<p>Does anyone know which schools are included in the New England Boarding School pool for national merit consideration? Is it all BSs in the region, or just those considered most elite? </p>
<p>thank you-</p>
<p>National Merit Scholarships are based on PSAT test scores and are not affiliated with individual schools. So any student who takes the PSAT is eligible to be considered, regardless of where he or she goes to school.</p>
<p>@girlgeekmom: I think what Rellilou is talking about is the cutoff for semifinalist level…there is a “Boarding School” threshold independent of the state cutoffs.</p>
<p>It’s a good question…I’ve wondered if SAS falls under Delaware or Boarding School.</p>
<p>@Rellilou: Guess you guys found out scores already?</p>
<p>Good question - I saw somewhere (sorry, cannot recall where) that the “boarding school” PSAT cut-off applies to schools with 50% or more boarders, anywhere in the NE or mid-atlantic. </p>
<p>The official NMSF cut-off score for boarding schools is equal to the highest score in their region (usually the state of Massachusetts). So the state they are in does not matter.</p>
<p>The schools will certainly know how they are classified if you are thinking of a particular one call them.</p>
<p>Here is a listing of 2012 cutoffs from some random site (meaning I can’t vouch for ulitmate accuracy). But note that the BS cutoff is higher.</p>
<p>@2prepMom: Since SevenDaughter is just a sophomore, I am resisting temptation to care about this year’s scores and what the exact cutoff is for her school.</p>
<p>Qualifying Scores for the Class of 2012 National Merit Semifinalists:
Alabama 211
Alaska 212
Arizona 213
Arkansas 205
California 221
Colorado 215
Connecticut 220
Delaware 217
District of Columbia 223
Florida 214
Georgia 218
Hawaii 216
Idaho 211
Illinois 216
Indiana 214
Iowa 210
Kansas 214
Kentucky 212
Louisiana 209
Maine 212
Maryland 221
Massachusetts 223
Michigan 210
Minnesota 215
Mississippi 205
Missouri 213
Montana 209
Nebraska 209
Nevada 209
New Hampshire 216
New Jersey 223
New Mexico 210
New York 219
North Carolina 217
North Dakota 204
Ohio 214
Oklahoma 209
Oregon 216
Pennsylvania 215
Rhode Island 213
South Carolina 211
South Dakota 206
Tennessee 214
Texas 219
Utah 208
Vermont 217
Virginia 220
Washington 220
West Virginia 204
Wisconsin 209
Wyoming 204
Commended 202
International 223
New England Boarding Schools 223</p>
<p>OH… Thank you 7Dad for the clarification. I did not realize that BS were in a separate category. Very interesting. So I went to the PSAT/NMSQT website, and found this on page 6 of the student guide (PDF):</p>
<p>“…In addition to Semifinalists designated in each of the 50 states and without affecting the allocation to any state, Semifinalists are named in several other selection units that NMSC establishes for the competition. These units are for students attending schools in the District of Columbia, schools in U.S. commonwealths and territories, schools in other countries that enroll U.S. citizens, and U.S. boarding schools that enroll a sizable proportion of their students from outside the state in which the school is located. A participant can be considered for Semifinalist standing in only one state or selection unit,
based on the high school in which the student is regularly enrolled when taking the PSAT/NMSQT. …”</p>
<p>I did an Acrobat search through the book for references to “boarding” and “region” but the only place I saw regional (rather than state-based, including BS) criteria was in references to the National Achievement Scholarship program, which is specifically for Black Americans.</p>
<p>I admit only a cursory perusal of the book. The website section is quite extensive:</p>
<p>[National</a> Merit Scholarship Corporation - NMSP](<a href=“http://www.nationalmerit.org/nmsp.php]National”>http://www.nationalmerit.org/nmsp.php)</p>
<p>Perhaps someone with more stamina or knowledge of where to search than I, could provide further insights! I am now curious. Will have to dig a bit deeper.</p>
<p>So, from 7Dad’s list, it looks like “New England Boarding Schools” is a region unto itself, but what about all the OTHER boarding schools? Shouldn’t these be on a list like this? And while the BS cutoff is higher than most states, there is quite a handful of states with the same cutoff. I would be very interested to know who compiled these stats.</p>
<p>@OP, while I don’t have a specific answer, it does look like any school that enrolls a “sizeable portion of its students from outside the state” would fall into a boarding school, rather than state, category. But I am NO expert (obviously ;-))</p>
<p>Oops, sorry . . . misunderstood.</p>
<p>When I saw the thread title, I assumed you were taking bets on which school had the highest scores!</p>
<p>I’ll leave now . . . :o</p>
<p>Commended, however, seems to be the top 5% of students across the country, without regard to state, or the 51st state “boarding school!” It seems that every other kid we knew was commended.</p>
<p>My understanding is that there are SEVEN Boarding School regions. Our DD is a junior at Interlochen, and their cutoff scores for the last three years (provided by her college counselor) were much higher than our home state, but not quite as high as the NE Boarding School scores. </p>
<p>My advice - have your child ask his/her college counselor for specifics on what region the school is in, and what the scores have been the last few years.</p>
<p>Also - the “talk” on the main CC board related to PSAT is that the curve this year is “very tough,” so cutoffs may be on the higher rather than the lower end, based on scores from the past few years.</p>
<p>Here’s a link to one of the best explanations of the entire National Merit Scholarship process I’ve ever found:</p>
<p>[PSAT-</a> National Merit Scholarships and Semifinalist State Cutoff Scores](<a href=“http://bigdogacb.hubpages.com/hub/National-Merit]PSAT-”>http://bigdogacb.hubpages.com/hub/National-Merit)</p>
<p>Is the PSAT score the only criterion used for selecting National Merit Semi-Finalists?</p>
<p>Yes. I feel for students from regions with much lower benchmarks (say 200 in Wyoming) who then have to compete in the boarding school pool (223) rather than their own state pool. Many kids don’t bother since the benchmark is so high and the number of scholarships so low in comparison to the volume of students taking the test. We told our daughter we didn’t really care about the outcome and to focus on outside scholarships instead.</p>
<p>The best score is 230 - so it’s like trying to catch a cloud.</p>
<p>Are you sure that the best score is 230? Our son told us on the telephone that he got a score of 236, but we have not yet seen any of the paperwork he got with/about his score.</p>
<p>I have a relative who says their score is 234…</p>
<p>That’s really high Mainer, congratulations! There’s another round, I think, to get to Finalist, that involves grades and essays. This is just what I heard, as neither one of mine made it past the commended cutoff because of being from the boarding school state LOL</p>
<p>^^General Q: is it the sophomore year PSAT that counts for National Merit stuff? Or do they take it again junior fall?</p>
<p>A perfect score is 240. Like the SAT, just cut off the zero on the end. Each of the 3 sections is 80 points.</p>
<p>Congrats to your son, Mainer, on such an impressive score!</p>
<p>Pelicandad the Sophomore year actually does not count for National Merit only the Junior year test. Most **'s offer it in 10th grade for practice.</p>
<p>^^Thx, the old grey matter is getting…old! ;)</p>
<p>I’d like to believe I have enough grey matter left to know this off the top of my head but really I only have a child that just got scores back!</p>