<p>Conventional wisdom is to research which of the schools you’re considering and see whether applicant’s level of interest is considered in admissions. You do that by Googling the name of the school and Common Data Set and then going to section C, where it tells you what’s important to the school in terms of admission.</p>
<p>Send them to your top two schools - the two schools that you want to go to the most. When NMSC offers this it’s good to let them do it - they dress it up very nicely and National Merit is a prestigious organization. Think about it this way – the schools are going to get your PSAT scores either way, either when you report them next year on your applications or if NMSC sends them. And if you got PSAT scores that high likely you’re going to get amazing SAT scores, so don’t fret over this too much – just select the schools that you want to go to the most.</p>
<p>Congratulations on that score – you’re a Finalist for sure!</p>
<p>It doesn’t matter where you send them. Presumably you will include on your college applications that you are a National Merit Semifinalist (you will be and you will find out in late August/early September).</p>
<p>FYI - a few years ago, my daughter sent the “two college” notification to her top two choices. She was eventually waitlisted at both. She also received quite a bit of NM scholarship info from other colleges, and did receive a NM scholarship at her current college.</p>
<p>When my son was a high school senior and National Merit Finalist he was instructed by the University of Florida recruiter to list UF as his top choice if he wanted to be qualified to receive their NM scholarship. I don’t know what their current guidelines are. </p>
<p>There are a few colleges that offer NM based merit scholarships, so if your student has an interest in any of those institutions, it may warrant checking their guidelines. </p>
<p>If your student is not trying to cash in on a merit scholarship based on being a National Merit Finalist, as the other poster stated, it probably doesn’t make much difference.</p>
<p>There is a difference between the “notify two schools” and naming the top choice. At this point, the “notify two schools” is not binding, just informational. NMFinalists will have until sometime in April of their senior year to name their top choice.</p>
<p>You are giving notice that you are interested in those two schools. That’s all. It’ll be their turn to show interest in you now. With that score you’ll get tons of mail from colleges all over whether you show interest or not because they get their lists directly from NMSC (it’s probably a service they subscribe to). By the end of summer you’ll most likely have changed your mind and have other schools you are more interested in.</p>
<p>How do you inform the NMSC which ones are your top schools? I recieved the letter telling me that I’m in the top 50k, etc, but i have lost that letter. I would appreciate it if someone would tell me what website you have to access to do this!!!</p>