I just received my National Merit Semifinalist letter today from my guidance counselor and I am ecstatic! I know that it is relatively easy to go from a Semifinalist to a Finalist, but I’m a little worried that my less-than-4.0 GPA will hold me back (I think one of the requirements is very high grades all throughout high school). I think I have around a 3.6 unweighted GPA (around A-), but weighted it is 4.1+. (I have several B+'s, so that brings me down quite a bit ugh). I have taken basically the most rigorous course load I can take (honors and AP) and scored a 2370 last December. Do you think my a bit low GPA will prevent me from becoming a Finalist and/or gaining scholarships if I become a Finalist? Thank you!
If you don’t have multiple Cs or any D or below, I don’t think you need to worry at all. However, getting scholarships is a different game. If your family do not have any ties to those companies sponsor the scholarship and you do not apply to those schools that sponsor scholarship, your chance for getting the scholarship directly from NMSC is low.
I agree with @billcsho that if you don’t have multiple Cs or Ds then you should be fine to move on to NMF. The best NMF scholarships come from the schools themselves. I think someone has already posted this link for you:
http://nmfscholarships.yolasite.com/
@shadyconcepts CC’s NM Forum has a lot of resources on this topic: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/national-merit-scholarships/ you may want to check it out, and congrats on NMSF status!
-psy
Thanks everyone!