I’m still curious which schools look at NMF status as a critical admission criteria, and consider GPA, SAT/ACT, EC’s as “other”.
In many, many years of following college admissions, I have never run into a school that gives PSAT scores any weight and NMF status more than a passing interest other than scholarships.
@RichInPitt , agreed. I’ve never, ever heard of this. It’s only NMF that is concerned as far as I’ve seen, as well as some schools using PSAT for placement into AP classes.
Colleges and scholarships outside of NMF care only about SAT/ACT (and some more than others).
Just as an update, it was unofficially leaked that the national merit commended cutoff is 209.
What is the significance of making the commended cutoff?
If a student makes the commended cutoff, which is a national standard, but does not make his/her state cutoff, it only means that student will get recognition as “commended” by the NMSC. Nice to put as one of a student’s academic awards, but no major benefit beyond that.
When does the official commended score come out or did it already? I think my D will be a couple points too low…but just curious what it is anyway and when it is announced.
^^The commended score is apparently 209 this year. Art blogged about this in April on his website Compass Prep. He typically doesn’t blog about things like that unless he’s pretty certain – he has good sources. I don’t believe the “official” notification of the score comes out until the fall.
Thanks! I think my D was 207☹️
With so many Class of 21 students not having taken the SAT or ACT, I wonder if PSAT or NMF will carry more weight. With credit/no-credit grading spring semester and spring extra curricular activities cancelled, many class of 21 student’s application material are thinning out.
Sorry, I was lurking. I was worried about this, too. I live in Chicago, and public schools were unable to offer the PSAT. I was able to sign up for a test earlier in the year at a suburban high school, but my selection index score came to be a 220, which is 1 point lower than Illinois’ past selection cutoff score. Since Chicago public students tend to make up most of the high scores, would that means that it is likely for the cutoff score to decrease?
Commended cutoff this year is 209.
@riverandsasha3 ,
State cutoffs are mostly predicted to go down this year. Look up the Compass Prep Blog for more info. Good luck to you!
@OceanIsle The qualifying scores are already on the National Merit website. I got the lowest score possible to be a National Semifinalist for my state. ?