So grateful for this group! As of yesterday, I now know my DS is a NMSF (happy dance!). Yesterday we also got the packet of forms. Ugh. I would love to pool resources with other homeschool parents and sort out our issues in filling out the forms. I’ve created a group for anyone with questions or insights. The url is http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/national-merit-scholarships/1916218-homeschool-parents-sorting-out-nmsf-forms-p1.html?new=1
Thanks again for all of your helpful posts!
It turns out that the (specific single-value) predictions here from April:
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/19542036/#Comment_19542036
were pretty accurate. Note that those predictions were just based on using the concordance tables, but in a twisted way so that the old commended score of 202 would concord to the new commended score of 209.
Predictions in parens - actual score afterwards. Bolded are ones where the prediction was correct.
ALABAMA (214) - 215
CA (222) - 221
CO (218) - 218
DC (223) - 222
FL (217) - 217
KY (215) - 215
LA (216) - 214
MA. (222) - 222
MD (221) - 221
NJ (223) - 222
TX (220) - 220
VA (221) - 221
WI (214) - 215
WV (209) - 209
@theshadow My predictions were rather crazy high but I note that they were made in January, well before we knew that commended was 209. Here’s my January post, and some of the predictions were very close:
01-27-2016 at 9:28 pm
I’ll play. Will just do a few predictions as you’ll be able to fill in the rest. These will seem high.
New Jersey and D.C. 225
Massachusetts 224
California 223
Maryland 221
Texas 220
Georgia 219
New York 220
Minnesota 217
North Dakota 210
That is all. Hope I’m wrong. Will be fun to revisit this in September to see who came up with the best predictions
@mnpapa29 I was concerned mostly with CA cutoff, and I was very, very confident that the cutoff would be 221, with a slight chance that it would be 220, all based on anecdotal evidence at my kid’s school. I knew almost 100% that CA cutoff could not be 223. However, when the IL cutoff came out 219, I was thinking maybe CA cutoff would be 222.
Specifically, there were so many kids scoring at 219 to 220 range at my kid’s school that I knew the CA cutoff could not be 220.
Having said this, there is not much difference between lowest cutoff and highest cutoff scores when everything is said and done. Maybe 4 or 5 questions.
Also, now that things are winding down, of course I want to congratulate those who made it. But I also want to send my best wishes to all those that didn’t. This year has been uniquely difficult.
- There were major changes, with almost no information / guidance.
- Initial guidance / guesses were woefully optimistic (just add 12 to your SI score to compare it to old cutoffs!) - and even the concordance tables were extremely misleading. (Speaking as someone whose DD had a 217 in CA
) - There were a lot more people than usual who were hopeful, for a longer period than usual (in particular due to no state reports) - only to be disappointed at the end.
So despite the extra (justified) frustration this year, we should all remember, NMSF or not, that all our kids are great… Keep it in perspective. While they might sometimes fall short, as long as they work hard, success is sure to follow.
Has AZ cutoff been released??
Thanks
To those of you who have been reporting missing by just a point or two, I feel your loss and thank you for your good company and shared knowledge these past many months. You are part of the “local sports team” I was rooting for, and it hurts a bit. I’m sure you and/or your DS’s and DD’s will have many honors in the future that will far outweigh missing this one.
Can some please post links for information on merit financial aid for NMSF/NMS for both public and private universities ? My Daughter is a NMSF in NJ and she has already taken SAT ( > 2300 ). I am new to undergraduate college admission process. Thanks
Haven’t seen AZ anywhere yet. Am expecting it to be 217.
@websensation I was going for shock value a bit back in January because I was seeing way too many “true believer” posts and I just couldn’t agree that the cutoffs were going to be so low.
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While we’re disappointed DD missed it in MD by 1 point, in the grand scheme of things, I’m not upset that knowing she was on the bubble spurred her to go on and take the SAT in June. Originally she wasn’t planning on taking the SAT at all because she had a 35 ACT; we figured, one and done. But then realizing she had a chance at NMSF made us go on and encourage her to take the SAT in June (after AP’s, before summer, get it out of the way of college apps this fall). She did, with just minimal prep (just need a confirming score …) and came home with a 1560 (800 in math). So both scores (ACT and SAT) are great, and her ACT would be fine on its own, but there is some extra cache to the 800 math score … so yes, she’s sending both to all her schools. So for her, the uncertainty that led to her taking the SAT anyway was a very low cost good thing; she would not have taken it otherwise.
Woot. With KS announced at 217 I can finally stop imagining the worst. S made it (and will be greatly unhappy to hear there’s an essay, moo ha ha).
@ailinsh1 – that’s so healthy & in the grand scheme, it turned out well. In our case missing cut off by a point means no SAT for DS. Happy with his 35 ACT and the SAT subject tests so far with 1 to go which is our focus & then done with testing!
@ailinsh1 35 ACT and 1560 SAT is very, very impressive for sure.
@CA1543 & @websensation - Thanks. She’s kicking herself because she didn’t prep for PSAT at all, so knowing she missed by a point makes her feel like she should have. I’m not convinced. 1 point is just a question or 2. I didn’t encourage DS 3 years ago or her to prep for the PSAT because in MD it is such a gamble on whether you make it or not; just not worth the stress at the beginning of a junior year loaded full of APs. But she knows she’ll likely get good merit $ from her other scores, and NMSF wouldn’t have made that much of a difference at most of her schools, so it’s not a huge financial loss either.
@RightDirection no but I know the other guy who got NMSF at my school had a higher score than me. My GC told us other info is confidential until 9/14
@CA1543 oh I wish that had been a different outcome for you all! I was wondering what would happen to NY, given the large increase in IL.
Has there only been one IL person posting that their GC (or another authority) said that their cutoff is 219?