<p>Question: Our son is now a Junior in a college-track high school with mostly AP courses. He has about a 3.6 GPA. He will be pursuing engineering or some similar technical field. Our choice of colleges has always been limited to non-Ivy, and we have been figuring on a good in-state school (eg ASU in [...]</p>
<p>Did he take the PSAT in October? If he got 36 on ACT, he may very well have a good enough score on PSAT for NMSF. If so, need to take SAT to become NMF. You can wait and see on that. Don’t need such a high SAT score to get NMF, a bit below 2000, so wouldn’t need to study for it or send it to colleges if score not great.</p>
<p>Thanks, celesteroberts. I hadn’t even thought of that and then, this morning, the dad who’d sent the original question wrote back to say that the son had indeed taken the PSAT in October and might be in the running for National Merit dough.</p>
<p>So “The Dean” will amend her answer to say that possible NMSF contenders DO (unfortunately) need to take the SAT I because the ACT doesn’t count for National Merit. (Hate that policy!)</p>
<p>However, students have until December of their SENIOR year to take the SAT for National Merit, so I would advise current juniors (like the OP’s son) to focus on Subject Tests, if needed and to use the high ACT for college applications and to not worry about taking the SAT until it’s clear that it will be necessary in order to continue through the NMSF maze.</p>
<p>One of my friends scored 2360 on her SAT I and then took the ACT, scoring 36. I was puzzled by his choice to take the ACT after such a high SAT I score (not perfect, but pretty darn close!) The ACT score might be “better” but I doubt that his extra prep and testing will give him any extra boost in admissions. 40 points on the SAT I, after all, is only the result of a couple missed or blank questions.</p>