>
<p>This thread has been a good source of information to interpret the PSAT cutoffs. However should nāt the summaries read ā>=ā instead of ā<=ā while summarizing the cutoff scores by state. I believe the following summary is accurate.</p>
<p>AZ >= 215 (post 22)
CA >= 218 (post 24)
OH >= 215 (other thread)
FL >= 211 (post 27)
IL >= 215 (post 39)
MO ?= 213 (post 54)
SC >= 212 (post 41)
TN >= 216 (other thread)
TX = 215 (post 52)</p>
<p>If someone were to report a cutoff lower than what is mentioned here for a particular state, they can replace it with the new number.</p>
<p>My two cents and BTW thank you to all the members who have been contributing.</p>
<p>I live in NJ but attend boarding school in CT. What is my cut-off score? Base on NJ or CT? Thanks!</p>
<p>dalgator,</p>
<p>If we already know that a student with 216 is NMSF, then the cutoff cannot be >216. Thus using >= would be wrong. However, until we get more data points, it is conceivable that the cutoff could be lower than 216. Using <= is correct.</p>
<p>Here in NY, we are hoping the cutoff is <=218.</p>
<p>Thanks for the explanation of why the āless than or equalā sign is used, to show that the cut-off score for a given state can be no HIGHER than a score of a student who is known to be a semifinalist.</p>
<p>ā¦no oklahomans yet?</p>
<p>Boarding schools with large out-of-state populations form their own regions. The largest zone is Region 1 which covers New England/Mid-Atlantic boarding schools, often referred to as the 51st state. Last year the cutoff was 223. </p>
<p>Because there are a number of people interested in this, would you add it to the list OP? Iāll revise the list to add it here, and I hope you will continue with it.</p>
<p>For comparison, here are the cutoffs from last year (graduating class of 2008).</p>
<p>AL = 209
AK = 213
AZ = 211
AR = 201
CA = 217
CO = 213
CT = 217
DC = 223
DE = 219
FL = 212
GA = 214
HI = 213
IA = 209
ID = 204
IL = 213
IN = 213
KS = 212
KY = 208
LA = 206
MA = 223
MD =221
ME = 211
MI =209
MN =213
MO = 211
MS = 202
MT = 207
NE = 207
NV = 208
NC = 214
ND = 202
NH = 215
NJ =221
NM = 208
NY =219
OH = 211
OK = 207
OR = 213
PA = 214
RI = 212
SC = 210
SD = 203
TN = 213
TX = 215
UT = 202
VA = 217
VT = 216
WA = 215
WI = 208
WV = 200
WY = 200</p>
<p>Region 1: New England/Mid-Atlantic boarding schools = 223</p>
<p>Burb Parent - Thank you !!!</p>
<p>I believe Oklahoma is 208 this year.</p>
<p>any NY? </p>
<p>really really curious (220)</p>
<p>March 10,</p>
<p>We have a similar sitiuation, live in one state, attend school in another. I called National Merit Corp. They said itās the state your school is in that counts, not your state of residence.</p>
<p>i did not know this about boarding school attendance. That is a different situation than a single student attending school in a state other than his state of residence.</p>
<p>D school also distributed packets yesterday but only invited the NMSF students into the meeting. I was able to find reference to these posts and the probable cutoff for 2009. It was becoming confusing, So summarizing only those for which some one posted their own score.</p>
<p>State/Score Post
AZ<=215 22
CA<=218 24
FL<=211 27
IL<=215 39
SC<=212 41
TN <=216 20
TX<=216 44</p>