<p>I am almost definitely going to advance to Semifinalist (228 in Kansas) but I am worried about making Finalist. I have a C on my transcript. Second semester of sophomore year, I was depressed and it negatively affected my grades. Besides the C I have 6 other Bs, most from that same semester. I got all As last semester and hope to continue that trend. Right now I have a 3.77 UW and a 4.2 W and that might rise a little after this semester. Also my rank is reasonably high (top 16% in a class of over 300)</p>
<p>I really want to be a finalist and earn the full tuition scholarship at Northeastern University. Is this going to be an issue?</p>
<p>I should have said NMF in the title, just noticed that.</p>
<p>They are being very tough on Cs this year. Next fall you should talk to your high school guidance counselor and see if they can make a sort of “pre-emptive stike” against this in the school recommendation. Maybe say that you had one semester with a health issue, and except for that have been a very strong student. And encourage them to award you NMF in spite of that one poor semester. Be sure you do everything else you can – get your paperwork done on time, have a trusted adult review your essay and provide comments before you send it in, hopefully have a good SAT score in one sitting and send that in to them in the fall before their deadline. I can’t think of much else you can do to help your chances, maybe someone else will have suggestions.</p>
<p>In previous years, it seemed that 3-4 Cs was what was disqualifying, but they seem to be stricter this year for some odd reason. I would advise you to read through that thread.</p>
<p>I’m surprised anyone could be an NMF with even one C with so many out there with 4.0+. Seems weird to get that title just because one test went well. I would expect the entire record to be stellar in this day and age of overachievers.</p>
<p>It seems equally weird to lose NMF status over a low grade in one class in a 3 year high school career (which is what NMSC sees in terms of grades to make the NMF decisions).</p>
<p>Nothing for it now except to get excellent grades this year, and ask you counselor to help you out with this in the fall as much as possible. Hang in there, you are still a candidate for good merit aid at a lot of schools even if you don’t end up with the NMF designation. I notice from your location that you have the advantage of geographic diversity, too, which will help when the time comes if you are looking at schools like Northeastern. :)</p>
<p>CADREAMIN, I am a teacher (24th year), and my issue with NMSC using grades is that it is definitely comparing apples and oranges. Not only do they use the 4.0 scale, disregarding the more difficult classes such as AP and dual credit, but the way grades are determined from one teacher’s class to another can be vastly different. My son was given a major grade zero because he did not have the final draft of his paper printed out on the day it was due at the beginning of class. Go to the library and print it? NO. Give points for the multiple rough drafts? NO. Result? 79 average. 3 1/2 years later, NMF rejection. Cost: $100,000 in scholarship money. Little excessive, don’t you think? Contrast that with another student who is equally lazy/irresponsible/whatever you think/ in another teacher’s class who is like me; I would give them the chance to print the paper, give full credit. If a student needs less than a point to go to the next grade and they have given me effort, I give them the grade. I know what it does to a GPA to get a 79. OK, rant over.</p>
<p>I completely agree that one mistake several years ago shouldn’t affect your finances like this. I read your posts in the other thread and I really hope your appeal is successful! It really is like apples and oranges. A C from one school in a certain course means something completely different from a similar grade in a particular course in another school across the country.</p>
<p>Apply to the schools that give large merit for NMSF status. </p>
<p>Apply to the schools that give large merit for your SAT or ACT scores?</p>
<p>Is your family low income? If so, then if you can get a large merit scholarship plus federal aid, you might have most/all of your costs covered.</p>
<p>We’re not low income by any means. The problem is that we’re in a position where we probably would receive next to no financial aid, but at the same time shelling out tens of thousands of dollars a year is not a realistic option. I plan to apply to an in-state school, but I don’t know of schools that give merit based on ACT alone (I have a 34).</p>
<p>rescuememylove, they are out there. We, too, are in the make too much to get any aid and not enough to pay range. Thankfully, DS did apply to two schools that gave him great scholarships based on 35 ACT. Still steamed about NMF, though…puts the top-tier schools out of reach.</p>
<p>fredsfam…I’m sorry for your son. How unfortunate that a mistake made early in his HS career is going to cost him scholarship money. It seems NM is being tough this year. Did his Cs bring his unweighted GPA below a 3.5? I recall someone in the OU scholar’s office saying that NM is looking for a 3.5, unweighted. I don’t know how accurate that is, but the OU people seemed to be on top of things. Maybe it’s not the Cs so much as the Cs relative to other grades? I hope your appeal is successful, and I’m glad your son has a couple of other good options. Also, have you looked at OSU at all? I know they give much better academic scholarships than OU. My kids have friends there who are not NMF but have great scholarships. One has enough scholarships that she pays very little out of pocket. Another received a full tuition waiver and a little more. It might be worth checking into.</p>
<p>aghaby, you really don’t know what you are talking about. This year there are multiple stories of kids NOT making it with everything else in very good shape, and ONE “C” on their transcript (and a high “C” at that).</p>
<p>However… I will say that D2’s best friend is a boy who was NMSF this year, and he got ONE “C” (last year in a foreign language class). All else is in good shape, and I do not believe he got a letter this last week. Aribtrary as h***. :(</p>
<p>I agree. I would go to the school and present the situation just as you did. It won’t change anything for your child, but perhaps the teacher and principal will rethink how a common mistake shouldn’t have that much impact. I have long been against severe punishments for an irregular mistake a student might make. It’s one thing if a student repeatedly forgets to bring in an assignment or whatever, but a simple one-time human mistake shouldn’t be so consequential. After all, the teachers and principals make similar mistakes - forgetting something at home or whatever, and they don’t see any punishment at all…it’s not as if a teacher gets her pay docked if she forgets to bring something or leaves something in her car and needs to return to it to get it. </p>
<p>That said, if your child has the stats for NMF, then he likely has the stats to merit money from schools. Have you looked into that? Did he apply anywhere that gives NMSF’s money? What are his test scores? What is his major?</p>
<p>DS’s stats have gotten him a scholarship at each school he’s applied to, but the problem is it’s just not enough. Just a couple of examples: Baylor’s scholarship w/ NMF is $134,000+, w/o is $35,000…no way we are paying the remainder of the cost for that. OOS at OU with their “top” academic scholarship would leave almost $90,000 to pay (for 4 years)…which really irks me since when I graduated from OU we were told our children would never have to pay OOS tuition…they lied.</p>
<p>If the appeal is unsucessful, he will likely take the scholarship at one of the in-state schools. Thank goodness for that…</p>
<p>*DS’s stats have gotten him a scholarship at each school he’s applied to, but the problem is it’s just not enough. Just a couple of examples: Baylor’s scholarship w/ NMF is $134,000+, w/o is $35,000…no way we are paying the remainder of the cost for that. OOS at OU with their “top” academic scholarship would leave almost $90,000 to pay (for 4 years)…which really irks me since when I graduated from OU we were told our children would never have to pay OOS tuition…they lied.</p>
<p>If the appeal is unsucessful, he will likely take the scholarship at one of the in-state schools. Thank goodness for that…*</p>
<p>Ugh…schools should never make promises like that. They can’t know for sure what they’ll be doing even 2 years from now, much less 20 years from now. :(</p>
<p>While it may be too late for your son to apply to schools that might still give him very large merit for his stats, hopefully parents of juniors who are reading this thread will learn from your situation and apply early to some schools that will give huge merit for stats in case their child doesn’t make Finalist. </p>
<p>Does anyone know of some schools that are still awarding huge merit for high stats? I know that many had Dec 1 deadlines, but I know that UAB is still awarding, and so is Miss State.</p>
<p>You guys are great. Thanks for letting me vent here; I don’t want my son to think it’s such a big deal. We should know about appeal in about a week; I will certainly let you know what we hear.</p>