<p>I think that we forget the psychological benefit of being a NMSF. My mother did not attend college, I attended community college, but my younger sister was a National Merit Scholar. That honor and distinction, celebrated by everyone at her school, made her feel special, and encouraged the teachers to invest in her future during the college application process. She was admitted to Notre Dame over several classmates with higher GPAs, and went on to gain admission to Yale Medical School. She is proud to have been a National Merit Scholar to this day, and I have no doubt that it provided a stimulus, a belief in herself that she compete with the best and accomplish great things. Even if relatively little money were at issue, and every cent counts to some students, the NMSF designation can provide a psychological boost to a disadvantaged student at a critical juncture in their young lives.</p>
<p>I know there are some of you who are super disappointed that your DS missed the cut off by that 1 point, and I know I would have been as well had that been the outcome but, I do want to say that all of you should be so proud of your DS and yourself for really caring about what happens to your DS and others. The support shown to the parents and students on this thread by complete strangers is a testament to how much everyone on here cares about seeing students achieve their potential. </p>
<p>I will say that my older S wasn’t even commended (as far as I remember) but he had a great GPA and test scores and he ended up being accepted to 13 of the 14 schools he applied to with several full ride scholarship offers. He ended up with a full ride to a “flagship university” in their honors program and has had a great experience. Not getting this one mark by your name won’t hold any of you or your DS back from doing great things and getting into great schools!</p>
<p>Keeping my fingers crossed that some of you will have happy surprises tomorrow though!</p>
<p>@illinoisan, it seems to me that the big merit scholarship money comes from the colleges who set their own standards for how to award it. For example, ASU (including Barrett Honors College) treats NMF’s, National Achievement Scholars and National Hispanic Scholars the same for purposes of merit awards. <a href=“First-year Student Admissions | Barrett, The Honors College | ASU”>http://barretthonors.asu.edu/admissions/national-scholars/</a> The Barrett Honors class of Fall 2013 had 116 National Merit Finalists, 86 National Hispanic Scholars and 6 National Achievement Scholars. <a href=“Facts and Figures | Barrett, The Honors College | ASU”>http://barretthonors.asu.edu/about/facts/</a>. </p>
<p>The bright, low income URM student who misses the cutoff in a high cutoff state can still apply for both need based aid and merit aid that is not tied to NMF status. There are also tons of middle income students who just miss the cutoff and whose parents can’t make their EFC. Those middle income students have to make the best of it and go to their public university or go looking for merit aid, which is almost never available at the most highly selective colleges. That’s not a perfect system but people do have options.</p>
<p>Sounds like your sister has done very well; kudos to her.</p>
<p>S says they called kids down to the office and he was not one of them… we are at 209 in MI… hope they just missed calling him and will do so soon!!!</p>
<p>@illinoisan there is very little likelihood anyone on this thread is forgetting the psychological benefit of NMSF, given the fact that behavior here falls into virtually every form of psychosis described in the DSM-IV!</p>
<p>@Burke1 see post #2581 where we are showing the cut off for IL is at most 215 per a student who made it with that score. I do not see it as final but I do not think it will be higher than that. That would be -1 from last year apparently. Best of luck!</p>
<p>@illinoisan,
</p>
<p>My cousin (white) is married to a Spaniard (white) of a wealthy, prominent family. It makes me sleep well at night knowing their kids deserve special recognition with lower test scores because they are part of our country’s fastest-growing, under-represented minority group.</p>
<p>numbersfun, my son got his AP award on Monday I believe, not 10 days ago. Don’t worry.</p>
<p>Also, someone mentioned URM, low-income, and first-generation college for Questbridge. I believe that you MUST be low-income to apply through Questbridge. My point being, a student could be URM or first-generation college, but if their parents were even lower middle class income, it is doubtful they would could get into the program. It might even be that some families could be eligible for free Ivy educations for their kids, but not qualify for the Questbridge program.</p>
<p>Bright, low-income ORM students, on the other hand, get completely shafted.</p>
<p>@GMT7plus, it’s a good point and “Bright, middle-income ORM students” are in even worse situation. We, ORM parents call it anti-hook. 
</p>
<p>I know I’m about 5 pages late, but I would like to thank MomMe32 for providing information on Minnesota.</p>
<p>Illinosan, I agree with you. I have a cousin who is half-Spanish, and therefore by law an Hispanic. She grew up in Spain until high school, then came to the U.S., and then returned to Spain. She married a Spaniard and their child is also by American law an Hispanic. Her mother, also my cousin, recently visited and posted on Facebook that she was very lucky in her timing because here daughter lived only two blocks from the royal palace, and so she was able to see the coronation festivities.</p>
<p>I love my cousin, but I would bet she received preferences when attending college in the U.S. which she did not really need. I wish the best for her child, but any child who grows up two blocks from any royal palace doesn’t need affirmative action.</p>
<p>Perhaps because you are from a well-to-do family, or are related to one by marriage, you do not recognize that many (though clearly not all) Hispanics and Latinos who benefit from scholarship programs fall towards the lower end of the socio-economic spectrum. If the downside of a preferential program which benefits primarily, low-income URMs is limited to outliers, like your family, then it is still a worthwhile program.</p>
<p>Also, and again, I am talking about qualifying for NMSF – NOT low-income Latino and African American students with " lower test scores", but those with precisely test scores AT OR ABOVE what we already deem an acceptable NMSF qualification in the lowest cutoff State (202/203? this year).</p>
<p>If we already deem a 202 or 203 an acceptable, agreeable, and worthy NMSF cutoff for West Virginians, then why not simply extend that courtesy to low-income URM students as well?</p>
<p>This thread is full of people happy to have their child achieve this prestigious honor and walk the red carpet of accolades, but just as happy to roll up the carpet behind them so that intelligent, ambitious, low-income URM students with PSAT qualification just as good as, or better than, those of many other intelligent and accomplished NMSF qualifiers from low-cutoff states, cannot.</p>
<p>This is the last I will say on the matter, because it is clear that many of the posters feel that low-income, URM students already have too many advantages in life, and do not care to give them any more (even if, in this case, it would simply be parity with the lowest-PSAT scoring NMSF qualifiers).</p>
<p>@Earl, I don’t think you’re arguing on the same side as illinoisan</p>
<p>pom2015, I do NOT think that Questbridge discriminates based on not being a minority. It is worth a phone call to ask specifically if you know someone who would fit that category: Less than $60,000 per year income for a family of four:</p>
<p><a href=“QuestBridge | National College Match: Who Should Apply”>QuestBridge | National College Match: Who Should Apply;
<p>However, it is up to individual schools to accept or deny kids based on what they read in their application.</p>
<p>illinoisan, NMSC is a private corporation. This is not a government program. They do as they please. They please to distribute NMFs equally by population density of high school seniors. Your suggestion is good-hearted, but would mess up their formula. They want it the way it is and it will not change in that way you envision. It would be more fruitful to push for other programs for Hispanics or for trying to get NHRP into the NMSC fold than what you suggest. The merits or lack of are not the real issue. </p>
<p>@illinoisan,
</p>
<p>No doubt white & asian kids w scores AT OR ABOVE what we already deem an acceptable NMSF qualification in the lowest cutoff State (202/203? this year) are just as upset. If you don’t like the cutoff score in your home state then you should have moved to another state. Why are you injecting race in one of the last purely meritocratic institutions left in the whole rotten college admissions circus?</p>
<p>@Illinoisan As the parent of an AA son with a 211 that did not make NMSF in our state, I find your whole premise insulting. So you just feel that all AA’s are inherently incapable of scoring well on the PSAT, and as a race need a little boost? Thanks…</p>
<p>I was a alumni volunteer for my alma mater at a HS college fair in a very wealthy part of LA (take a guess) last year. One kid walked by my booth along with his Dad and filled up the information card. I glanced at it and saw he put down “Hispanic” in the check box. Ok, I am not good at telling whether someone is English, German or Scandinavian, but having lived in LA for over 30 yrs, I can assure you that this kid is not Hispanic (nor did his name indicate so).</p>
<p>@GMT plus7, I have stated this several times, but our family is not URM (we are unhooked Southerners (now Calif.)), so this is not a system that would benefit my children. Since you are advocating for the inclusion of disadvantaged, low-income Caucasian and Asian students as well, then I am all for it, the more the merrier I say. </p>
<p>I am curious, though. why do you refer to the college admissions process so negatively as “this whole rotten college admissions circus?”</p>