<p>At my son’s school, they did not make any big announcement either about Semi-Finalist status, just called the kids in for a meeting with the Principal for cookies and chocolate and gave them their packets.<br>
When my son qualified as a Finalist, the school did announce it over the intercom on Open House Day which I thought was pretty cool.</p>
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<p>This makes more sense now. In the context of this kind of environment, no need to toot the horn. On the other hand, this isn’t the kind of environment at most schools. A principal at a enormous low-achieving public school might make a different decision about honoring the NMSF who comes along every few years. </p>
<p>CD, I’m curious: does the noncompetitiveness culture truly extend throughout the student body? Meaning, do students tell each other their test scores and such? Also, do NMFs at your school end up using any NMF school-based scholarships?</p>
<p>Neither of my D’s were NMS, but they did have several friends that were.
We were surprised that instate universities offered little money for NM.
However, it does seem that qualifying does open other possibilities and scholarships.
I also thought that it was much more than test scores that were considered for the final award.</p>
<p>prep classes are not big around here- you are either prepared or not, and paying money to learn how to take a test on a Sat morning is not something kids are going to think is more compelling than showing up for the soccer match ( or sleeping in)</p>
<p>Bay, I completely agree with you on that point. Both my kids test well. Always have. So did I. So the three of us have innate test taking skills that weren’t picked up from taking prep classes. </p>
<p>DH doesn’t test well. Never will. But he’s made it far in life because he’s a very focused, hard worker whom employers love having on their team because he accomplishes things. And he was well fed, & had adequate health care, and is well read. </p>
<p>I guess where we’re located, we don’t really see the SAT numbers mania that other areas do.</p>
<p>My daughter’s school gave her a yard sign - “XX High School National Merit Semifinalist” similar to football, cheerleader, band, etc. yard signs. Openly she wondered why they didn’t just give her a sign with “NERD” in big red letters, but privately she liked it.</p>
<p>It’s one score on one test, but I’ll take academic recognition whenever it’s offered.</p>
<p>I wish that some schools had a more SAT-stress-crazed culture along with a greater focus on academics! It sure isn’t the case in many high schools with which I am familiar.</p>
<p>When we looked at schools for our Ss, we sat through a number of presentations. I recall vividly the two main points of the presentation made by one vice-principal: the first was instilling respect toward teachers among students; the second was his quest for the perfect toilet paper holder that would prevent students from using up toilet paper for nefarious activities and creating more expenses for the school. Academics? nothing, nada, rien, zilch.</p>
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<p>Oh, I dont have a source, but my reasoning is that its unlikely that a student could score 99% on the PSAT unless he was intellectually curious and applied himself to academic pursuits. IOW, he didnt spend most of the previous 16 years of his life playing Grand Theft Auto, watching Jersey Shore-type TV shows, posting inane status updates on FB, etc. You think otherwise?</p>
<p>Could a gifted kid waltz in and ace the PSAT never having put in significant efforts to his schooling? Yes, possibly, but I think thats unusual.</p>
<p>PayFor:</p>
<p>On another thread, you post that your son is just below the Commended cutoff as a Soph but only has a 3.2 gpa (weighted), which you call “smart slacker.” With a little bit of test practice this summer, he has a good shot to make Semi. Hmmmmmm</p>
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<p>But would he make Finalist with a 3.2 unweighted? Rieder wanted to stop honoring Finalists, not SFs–who probably are not honored to begin with.</p>
<p>[San</a> Francisco University HS: School Profile](<a href=“http://www.sfuhs.org/page.cfm?p=13]San”>http://www.sfuhs.org/page.cfm?p=13)
Interesting though that the school lists the number of NMS on its webpage right along with listing the average SAT score.</p>
<p>Reider is right there are huge class issues. What he misses is that it is the ultimate expression of class privilege to be able to dismiss the NMF standing as insignificant or irrelevant. The reality is that for the many low income and middle income kids who take advantage of large scholarships as a result of NMF standing it remains deeply significant and possibly life changing award. </p>
<p>I wouldn’t design a system to be based so heavily on the PSAT. I believe that this system should be changed and ultimately will be. At the same time I’m going to celebrate with every NMF who finds themselves thrilled they just found a way to pay for college.</p>
<p>We live in an ACT state. Our S had to drive a couple hours to get to an SAT test site to take the SAT test to corroborate his PSAT score, and then drive again later to take SAT II tests (which we and most of the teachers and the guidance counselor had never heard of prior to his decision to apply to Harvard).</p>
<p>Those of you who think high PSAT scores are only an indicator of affluence and test prep courses are kidding yourselves. There is a whole part of the country where SAT prep courses are unheard of.</p>
<p>In our community, we recognize students’ athletic accomplishments, all-state musicians, all-state speech participants, those in school plays, Homecoming court candidates, etc. Why would you single out academic accomplishments as something that should be ignored or downplayed?</p>
<p>Oh, I agree, passthepotatoes. As presented in this article, these claims of the insignificance of the NMF honor come from the haughtiest of perches. It smells like an academically/economically privileged HS’s offhand contempt for the sort of university that might offer big $$ scholarships for NMF–as in: the top kids in this school would never consider stooping to attend state Us and so on–they can do so much better. The kids in that school may be lucky enough to be breathing such rarefied air but I think Reider would be ashamed publicize it.</p>
<p>But if one is at such a school, where 100% of students are gunning for Top 20 U’s, to suddenly find oneself directly competing with one’s peers in this insane race can be alarming, and when the top PSAT takers in the class get outed by way of NMF honors the lines in the class are drawn. </p>
<p>Suddenly, among friends, those with the best test-taking skills must be considered rivals. For a group of hard-working intelligent and motivated teens, the pressure will be even more intense when 30% of your cohort are named as the most-likely-to-get-into-their-dream-college. I can understand such a school looking for ways to downplay such distinctions. Of course, PSAT is not entirely predictive of SAT or ACTscores, but I can appreciate not wanting the cut-throat competition to be so overt at these types of schools.</p>
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<p>Sorry if I seem dense, but Im missing your point, if you have one. ;)</p>
<p>If Im correct about the post to which youre referring, I wrote 3.2 UW GPA, which sounds about right for back when he was a sophomore. I couldnt find any post of mine where I listed my Ss GPA as 3.2 W, but I might have missed it.</p>
<p>My S is extremely intellectually curious and applies himself to academic pursuits, just not the ones that earn him straight As. Sigh . . . In that sense, smart slacker would be an appropriate label for him.</p>
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<p>Or that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction c. 2003 and was responsible for 9/11 :rolleyes:.</p>
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<p>At my school they announced everyone commended and up at Senior Awards Night. But that was all of 3 people at a school of 2400 (where the number of 9th graders is 2x the number of 12th graders).</p>
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<p>Well, the 2,500 students who win the National Merit Scholarship (from the National Merit Corporation, not from a college) are chosen based on grades, course rigor, academic competitions, and a recommendation from the college counselor. SATI and maybe also SATII’s are a factor. It is pretty close to college admissions, except it is based on academic criteria only. </p>
<p>In terms of going from finalist to National Merit Scholar, the PSAT no longer matters so long as it is above the cut-off.</p>
<p>I think the corporation probably does not have the manpower to evaluate every PSAT taker holistically. Hence, first they have the cut-off for semifinalist, they cut out the slackers in school to reach finalist (last I heard over 90% of semifinalist made finalist), and then the finalists are evaluated holistically to cut it down from the 9,000 or so down to the 2,500 national merit scholarship winners.</p>
<p>Re post 155: If I were principal of such a school, I would want to honor Commended as well, as an inspiration to the rest of the students.</p>
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<p>We have no way of knowing since NM Corp does not disclose data. But, since ~95% of the Semis move onto Finalist, I would guess that the answer is Yes.</p>
<p>Then the question is how many NM Finalists have a 3.2 average (just slightly over a B?) I’d guess not many, but I’d like to be proven wrong.</p>
<p>^^your guess is as good as mine, marite. But even if there IS a positive correlation between lotsa A’s and a ~220 – and there probably is – that does not necessarily mean that a causation exists, nor does it infer the NM Corp uses a gpa cutoff in its selection criteria for Finalist status. It just means that a lot of really (genetically) smart kids also tend to do extremely well in the classroom. Perhaps a ~3.2 will not get dropped out of consideration, (but a 2.0 would).</p>
<p>I’ve had a lot of people ask me what we did to “prep” our son for PSAT, ACT and SAT. The truth is that when we found out his PSAT score his Sophomore year, we had no idea what the PSAT was. In fact, that’s how I found College Confidential, looking for information. We looked up the cut off score for our state, he took a practice test at the end of the summer and scored over the cut off. That’s all the studying he did. Same with ACT and SAT.</p>
<p>I was a terrible test taker and I certainly got a lot out of learning how to take a test but I am skeptical of some of the claims I hear being made regarding the effectiveness of study guides and prep classes. One has to have the knowledge to recall it quickly and correctly, yes?</p>
<p>I have so much more I want to say in response to so many thoughtful answers but I simply don’t have time right now. I don’t like standardized tests, but that’s the system we are currently in. I don’t think ‘advertising’ high scorers is any worse than advertising the score of a game. Yes, it inspires competition and I think that’s okay. College is so expensive. I encourage my friends to start planning early and to take a scatter shot approach. In otherwords, try different things that are connected to money including standardized tests, sports, community service and so on. Were that it was that all that was needed was to do ones best on the academic work.</p>