<p>It sure seems like some colleges put a lot of stock in two standardized tests. Not that I mind, I'm a NMSF hoping to make NMF and go to college on one of the big scholarships offered.</p>
<p>Also, just out of curiosity, who pays for the NMF scholarships? Like the big, full ride ones offered at some colleges?</p>
<p>Here’s my take: </p>
<p>The PSAT scores basically give colleges an easy and quick way (right or wrong) to judge the academic performance of students. It is arguably the only litmus test that is uniform (same test for everyone), that all high school students take on the same day, and whose results are readily available to colleges. </p>
<p>Other markers are not as straightforward. For example, weighted GPA varies wildly depending on how high schools calculate it. One school for example may give a 5 as a top score for an AP class and another may give 6 or even 10! Unweighted GPAs can be used but don’t consider academic rigor. SAT scores can be used but students can take and retake that test (which varies by sitting) over several years and are available to colleges only if a student releases the scores. </p>
<p>Another reason for courting NMF is that students put a lot of weight on college rankings such as US News and Forbes. Those rankings are determined by many factors with one of the most important being SAT scores. So those students that score highly on the PSAT are likely to also score highly on the SAT and are projected to bring up/keep the college’s ranking. This in turn helps to keep application numbers up and the money flowing.</p>
<p>The National Merit Scholarship Corp is a private organization that funds the NM scholarships of $2500. There are also corporate sponsored National Merit scholarships which are usually limited to children of employees of the corporate sponsor and vary in amount. And there are college sponsored National Merit scholarships which are for a maximum of $2000. But individual colleges and other organizations can independently give other scholarships from their budgets using the NMF as a criteria . The “big, full ride ones” are mostly funded through the individual schools and are independent of the National Merit scholarship program. </p>
<p>If you are a NMSF you are in the top one percent of students in your state. To go on to NMF you have to show that you aren’t a total slacker or miscreant. People tend to take notice of where NM Finalists choose to go to school, so when a bunch of these kids decide to go to Alabama or Oklahoma, for example, other people take notice. It gives these schools national standing and prestige that they would not otherwise have.</p>
<p>Yeah, I guess it is a bragging point for colleges. I’m planning to go to one that has a great NMF scholarship, though they aren’t one of the huge-name NMF schools. I think they had a whopping 15 NMFs at the school last year.</p>
<p>I think that many (not all) NMFs have a long history of academic stability. Most students do not study for the PSAT, nor can it be taken a gazillion times. At most, it seems that students can take it once as frosh, once as sophs, and then the “real” one junior year. But, most only take the PSAT one time ever. </p>
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<p>At most schools, the NMF scholarships are paid for by the schools thru donors or endowment. </p>
<p>Both of my children took the PSAT as eighth-graders. I think this was because they were in geometry and the school wanted to measure how they were doing in math. My son will take it for “real” next year; unfortunately it will be a completely new test, so three years of practice may not be of much use.</p>
<p>I read on the College Board website that a majority of PSAT test-takers were not juniors. So apparently “most” students take the test at least twice. Given that NMF status can be worth between $100,000 to $200,000, I’m surprised more people don’t really work at it.</p>
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<p>Interesting. I’d like to see that. If true, that is a rather recent development. </p>
<p>Well, there’s not as many actual PSAT materials as there are SAT, so perhaps one of the only ways to test in a PSAT is to take the PSAT during the official administrations. </p>
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<p>It may be that the increasing number of “practice” test-takers (freshmen and sophomores) has surpassed number of juniors who are taking the test “for real.” Maybe?</p>
<p>Well, if over 50% of freshmen and sophomores take it, then that would mathematically be more than all juniors (assuming that each class size is the same.) Plus not all juniors take the test.</p>
<p>Some years our high school requires (and pays for) all sophomores to take the PSAT. In recent years the College Board has been pushing it as a way to indicate readiness for AP classes. Our high school does not pay for juniors to take the test and in fact does not even encourage juniors to take it.</p>
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<p>This is not the same thing as saying over 50% of freshmen and sophomores nationwide take the PSAT. What was said was that over 50% of one particular years’ test takers were not juniors.</p>
<p>@mom2collegekids, here it is. No data for freshmen, but already more sophomores take it than juniors. I was amazed. Not like that in our state at all. But kids take the PLAN/PACT in 10th grade in our state as an ACT focused state.</p>
<p><a href=“SAT Suite of Assessments – Reports | College Board”>http://research.collegeboard.org/programs/psat/data/cb-jr</a></p>
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but already more sophomores take it than juniors. </p>
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<p>wow!!! Amazing!</p>
<p>hmmm…I wonder if some freshman numbers are lumped into the soph numbers? </p>
<p>I thought that, for consideration in the NMS program, a student’s PSAT score had to be from their junior year. Anything earlier doesn’t qualify. So why bother practicing as a sophomore if you don’t intend to take it as a junior?</p>
<p>You’ll notice a couple things about most (not all!) schools that award big money for NMF: they tend to be in the South, where old-fashioned ideals about merit are still taken seriously; they could use a boost in their rankings;, and they may generally want to attract higher caliber students. It’s hard to do the latter without first attaining a “critical mass” of high-caliber students.</p>
<p>“old fashioned ideas about merit” </p>
<p>If NMF are old ones, what are new ones? Interesting point about the location of many NMF friendly schools.</p>
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where old-fashioned ideals about merit are still taken seriously; </p>
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<p>lol…as opposed to what? The schools that meet-need are largely schools that only accept top stats students…so those are essentially merit awards with a need-component. </p>
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A lot of big-name schools have no merit scholarships at all, or they are relatively small. In theory, this makes them more socially progressive. </p>
<p>And more debt inducing. I’m not criticizing YOU, I’m just trying to understand the theory.</p>
<p>@mom2collegekids if you have a better explanation, I’d like to read it. I’ve puzzled on this thing for a while now.</p>