And I was a semi back in the 80s, and the jury is mixed about how productive a citizen I am. My guidance counselor did make me rewrite my essay, though. Not intending to be anything but honest, I’d mentioned that I’d acquired a love for reading by sneaking into my father’s hidden cache of Playboys (and at 5 or 6, truly was reading them for the articles - mostly the jokes and cartoons.) GC thought I’d best keep that to myself.
Here’s my opinion, not that anyone asked. 
I think it is reasonable for the NMSC to have some requirements past the Semi-Finalist stage, rather than allowing all 16,000 to progress. Otherwise, it is purely a PSAT award.
So requiring an essay, a rec letter, an application showing ECs and awards, a confirming SAT score, and grades, is appropriate. What is done with that information is where we all get hung up, I guess. I think it is completely appropriate to drop any kid who writes a rude essay, any kid who has discipline problems, any kid who takes only the easy classes, any kid who has no ECs, and any kid with poor grades. Of course, these all have a subjective component.
In order to make the grades portion not quite so subjective, it seems they look at unweighted GPA and number of Cs and Ds. I hope, and I assume, that there is then some human who takes a second look at those applicants with only a handful of Cs. The reason I assume this is because there are some who make it to Finalist with a C or two, and some who do not. Seems to me that someone is looking a little more deeply at those apps. Perhaps one C with lots of Bs is looked at differently from 2 Cs with the remainder all As. Or perhaps an outstanding essay or rec letter can overcome a couple Cs. Or perhaps they look at class rank to determine whether the school just grades tough.
I also don’t believe the 16,000 - 15,000 numbers are hard and fast. I think it is just likely that when you take the 16,000 high scores on the PSAT, there will be about 1 out of 16 who won’t meet the requirements. Even the SAT score may be a challenge. In a state where the cutoff is 222, most kids should be able score 1960 on the SAT, right? That may be more difficult for students who qualify for semifinalist with a 203. I really don’t think that the NMSC is searching to find exactly 1000 kids to not advance to finalist. Some years it may be 800, some years it may be 1200, we’ll never know. They don’t release the exact numbers and they don’t publish a list of finalists. That’s probably by design. The bottom line is that NMSC wants to keep the title of Finalist meaningful, and this is how NMSC has chosen to do it. It is more than just a PSAT competition. Having said all of that, it still sucks if a couple Cs knocks a kid out of the competition. So I am glad there is a process for appealing (just hope NMSC takes the appeals seriously).
That’s my 2 cents (probably worth less than 2 cents).
Has anyone heard of a successful appeal? In the past couple of year’s threads on CC I have not seen one. But it’s a small sample reporting here.
@phantomranger Can you please check your child’s NM portal to see if there is anything there that indicates that he was rejected?
Are ECs considered?
I think it is interesting that people who did not have high psats, but did get high sats and no Cs or Ds are shut out. For me this is a psat award.
Nowhere does it say “PSAT award”. I’d say that’s a first qualifying round and that’s it. I for one am glad they look at a wide range of things…or why the essay? It must come into play at some point. Many semi finalists in addition to great PSAT had great SATs and grades…they need another way to distinguish people. No sense in Monday Morning Quarterbacking all this…you can pontificate til the cows come home and won’t figure out who is in, in the end…and who isn’t. I have decided to stop driving myself crazy…and just wait…or better yet concentrate on other things:-)
I have been through this with 2 of my kids and here is what I think (my unscientific analysis from reading posts for 4 years now).
Things that will get you eliminated even though you made the PSAT and SAT scores
- 2 or more Cs. No matter what your GPA is
- A disrespectful or really bad essay. It doesn’t have to be great. It just can’t be a rant or really really suck.
3.A bad recommendation from your Principal. (Hope he forgets that incident from freshman year) - Got into bad trouble outside of school
@mom2collegekids His NM portal still looks exactly like it did; no indication there of rejection.
NMSC seems bound and determined to have you watching your mail like a hawk.
@phantomranger, thank you very much for taking the time to check your DS’s portal and report back to those of us who are waiting. Under the circumstances, that was very generous of you and I appreciate it, as do others I’m sure. My DS’s portal is still active, and it allows him to select and change the college-of-choice, but I suspected that functionality would not be “shut down” immediately, anyway. And there’s always the informal appeals process, so I suppose the portal must remain open in the event an appeal is granted.
I hate to ask another question, and you have no obligation to answer, but I wondered if you’d be willing to post the date that appears on your DS’s letter from NMSC? And then the date you received it in the mail? This is more for historical purposes than anything, as previous threads I’ve read have attempted to document timing for the benefit of those who come later. In reading a 2011 thread, there seems to be evidence of 2 waves of mailings. This is based on what others posted at that time.
I recall that your DS has other good options aside from his NMF school, right? I sure hope so. You have been a friend to those of us who are waiting and I hope you will keep everyone posted on where your DS lands and how he is doing.
This is not a “PSAT Award”, although if you bomb your one chance at the PSAT then you’re out. As noted in phantom’s rejection letter, the key is “…consistently very high in all grades 9 through 12.” So, you need to have 4 years of “very high” grades, a good PSAT score, and then a good SAT score. I suspect the number of applicants that get rejected due to a poor essay is incredibly small. So you need to consistently score at a high level on standardized tests, and consistently make good grades.
If there was no weeding out of the 16,000 to 15,000, then they would be rewarding a kid for having one great day taking a standardized test…and not a consistent track record of high academic performance.
Is it safe to say that no more rejections are being sent out? Or have people in the past received them in February?
@QwertyuiopPro, I haven’t found any past CC threads indicating letters being received past Jan 25. Just based on what we’ve seen here on CC, it may be that NMSC mailed all the letters at once this year - or at least over a span of a few days. The only reason I remain anxious for my DS is that our mail delivery is incredibly bad, over a span of 15 years, so I can’t really count my chickens until the school notifies DS one way or another. It’s possible that DS may not advance, because he does have a semester C in an unweighted class. If you have no issues like that, no Bad Mail Delivery,and if you haven’t gotten a letter thus far - I would not stress.
Not sure why NMSC is still relying on mail, while each student has their email IDs and online web accounts!!!
Either way, below is the NMSC site update : http://www.nationalmerit.org/nasp.php#finalists
Finalists : In late January 2015, approximately 1,300 Semifinalists are notified by mail at their home addresses that they qualify as Finalists in the 2015 program. High school principals are notified and provided with a certificate to present to each Finalist.
^ Wait, is that number for National Achievement or National Merit?
Thank you @GoAskDad . My mistake. U r correct. That was National Achievement. National Merit site http://www.nationalmerit.org/nmsp.php#finalists says as in (A).
(A) Finalists: In February, some 15,000 Semifinalists are notified by mail at their home addresses that they have advanced to Finalist standing. High school principals are notified and provided with a certificate to present to each Finalist
(B) From one of the PDF docs which we downloaded from NMSC when we applied for finalist some time in Nov 2014.
- February 3: NMSC mails notification to high school principals about the status of their Semifinalists; a Certificate of Merit is provided for each Semifinalist who qualifies as a Finalist
- February 10: NMSC notifies Finalists of their status at their home addresses