<p>I just found out I missed seminfinalist by 10 points! How much does that suck?</p>
<p>That does suck. However, I am a semi-finalist and was disappointed to find out how little money I'm likely to get.</p>
<p>When do they send out Finalist notification?</p>
<p>They only send out the Finalist notification in the spring I think. I know that like almost every semi-finalist becomes a finalist though.</p>
<p>February/March, I think.</p>
<p>I'm a semi-finalist - the first one my school has had in over 10 years, I think...</p>
<p>How much of a difference does being National Merit make? How much does it help? Many universities like to list how many National Merit students they have, but how much weight is being a National Merit semifinalist compared to other factors (class rank, GPA, SAT, essays, ECs etc.) for the following types of universities (Ivy, Top 10, Top 30, State schools). Thanks for any insights/responses!</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>The only thing I heard is that schools like HYP are not very impressed by Commended Scholars (unless you live in education-intense states like Massachusetts/Connecticut/New York).</p>
<p>Also, I've only seen state schools promoting the number of National Merit Scholars they have - it makes them look better to others and feel better about themselves. I think HYP et al. realize that people know they are the best, regardless of the number of NMS's they have...</p>
<p>oops, i meant i missed it by 1 point</p>
<p>Now that sucks (perfect use of the word).</p>
<p>Except, you really don't get much or anything for National Merit unless you go to a school that will pay close to full tuition (like Univ. of Oklahoma).</p>
<p>I'm with lindsey: I'm also a semifinalist who's disappointed with the actual reward I might end up winning. I'd assume that a school like Yale would look at a NMS like they look at any other award you get, although I don't know how they look at those other awards, so...</p>
<p>Hmmm...some universities, like Rice, prominently display the number of semifinalists they have, while others keep the data fairly hidden.</p>
<p>yeah i missed it by one. and in any other state it would have made it (i got 216)</p>
<p>I only got commended cause I'm cool like that. :)</p>
<p>where do they post the score cut off point for different states?</p>
<p>vivaldi how could you leave out NJ (ranked #1 this yr). yea our cuttoff was 221, i made it by 3 pts. i love the psat cuz its pass/fail. once you pass, it doesnt matter what you got.</p>
<p>2 out of the 4 people applying early to yale are semifinalists at my school. we had 9! last year we had like 2. or 1. i don't remember.</p>
<p>anyway, nms really doesn't give that much money...at all. especially if you're applying to yale. but u of texas tries to guilt me in...ahhhhh</p>
<p>NMS gets you other scholarships and draws prestige. esp if you make SF in NJ :P.</p>
<p>oh btw we had 12 SFs in our NJ school in a class of 313, 2 of em just got into penn, 2 applying to harvard, one just got rejected from columbia, one got into cornell</p>
<p>An0nym0u5: I was just giving examples...:(</p>