<p>What should I do ! if anything or
tell me its no big deal.
Tina</p>
<p>Call the National Merit Foundation. They will tell you what to do - the folks who answer the phones are very helpful. I would hope if the counselor turns it in ASAP that your son will be OK - but the people at NMF can tell you for sure. I had called last week to confirm they had everything for my son and they were very nice and also said that if anything were missing they would contact the school.</p>
<p>Ditto the above--I have called them before and found them to be very helpful also. I hate to say this, but I really think that it IS a big deal,,and you should not be penalized for the school's mistake--the sooner it is taken care of, the better, but if I were you, I would certainly persue this--you never know what having that finalist award might mean to your son's future plans.</p>
<p>Great news! I called National Merit scholorschip and they told me to send in the application. Its was not to late. Now I have to get the guided counselor to send it in.
I have another question though, My son was homeschooled in 9th grade due to Lyme disease. Will that hurt my sons chances?
Tina</p>
<p>No, that should not affect his chances to be a Finalist. </p>
<p>Good thing you found out about this in time! Good luck.</p>
<p>A bunch of years ago, my D was given it one day before it was due (it was "sitting on the principal's desk....") She did everything that night, including the essay--total rush job. But she did make Finalist.</p>
<p>The reason that he did not send in the scholarship is that when he was in 9th grade he was terribly sick with Lyme disease and we pulled him out to home school him. We did not give grade on his report to the school, so now the Merit Scholarship needs grades.
His did take the Math B regents and scored well , but had to retake Bio so he would be able to take regents which require labs..</p>
<p>Now what do I do??</p>
<p>My son says its not a be deal because the school he wants to go to a Ivy league
Tina</p>
<p>what is national merit scholarship?? </p>
<p>is it something a person should apply before going to college? or something one get chosen for?</p>
<p>If you take the PSAT in junior year of high school and score really high (score varies by state but is high 90s percentile wise) you can become a national merit semi finalist (about 16000 semifinalists a year) then, if your SAT scores, GPA, recommendations and essays are good you can become a finalist. (about 15000 finalists).</p>
<p>Did you keep any records from the year you homeschooled? You could prepare a "transcript" and give it to your guidance counselor. He can submit it with the rest of the National Merit information. If he wants to, he can include a note stating that the 9th grade "transcript" is from a year that the student homeschooled, that the grades are from the PARENTS, and that the school does not consider them part of your son's official school record. That way, the Guidance counselor can feel assured that the school is not putting down grades they did not assign, but the National Merit people can get all the records they are asking for. If your guidance counselor is not willing to do this, tell him to send in the form with as much filled in as he feels comfortable doing. Call the National Merit people again and ask them if they want YOU to send a report about 9th grade directly to them (without involving the school at all). That's what I'd do. Hopefully it will all work out.</p>