@suzyQ7 - There was some discussion before about lower scores going but not higher level. It also appears, there lot of kids got around 21-218 and then scores trailed off.
@picola - CA expected range is 219-221. I am hoping for 220 (my Sâs score) 
D3 got the OU e-mail in February that congratulated her for âyour incredible score on the PSAT/NMSQTâ and mentioned the $124,000 National Merit package. Canât recall if she has received the snail-mail brochure yet.
Sheâs also been getting e-mails and snail-mail stuff from the Ivies - Cornell is the only holdout at this point. Harvard and Columbia have been the most prolific and today Harvard sent her a brochure that said âyour strong grades and test scores indicate that Harvard and other selective universities may be a good fit for you.â Apparently it also costs less than a state school for 90% of American families! (Figure that!). :-j They must meet 100% of demonstrated financial need. Did anyone else get this brochure?
My D has a large Amazon box filled with college snail mail from hundreds of schools. Some schools are rather stalkerish. She hates it (environment-focused kid), and I donât think sheâs looked at any of it. Both of us have researched schools online. Back in the stone ages when we parents were researching colleges for ourselves, that mail was helpful because there was no internet. Now, its just wasteful and its doubtful that it gets any student interested in a particular college. Iâm sure most go unopened.
@mamelot, Cornell prefers email, and lots of it.
@suzyQ7 If you look at the obviously wrong SI percentile chart that was released by the College Board some time ago, you can see that the scores are incredibly compressed. So a five-point jump doesnât really mean that much, since most of the percentiles have gone from having five or six scores to only three.
It is my opinion that the SI percentile chart provided by the College Board is correct in terms of distribution, except that the test sample they used to get the scores did not include any âpreppers,â or students who really prepare hard for the test. It is these students on the top end who have thrown everything out of whack, but once these scores are accounted for, everything else works.
Here is a link to the SI chart that the College board released:
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-QtFaObYu6mo/Vpbxe-dcq4I/AAAAAAAAFsY/oWpyaYGOzVo/s1600/2015%2Bpsat%2Bcutoffs.jpg
Last year the South Hispanic award went to students with scores in the low 96th percentile. This year weâre told the South Hispanic cutoff is 204, yet the screwy College Board chart says that a score of 204 is in the 98th percentile. This is a full six points higher than the low 96th percentile listed on the College Board SI chart, so it obviously needs to be adjusted.
Another point of reference is that there is some evidence that the State of Kentucky was apparently told that a score of 211 was the lowest score to be in the 99th percentile. So again, we go to the screwy SI chart, count down six, and see that once again the chart appears to be off by six.
So for states where the cutoff score is below or right at 99 percent, a very good guesstimate can be made by doing the following:
- Determine what percentile (and fraction thereof) you think is necessary for NMSF in your state (fairly constant)
- Find said percentile and accompanying SI on the official SI chart released by the College Board
- Add six or seven to determine your state's likely cutoff score
What Iâd love to know is the lowest score in the 99+.
@EarlVanDorn âIt is these students on the top end who have thrown everything out of whack, but once these scores are accounted for, everything else worksâŠâ
How would they be accounted for? Considering the top scores are âout of whackâ donât you think the +6 or +7 method is too high at the top end?
Not sure if DS received anything from OU, he doesnât open most of it but last week he received a letter and certificate of merit from UNM based on his PSAT scores. Talked about their scholarship programs etc.
@mommesquite You may want to check out the estimates done by Compass also:
http://www.â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â /national-merit-semifinalist-cutoffs/
Is OU Oklahoma University? We got that one and the UNM certificate of achievement.
@mommesquite Alabama has been requiring a score in the mid98th percentile for NMSF each year. The best guess of what percentile will be required this year is what was required last year, so a mid98th percentile score in Alabama has a good chance of NMSF.
The SI chart released by the College Board tells us that a 203 is in the mid-98th percentile, but we know this is wrong. They have set the South region Hispanic cutoff at 204, so that score is likely in the lower end of the 96th percentile, which is where the Hispanic cutoff was last year.
If you simply find the mid-98th percentile on the SI chart and shift it six to eight places, you will get a very good guesstimate of what it will take in Alabama for NMSF. The faulty SI chart shows a mid-98 score to be 203. Add 6 (just like you have to do for the Hispanic score) and you get 209, which has a chance. Add 7 and you get 210, which I think is the likely Alabama cutoff. Add 8 and you get 211, which I feel is a more conservative guess.
My son scored 1480 with a SI of 220.With a cutoff of 214 here florida last year I would hope he has a chance at nmsf,but I canât gather any confidence from compass or any other projection.Just seems that at the 99% things get very vague.
@snicks1234 - My son got same score, but we are in CA
@snicks1234 â We canât say âfor sureâ but I think that 220 in FL will very likely be NMSF. Supposedly school guidance counselors can get some reasonable guidance through reports available to them. Hang in there!
@snicks1234 My gut feeling is the CA cutoff will be 220 or 221.
Does anyone know when (in April) the national commended cutoffs will be announced (not really announced, but the top 50,000 students in the contest will be notified they will move forward).
My sonâs yearâs (class of 2015) the first word came out on April 12th. Not sure when it hit last year, and of course all bets are off for this year.
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/17163663/#Comment_17163663
Iâd bet it wonât be announced until after they release March rSAT scores, so Iâm betting on mid-May.
I donât think itâs a matter of CBâs involvement anymore. The cut-off is simply the top 50,000 scores - regardless of what percentile. Hopefully by now CB has turned over the results to NMSC and moved on. So itâs NMSCâs timeline at this point. And they are wrapping up the current competition so we canât expect it to be any earlier than previous yearsâ - but hopefully no later either.
@mommesquite How did you figure out 211 is at 99.32%
Have some of you been told by your school GCâs that they have a list in order of scores for the school? I am asking because I met with my sonâs GC earlier this week, and tried to casually ask where his score fell in relation to other kids at school. I wanted to know if he was in the top 10% at his school, or the top 25 kids. She told me that she didnât have access to that information. ???