<p>I was pretty sure I did bad enough on my PSAT to forget about national merit and achievement, but somehow they pull me out of class today to say i'm one of 4900 or so chosen as a semi-finalist. Might I say that moment was really awkward since the teacher told me all this in the hall and stared at me for quite some time, as if I'd start acting possessed and screaming Hallelujah... >.> VERY awkward indeed....</p>
<p>Anyways, the main reason why I made this topic is to ask you guys, how does being a semi-finalist (let's leave the finalist out of the picture, since I am sure I'm not going to be one of them) benefit me? I know national merit scholars gain a huge boost in admissions and many admission statistic books for colleges I've seen takes account for how many valedictorians and merit scholars that school has. But I've never seen an achievement scholar...</p>
<p>Does it really help? I feel kind of cheap getting recognition for something just because my grades were compared to my like-skinned brethren, and I would actually feel something close to pride had it been merit scholarship, but I guess I'll take what I can get =)</p>
<p>If you’re semifinalist, you’ll most likely be a finalist. Ascending to the finalist status has more to do with your school GPA than your PSAT score.</p>
<p>“I know national merit scholars gain a huge boost in admissions and many admission statistic books for colleges I’ve seen takes account for how many valedictorians and merit scholars that school has.”</p>
<p>Depending on which school though. The really selective schools don’t value national merit/achievement that much because there’re just too many applicants with national merit/ national achievement, but some schools loves national merit semifinalists and even gives out full ride scholarships, which is really cool. In any case, congrats!!</p>
<p>A link to the CC National Merit Scholarship forum:</p>
<p>You don’t find out about your semi-finalist status until August/September of your senior year. What score did you get and who told you that, exactly…?</p>
<p>and there’s nowhere near 4,900 semi-finalists btw.</p>
<p>The OP is asking about National Achievement, not National Merit.</p>
<p>OP, Scholarships might be out there, but it depends on what you think of as a benefit. I think it’s getting on mailing lists that is the biggest benefit. My daughter was “just” commended, but she ended up hearing about schools we’d never considered ( which means everything but University of California and HBCU’s.). It COULD be that you’d end up on the same list with the right SAT’s.</p>
<p>I see. So maybe OP is talking about what used to be called “commended” status. That’s what I was thinking of . I think those folks get notified around now, and would be closer to the 4k number.</p>
<p>Lol. Like I said, it was very awkward. Maybe he misread it by accident while trying to get it over with quickly…</p>
<p>He must have meant I was part of the commended.</p>
<p>What made me post this topic was a list I found over in the National merit subforums where it showed schools that gave out scholarships to NMF guaranteed/competitive and how much. I just though, seeing as no such list is out there for the National achievement, that it didn’t make too much of a difference in the scholarship area…</p>
<p>Yeah, if you got a 180 on your PSAT then those links will be almost useless. You’re better off waiting for the letters you’ll inevitably receive with scholarship offers for commended students. There aren’t many, but the ones that are out there are pretty decent.</p>
<p>When my D was “commended”, her principal stopped her in the carpool and started to talk, then got flustered… said something like " that Black thing…".Yes, awkward.</p>
<p>@kalookakoo what was your score?
I’m pretty sure I at least got commended. In Texas, my friend was commended w/ a 179
and I made above that. Plus, since the national merit cutoff was about 6 points lower in my state, I’m wondering how that will affect national achievement…</p>