Hi!
I did not make the cutoff for my state for the NMSQT and I was wondering if that will hurt my chances of getting into an Ivy League school, specifically Yale or Harvard? If I think I have a good chance of getting near a 1600 on the actual SAT, is the fact that I don’t have National Merit Scholar on my application a deal breaker for these schools?
Thanks,
A depressed high school junior :-1
It shouldn’t have any effect on your application. Ivy Leagues don’t even give out scholarships to National Merit Scholars like some schools, so the most you’re missing is the $2500 from the program itself. The more important thing is your SAT score, so try to do well on that.
It’s a good addition to your resume but won’t make or break your odds. Ivies can’t be picky because there aren’t enough NMS to go around. About half end up going to lower tier colleges for merit scholarships because Ivies and top tier schools have allocated merit funds to need based aid.
I don’t think it matters AT ALL. No school lists the PSAT as something that’s part of the application. Being a NMF means something different in each state since there’s a huge range of scores that make NMFs depending on where they live. A 215 in Utah is NMF. Takes a 221 in Illinois and 223 in some states. It’s just one thing that one can list in their awards section of the Common App. That’s it.
NMF is a big deal for families who want to take advantage of the big NMF scholarship schools like UF and Alabama. Ivies won’t give you any money for NMF. Our NMF son is at Bowdoin and he got $1000/year for NMF. Most of the other schools he applied to gave him none.
What’s important for college admissions are the items on the application - your standardized test scores, your grades, your rigor, your SAT 2s if the school wants them, your essays, your recommendations, and your extracurriculars. That’s it.
Ok, thank you so much! That makes me feel a lot better. I’ll try to focus on the things that I can change at this point. I’m studying hard for the SAT!
“is the fact that I don’t have National Merit Scholar on my application a deal breaker for these schools?”
First off, you should note that all you can say is semi-finalist as finalist and scholar are announced during or after decisions are made. So just say commended on your common app and if you follow it up with good scores as you indicate, you’ll be fine.
Ones getting in Ivies or other top schools stay finalist, doesn’t make scholar unless they are the top finalists and get awarded a honors scholarship and scholar designation by the merit foundation itself. Only 2,500 out of 4 million high school graduates get that so odds of making it are far lower than getting into any Ivy.