I am currently a high school junior and took the PSAT earlier this year. I scored a 214 (losing 8 points in math for a single wrong question…), and I recently saw a list of state score cutoffs, with Illinois’ being 215. Does this lock me out of receiving a National Merit Scholarship, or does it still rely on the rest of the competition? I know about the top 16,000 students receive a scholarship, but not that statistic’s relation to the cutoff scores.
I’m pretty sure that’s last year’s, and scores tend to fluctuate between years; however, you’re right at the borderline. You’ll get to know if you’re a semifinalist in several months.
Okay, thank you. The date of the cutoff was for “2015,” so that was a little confusing. I’ll just be patient and hope for the best.
Check this very lengthy thread - it should be able to answer your question: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/national-merit-scholarships/1696275-class-of-2016-nmsf-nmf-qualifying-scores.html#latest
Good luck!