<p>I am a junior now, and from my best guesses I think I got a 220+ on the PSAT, well above
the Louisiana cutoff. I'm pretty sure I got semifinalist, but I'm concerned that I won't advance past that. I had a lot of health problems during my sophomore year, and my grades suffered. If I get good grades this year, which I am projected to do, my cum UW GPA will be a 3.6-ish. I have never seen anyone on here get NMSF with less than a 3.85. Do I have a shot with a 34 ACT (taking SAT in Jan.) and great teacher recs?</p>
<p>I don’t think a 3.6 is a problem. If you have C’s from sophomore year, you may not make it. They seem to have gotten very strict about that lately, and don’t seem to take things like health challenges into account. But if you have A’s and B’s you should be fine. Your ACT is irrelevant – they don’t look at it. You’ll need a SAT score over 1960 (using 10x your writing MC instead of your writing score for that part). A super-high SAT can help you earn one of the $2500 scholarships but I don’t think it will mitigate poor grades if you have any. Good luck!</p>