Apparently, many sources claim that the commended score for this year’s national merit scholarship is a 209 (unconfirmed by college board officially yet). I’m from a US territory where the semi-finalist qualifying score has been the commended score for the past few years. My score is EXACTLY at 209. Does this mean that I’ve qualified or does this mean that I am 1 point too short from qualifying?
IF the cutoff for your state is 209, then yes, you will qualify for semi-finalist. However, there is no guarantee that your state will have the commended cutoff this year just because it has had it for the last few years.
PS, the College Board does not run the NMS contest -NMS does. They have officially said in a letter to principals that the commended cutoff is 209. That is not in question.
@guamboy the commended score of 209 HAS, indeed, been confirmed by several homeschooling families who received the information from National Merit Scholarship Corp. (the people who bring you the National Merit competition). You can rest assured that 209 is the commended number this year.
Here is a blurb from CompassPrep in their May 3 response to a question about outside the US and I’ve also provided the link below to the predictions and comments. As long as NMSC continues to select the Commended number for the US Territories you should be good for semifinalist! Keep in mind, however, that CompassPrep did provide a range. You can check out their prediction under “z:US Territories”. (Distinct from “zz:Outside US” which applies to US students who are studying abroad).
“Students in US territories — Puerto Rico, Guam, Northern Marianas, United States Virgin Islands and American Samoa — traditionally have a cutoff at the Commended level (209 this year).”
http://www.■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/national-merit-semifinalist-cutoffs/