<p>I received my notification at school today telling me I am a Finalist. I haven't received my letter at home yet from the National Merit Corp yet.</p>
<p>Our seniors know.</p>
<p>I received my letter today notifying me that I was a Finalist.</p>
<p>I so hope it's true that anyone who hasn't been rejected gets the Finalist designation. I'm on break right now, so my counselor can't tell me, and I haven't gotten anything in the mail - plus, two of my schools offer significant scholarsips, which would be really helpful.</p>
<p>Congratulations to everyone who's already heard!</p>
<p>This is really sad. There are 15 semi-finalists at my daughter's high school and none of them have been notified yet as to their finalist standing. Either the NMSC should be ashamed of themselves, or the schools should be. NMSC should coordinate this so that all schools receive this info at or about the same time, and schools should release the information in a timely manner. ... Ah, in a perfect world ...</p>
<p>To be a finalist, we have to send an application in? Was there a date that this application was due? My school finally told us our PSAT scores in mid January and didn't say anything about sending anything in. -_-</p>
<p>You only get the application the september the year you take the PSAT. You don't get one right after you get the scores.</p>
<p>i got a 217 on the PSAT, and haven't even recieved any NMSC letters from any one. should i xpect a letter, or is my score too low?</p>
<p>Got mine today from school.
It's a little card-type thing, very nice, that says Congrats, <em>Name</em> has advanced to Finalist status for Natl Merit.</p>
<p>Yeahhh, you know it.</p>
<p>Oh, so you are notified of your semi-finalist and finalist honors during senior year?</p>
<p>my bad, that might be why i didnt recieve anything yet, seeing as i took it this year (junior)</p>
<p>Adam--It depends on what state you live in. My daughter had a 219 on her PSAT last year and it was well above the 212 cutoff for Kentucky. More populated states have higher cutoff rates. I think.</p>
<p>217... What state are you from ?</p>
<p>Cut-offs arn't based on population. They're based on the score that separates the top whatever % of the kids in that state.</p>
<p>So it's more along the lines of states with higher academic quality having higher cut-offs. The most populated states are all above average academically, so they also have among the higher cut-off scores, just not -the- highest.</p>
<p>That distinction usually goes to MA/NJ/MD and maybe a couple of others (DC?), all of which are obviously not the most populated.</p>
<p>You make a good point, kryptonsa.</p>
<p>To summarize, the cutoffs vary by state. Do a search for the thread about what it might be for your state last year (you won't find out what it is for your year until the official notifications).</p>
<p>You get notified you are a NMSF in September of your Senior Year when you also get to fill out a bunch of paperwork (also when you can figure out the new cutoff). </p>
<p>The notification for Finalist comes in Feb of your Senior Year. They notify the schools first. In the past there were too many cases of the schools NOT notifying the students that they now also notify students about a week later.</p>
<p>DD received a letter from the Corp today and my wife has refrained from opening it. Fingers crossed...</p>
<p>My daughter received her finalist letter today. Her school has not yet said a word about it, although they must have had the notification for days now.</p>
<p>I got the official certificate today from my school.</p>
<p>do you think i will get one of the 2500 $2500 national merit scholarships? i just got my finalist letter today.</p>
<p>psat-225
highest combined sat-2300 (took it twice)
(idk if they look at subject tests but 800 mathII, 740 us hist., 740 bio m)
gpa-4.0 unweighted, taking many APs and honors
top 5% (im ranked 4/97)
actually spent time on the essay
filled up and activities/awards/leadership section on the app</p>
<p>what are they looking for exactly??</p>
<p>i really want to get the $2500 one from national merit because none of my first choices are on the college sponsored list.</p>
<p>what else do they look at when determining who wins the scholarships?</p>
<p>My brother just received notification today (by snail mail) that he is a finalist</p>