Maybe not influential to others, but my mom can brag that half her students graduated NMS’s, (we home school) likely even 3/4 once my younger sister gets there. If you’re talking Harvard or Stanford, being a Semifinalist (which is all you’d know by the time you apply) wouldn’t make a lot of difference because there are so many students with high test scores and awards. But if you are talking schools like University of Alabama or University of Kentucky or University of Oklahoma, it is very important. Those places give great scholarships for NMFs, and most of them are automatic - apply to the school, get accepted, list them as your first choice on the NMSC application, and bingo! you’re guaranteed the scholarship.