I got one in kansas, and if you don’t get one within the next few days you’re probably in the clear!
Got one in NC today too. Even with 2170 SAT and 4.36 weighted GPA. Kind of shocked.
I am very sorry to hear this! Do you think your grades came into play? And didn’t the students write essays if I can remember? All I can think is there must have been an overwhelming group of quality applicants this year and congrats on NMSF as that is quite an accomplishment in itself regardless!
Wow, so sorry to hear that. I’m kind of surprised. I thought as long as you had the sat scores to back up your score and good grades you were kind of a shoe in. A 2170 is certainly a great back up score along with a 4.36!
@Prospitfox, I am so sorry you did not advance to NMF. Do you plan to appeal?
I realize this is not the best time for you, but I wondered if you’d be willing to provide a bit more information about your stats, or anything you could share that might provide additional insight for those who are waiting? We are in Kansas, too, and my son has one semester C from 10th, so the wait is getting very hard. He did not get a letter today, but our mail delivery is extremely unreliable, so it’s not like we can go by that.
Please let us know how you are doing. And thank you again for sharing this information with us.
I don’t remember for sure (it has been a couple of years), but I thought the essays were used more in the process of awarding the NMSC scholarships (the ones they actually give). But maybe if a student didn’t do it at all, it would hurt them.
^ I would think that would be an incomplete application and therefore disqualify the semifinalist. I have also heard stories of rejections for inappropriate (ie foul language, criticism of NMSC, disrespectful) essays although I don’t know if the semifinalist was actually told that was the reason.
so sorry to hear this…
@phantomranger and @Prospitfox
What reason was given in the letters?
Did you have any C’s? If so, how many were semester grades?
edited to add…phantom had 3 C’s
I think that the GPAs considered by NMSC are the unweighted ones, not the weighted ones.
true
Hi all, as I posted on another thread, S has 3 C’s on transcript. Reason given in letter was “To advance to Finalist standing, a Semifinalist must have a record of academic performance that is consistently very high in all grades 9 through 12, and in any college coursework taken. After careful evaluation of your coursework and grades, we have concluded that your academic record does not fulfill this Finalist requirement.”
Even with the 3 C’s, did he still maintain a high GPA phantomranger?
@thodge I think that the GPA mentioned by phantomranger was the weighted, not the unweighted.
If anyone who received a rejection letter would be so kind as to check their NMSC portal, to see if anything is posted there, it might be helpful to those of us still waiting. No letter here yet and portal still the same.
There are several threads discussing rejections going now. Not sure where it was mentioned but someone was speculating that a high SAT might save you if you have a C or 2. I don’t know with certainty, but I am doubtful of this.
Anecdotally, we had a local student rejected a couple of years ago. Gifted in many ways. Natural test taker- nominee for US Presidential Scholar. Had several very time consuming ECs and anyway no patience for homework and grade tending, so not such great grades.
He ended up in a prestigious theater program at a university that does not sponsor NMFs. Was a HS graduation speaker. The rejection didn’t affect his college choice as he wasn’t seriously targeting any schools with big scholarships for NMFs.
Based on this one data point I am guessing the SAT doesn’t matter beyond the 1960 line, and also there really is a good future after a rejection letter, as most NMSFs have so many other things going for them. The times it makes a real difference is when family finances make large scholarships critical and the student doesn’t have any non-NMF financial packages that are as large as the NMF money the family was hoping for. There are many of those families on CC and I am empathizing with you all and hoping for good affordable outcomes for everyone whether there is an unwelcome letter or not.
For those wondering, rejected S’s unweighted GPA is 3.73.
Yikes, that GPA is still pretty high.
So, not having looked at this site since September and hence late to a party I didn’t think I’d need to attend…
No one has “reverse-engineered” the NMSC reasoning in these threads in years past? So 1 “C” grade in a freshman AP course can really get knocked out, while straight Bs in “challenging” courses would go on. Madness.
They are looking at 16,000 entries. I really don’t see how they can do much beyond apply some algorithm (it’s not like they have the $90/app fee like the colleges where in principle, one can imaging they might possibly actually have the budget to read essays)
D2 had a friend 2 years ago with a C one semester in French. He made it, and I am sure he had some other grades that were Bs. There is hope…
As I think this all through, appropos of the point made by @Calculemus , it seems kind of not worth anyone’s time and angst to go through this process of narrowing a Semifinalist field of 16,000 to (from what I hear around the web) to a Finalist field of 15,000. It’s not like this is a really rigorous sort – what advantage is gained for anyone by doing this? Seems like they could just give whatever it is to all 16,000, pour a glass of wine, and call it a day. Especially if they are applying some kind of fairly arbitrary sorting algorithm to the applications that really does not provide any kind of wholistic view that might be somewhat more of a predictor of some kind of success. Obviously the whole thing at some level is a sort of sham – and of course there are plenty of us who are productive citizens who were not, back in the day, even Semi’s! 