<p>my counselor gave me a letter a week ago saying that i was either a commended student or a semifinalist. i think my score is at the borderline for semifinalist for california: 216. My questions are kinda lengthy, but please clear them up for me.</p>
<p>1) How can I tell which one I am? How can I find the cutoff for this year?
2) More importantly, do I need to do anything else to get commended student/semifinalist status? My counselor told me to give me his brag sheet early and to give him my december 2007 sat 1 scores (so he could write a rec???) to send to collegeboard. However, I'm really busy so I don't think I can finish my brag sheet. I thought you don't need to do anything for commended/semifinalist status, only for finalists.</p>
<p>1) you can't tell until they release the #s for semi.
2) no you don't need to do anything for semi or commended. but when you're a SF you will need to send in GPA, SAT scores, essays etc. to be a finalist.</p>
<p>You won't be finding out which category you are in until late August/September. Semifinalists are notified late August/early September, commended are notified late September/early October. If you are a semifinalist, you will be given an application to complete and return to your high school, which will be sent in with a transcript and school recommendation to National Merit. When they have that and your SAT scores (which must be sent directly), you will be considered for Finalist. If you are selected as a finalist (and 15,000 out of 16,000 are), you will be considered for National Merit scholarships automatically.</p>
<p>thanks. i dont know what my counselor was thinking when he said he needed my brag sheet and sat scores before the end of may for semifinalist/finalist. do you guys maybe know why?</p>
<p>Hi Jason, sorry I don't know why your counselor asked for that. But about your first question, although you can't know for sure what the cutoffs for your state will be this year until SF notifications come out, you can get an idea from this article in USA Today ( USATODAY.com</a> - Bar set lower for some National Merit scholars ) that is the only place I've seen where Natl. Merit officially released the state-by-state info. The data is from a few years ago, but jumps of several points in a few years are uncommon. HTH.</p>