@ailinsh1 Same can be said for any state. The kids who are doing well at a failing public school in Newark have to meet the same cutoff as the elite suburban kids in the rest of Northern NJ.
There was a great discussion on this thread several months ago about how the old test was better able to differentiate among the top scorers. If NM was going to be happy with something like ACT then they should have looked into the ACT rather than continuing to partner with CB. Might have gotten a better deal.
A reasonable argument can be made that National Merit system is misleading or unfair in that:
- It's not really "national" in the way NMFs are selected; and
- Having two English sections instead of one.
I would be the first to admit that there are many students at my kidās high school in CA who got much higher SAT scores than my kid, but many of these kids did worse than my kid in PSAT and did not make NMSF cutoff. But that might be explained away by the fact that my kid took the OLD SAT whereas he took the NEW PSAT. Therefore, had he taken the NEW SAT, he could have gotten a much higher SAT score. He said he found questions in the OLD SAT too tricky and not really testing knowledge where as the NEW PSAT was more straight forward.
Essentially, my kid suffered under the OLD SAT, whereas my kid benefited under the NEW PSAT. However, he will not be taking a NEW SAT (even though he probably would receive a much higher score) because I do not believe 100 point difference in SAT score makes that much difference.
And a lot of those DC private school kids live in MD and VA.
@suzyQ7 ā True. But I thought that there was something about DC that specifically had them lumped in with NE boarding schools, etc. in determining the top 1% (e.g., kid in DC public school has to not only compete with DC boarding schools but also the NE boarding schools). But maybe I misinterpreted the fact that the cutoffs are the same or discussed togetherā¦
Daughter made NMSF in Arkansas with a 214!!!
GC told her
GC told her
GC told her
It seems every year fewer and fewer schools are using NMF tag for merit scholarships and have their own methodologies to award merit.
My daughter got semifinalist in Florida (yay) her score 223 - only three at her school
@websensation I donāt think the colleges consider NM a ānationalā award, either. I think the Common App defines NMF as a state award.
@shuttlebus More specifically, I meant that the word ānationalā in National Merit is sort of misleading in a way. They should really call it āStates Merit Scholarshipā etc.
@ailinsh1 The way it works is that the take the highest state cutoff (NJ) and just set that cutoff for DC and boarding schools. They probably donāt have enough data to figure out the DC and BS cutoff the traditional way (proportional allocation based on the number of graduating seniors) so they do it that way. My thought is that BS students should compete at their state level. A lot of top stat kids from low performing states end up in boarding school because they are not challenged in their state schools. Not sure why they canāt be considered with their home state (probably logistics - NMS Corp uses the GCs at the high schools and BS students would not have a local high school in their state).
Yay, joining in to say it looks like my DD made it with a 222 in California. Her school hasnāt had a NMSF since 2009 so we will be following along here to make sure the school knows what to do. They havenāt told her yet, didnāt tell her about commended in the spring either, so if anyone gets the essay prompt, please post it. Congrats to all who qualified and Iāll be crossing my fingers for those still waiting to find out. Good luck to all.
NMSF is a state award. NMF might be a national award.
And NHS is a school award, in case anyone was wondering.
Per Common Ap
@Mamelot you are exactly right, especially with NHS. I have had kids at 4 different high schools in two different states in three districts. Every one had completely different requirements and none of it was consistent.
I think your description of NMSF as a state competition is exactly right.
@stacey063 Do you know what the other 2 got?
@swiftie787 How do you know 216 is not the cutoff?
I am curious to find out whether MA cutoff will be 221 or 222. I am leaning towards 222, and TX cutoff as 220 or 219 because I canāt imagine TX cutoff being the same as CA cutoff.
What about kids who are those much sought after STEM kids who did way better on math? They may have total scores that look good enough to qualify but the SI isnāt high enough because the math is only weighed at one third.