<p>@barfly - why do people (principals, guidance counselors) think this isn’t important news? personally, for the recipients and collectively for the reputation of the school? I really, really want the National Merit Corp. to understand that they need to communicate with students/parents! I hope they are reading this thread and understand how incredibly negligent or indifferent administrators can be towards their students and this program. If they want to be relevant at all they will move forward with the times and forget this nonsense of sending the score reports with access codes ONLY to the schools, who get around to handing them out in their own sweet time, neglect to let students know their status and neglect to tell students what they need to do to continue in the program. Tell the students directly!! Tell the families directly!! I have a ‘soon to be’ college graduate in marketing that could really help them market their program and get it into the 21st century. How many phone calls does it take, from parents to them, to make them understand this reality? I am so thankful that child#3 is the last and that I know the drill.
Oh yes, and get the results out faster - that would be a big improvement!</p>
<p>@numbersfun, I agree. Our administration doesn’t get it, but the teachers certainly do. </p>
<p>As for the other issues, I think it is both NMSC and College Board. </p>
<p>I think College Board should send the score reports and access codes to the homes, not the schools, but I believe their logic is that the PSAT is only prep for the SAT and the schools are supposed to explain the score reports to students and parents, and encourage more students to take the PSAT and the SAT. Handing out scores at school adds interest in the minds of younger students and their parents. More interest means more kids signing up and paying more money! That’s the CB perspective. </p>
<p>NMSC has a different perspective. In my opinion, NMSC wants the National Merit program to be in the news as much as possible. It’s a non-profit and needs the nationwide - all 50 state - publicity to be relevant. So I suspect there is intentional spacing between announcements - starting early in the calendar year, we hear the new Finalists, then we hear the commended cutoff for the next year, then we hear the new Semifinalists, then we hear the new National Achievement students, then the scores are sent for the next batch of kids, then we hear the Finalists for the last batch of kids, then we hear the…… And with semifinalists in all 50 states, and corporate sponsors in all 50 states, and colleges awarding NM scholarships in all 50 states, and all of us fretting over cutoffs, etc., NMSC is guaranteed publicity, and the shroud of mystery adds to the interest.</p>
<p>So, yep, I agree with you, but we parents have different interests and motivations than CB and NMSC!</p>
<p>I can hear your thoughts on their side of the debate - but, even if all you say is real, they can do BOTH! Contact us, contact the schools, contact the media. In the bad, old days - lots of parents didn’t know didley squat about the SAT or scholarship opportunities and there are still probably lots of parents who don’t know about both. But those parents might be the ones that don’t go to the meetings where the counselors drone on about interpreting the results (3 months after they come out). They might read something that comes in the mail to their attention or possibly an email with a really good subject line so they don’t delete it. Maybe the parents, or more likely the kid, would open a piece of mail and find out about opportunities. And guess what, out here in the sticks, we hear nothing from NMC. Nothing. If a kid makes commended or NMSF or NMF, maybe one of the schools or a parent puts a notice in the local paper, or maybe not.
I guess I come down on the side of, why not serve everyone’s interests? Even informed, involved parents are not always up to speed on every aspect of their kids’ academic opportunities, especially with a first kid. Depending on school administrators and counselors, with all their bureaucracy and myriad responsibilities, to make sure every kid knows about all the opportunities is just not realistic. It’s sort of an old fashioned, paternalistic attitude, don’t worry, we know what’s best for your kid, kind of thing. That might have worked well 40 years ago, but I don’t think that model is appropriate today.<br>
Last but not least: the delay until September of senior year for NMSF and then winter for NMF is a dinosaur relic and must be changed. Highly competitive kids (by scores) are applying to highly competitive schools by early November and really need the information earlier than September. And kids applying to full ride schools also need that information so that they can make a financial decision as well as a ‘school fit’ decision.<br>
As an aside - I would think College Board would want to increase the number of PSAT test takers closer to the level of SAT test takers. It makes financial sense. Better communication to parents might be the answer, rather than expecting the schools to communicate with students and parents.
Ultimately - I wish I could do a ‘Matrix’ like download of all this information to the parents with kids 5 years behind ours! </p>
<p>I really wish they sent the status to homes instead of to schools. esp. my D’s school. I checked with the counselor. He doesn’t know a thing. He promised to check with the principal. But I bet he won’t because nobody in my D’s school even cares, partly because 299/300 people don’t get anything and partly because academics is the least concern to the school. I feel like a fool if I ask too much. </p>
<p>ditto- never heard back from college counselor after email and phone message.</p>
<p>One reason I can think of for not notifying families and students this week is to protect from disappointment and emotional upheaval during AP exams. </p>
<p>And the schools don’t hand out the access codes in December so that students won’t be distracted during semester finals. And the counselors are busy with Senior college applications. And…There are many reasons to not do something, but please, give these kids some credit for being able to deal with reality. Send the information directly to the student, send it to the schools, send it to the moon! Who is protecting these kids from college rejections? It’s not the schools and it’s not NMC. Reality is always easier to deal with than waiting around for a school administrator to get around to reading the names off a list they received TWO+ weeks ago!
Please forgive my aggravation. I feel very strongly that NMC needs to communicate directly with the students, rather than through the schools.</p>
<p>@numbersfun, my D’s school is in Louisiana. It is a magnet school that draws from the entire parish (our name for county) and has an admissions test.</p>
<p>You are right, numbersfun, that principals should let the kids know. However, look at this from their point of view. They are probably dealing with pregnant teens, drugs in the schools, kids going to juvi, teachers with issues, staff turnover, etc. etc. etc. and this is important but not urgent.</p>
<p>National Merit Corporation probably shouldn’t put this back on the schools, why not send a simple email or even just notify us on the collegeboard website where we could log in and see for ourselves.</p>
<p>why couldn’t they contact both the schools and the students? by email? online? NHRP is contacting students by email. I realize this is a much smaller % of the population, but the test asks for preferred email address- and there is always the college board’s MySAT website. I doubt discussing it here though will make any impact. We all need to phone in and pressure NMSF.</p>
<p>I agree that notifying students and parents directly would be the best option. I guess it is a bit of a non-issue at this point because we are only talking about commended, not national merit qualifying scores. It would be really nice to know qualifying scores. </p>
<p>And in order to know qualifying scores, we will all be back here in September putting up the data about who made it,in which state, at what score. And why will we be doing that? - because NMC does not give out that information, directly; not to anyone (also, because some principals will quickly let their students know that they made NMSF and some won’t). Somehow, lack of information is NMC’s preferred method of communication. Makes no sense to me.</p>
<p>Is there a chance we have it all wrong? Perhaps this isn’t the guaranteed cut off? could they reevaluate their figures and change it by September to 202 for instance? and that is why they don’t contact students?</p>
<p>Thank you @vistajay for the information. All the high school seniors in our county only total about 400, so academic specialization is out the window (although athletic specialization is not).
@bsalum - I saw the letter to the principal. It says " with a Selection Index score of 201 or above, these high performers have shown outstanding academic potential." There is no lesser award than commended so it has to be the commended cutoff. Or at least, that’s how I read the letter.</p>
<p>The letter also says, “each of these students is among the highest -scoring participants who will be recognized in the fall of their senior year.” On the back of the letter it lists the names of the students that scored at or above 201.</p>
<p>jumping in quick but agreed info should be sent to home as well. our school, imo, did not get or at least did not relay to us the significance of my kid’s high score. i learned more on here than anything we got from the school. </p>
<p>Our guidance counselor confirmed in an email that 201 is the commended score cutoff. Just to help reassure. I also find it frustrating to wait until fall to hear more, but hoping it will work out as NMR for our daughter.</p>
<p>But in looking back at the email, she referred to it as a “preliminary cutoff score” and said it may change…</p>
<p>I finally broke down and emailed my counselor. I haven’t heard anything back from her yet, but I think she is singlehandly responsible for giving all AP exams and I know she is covered up. I would like to hear officially though.</p>
<p>We finally heard from the counselor. He said the principal opened the envelop and made a copy of the letter in it and gave it to D. There is total ONE student in the list. D is happy but she also commented “It’s pathetic!” </p>
<p>@Maxwellequations - Congrats! Tell your D it’s blessing in disguise. </p>