<p>NO official notifications come out from National Merit until the fall of senior year (Aug/Sept), so NO ONE can give any official notification prior to then. A principal might guess that the student will make NMSF because the score is at or a few points higher than the current cut-off, but it’s only a guess. Our kids’ HS can let kids & families know what prior year cut-offs have been in our state & let folks draw their own conclusions.</p>
<p>Does anyone know if the NMSC determines your residency status by where your home is, or is it determined by what state your school is located in? Son goes to boarding school in Massachusetts, yet lives in the Midwest(when not in school).</p>
<p>ema99, the principal never should have said that. There is NO WAY to know if that score will hold up for semi/finalist. My D had a score that, for our state & considering past history, “should” have been semi/finalist … and lo & behold, the score jumped more than usual & she missed it by a point. Moral of the story, don’t plan on or expect anything other than Commended (which is very good in & of itself).</p>
<p>browninfall, you can search past threads to find out for sure (it was discussed here last year) … but I am pretty sure it is the state in which the boarding school is located.</p>
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<p>1) “U.S. boarding schools that enroll a sizable proportion of their students from outside the state in which the school is located” are not included in any state. They have a separate category.</p>
<p>2) Otherwise, it’s the state where the high school is located.</p>
<p>See page 6 in the document below
<a href=“http://www.nationalmerit.org/06%20Student%20Guide-NMSC%20section.pdf[/url]”>http://www.nationalmerit.org/06%20Student%20Guide-NMSC%20section.pdf</a></p>
<p>Thanks, stan. If anyone has any additional information about these “special” units for boarding school students, residents of D.C., U.S. Territories, etc., please pass it on.</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>Another question: Does anyone know where to find the cutoff scores that separated commended students from semi-finalists for each State and the “special” units for 2006?</p>
<p>I’ve googled lots of different possibilities without success.</p>
<p>i think what you are looking for is in this thread, post 662.</p>
<p>To Ema99</p>
<p>“To maintain a national balance, the number of semifinalists from each state is proportional to the number of its graduating seniors. That makes it easier for top students in underpopulated states to move up in the competition. New Yorkers who took the test in October, for example, had to score 221 out of 240, while a student in New Mexico got by with a 211 score and in Nevada a 209, according to Elaine Detweiler, a National Merit Scholarship Corporation spokeswoman.” NYT April 22, 2007</p>
<p>Depending on the use of language, this says, “New Yorkers who took the test in October, for example, had to score 221…” One would assume this would mean students who took PSAT in Oct 06, given the article was written in April 07. Unless the Times Reporter did not understand what Elaine Detweiler meant.</p>
<p>This is presented as is. I have no clue as to what was meant if it was different from the standard use of the language.</p>
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<p>I question the statement above. What about Michigan? It is not a lesser populated state yet it’s cutoff was 211, the same as New Mexico. What accounts for that? Hawaii and Illinois are both 218. (see post #662 in this thread). The percentage of students taking the test relative to the graduating students in the state goes a long way toward determining the cutoff. The quality of the schools in the state also matters. Population, I dare say, has nothing to do with it.</p>
<p>
Because Michigan has a bunch of Yoopers and kids that don’t care. I know, I used to live there. The only thing that keeps it at 211 is the private Catholic schools.</p>
<p>Georgia must have a lot of high school graduates then. Our cutoff was 218, which was higher than California’s by one point.</p>
<p>Okay, so I finally called the high school today and the counselor who handles the National Merit information said there are not ANY letters sent for commendation (or NMSSF) before next fall. She sounded genuinely confused by my question.</p>
<p>Now I’m very curious as to what exactly the letters people have been getting say. Can anyone enlighten me?</p>
<p>DVU1990: If your son made a mistake filling in the bubbles for the “qualifying questions” on the test, he might not appear to be eligible for the 2008 competition.</p>
<p>The letters were mailed to the school on 4/16/07. It is two pages. One page describes the National Merit Scholarship Program. (FYI: For h.s. class of 2008, the “cut off” score for commended students is 200 on the PSAT that was taken in October 2006.) </p>
<p>The second page is used for “College Plans Reporting Service”. “Commended” students can name two colleges that they are interested in attending, and NMSC will forward the students info to those schools. The student can either return the form in the mail, or log on to <a href=“http://www.collegeplans.org%5B/url%5D”>www.collegeplans.org</a> using the “CPRS ID and Password” provided on the form and update their information on the website.</p>
<p>The deadline to select these two schools is May 23, 2007. Maybe you should call the asst. principal or principal at your son’s school?</p>
<p>Sorry so wordy, hope it is clear, but I don’t want your son to miss an opportunity. :)</p>
<p>so if you score exactly 200, are you not commended?</p>
<p>There is no penalty if you choose not to return the form, but it is an opportunity for the student to inform two school via the National Merit Corp that the child scored at least 200 on the PSAT. Not sure what that really does, but the student may get more mailings. I know many NMFs that ignored the form & got into the colleges of their choice just fine anyway.</p>
<p>Call NMS, DVU. Let them know your state & score, and tell them your school said they hadn’t received any notification. They can help you figure out what is going on.</p>
<p>JBomb, I think I read that the cutoff is 201 for Commended this year. If that is correct, then it’s true that 200 misses the cutoff.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone for your help in figuring out what happened. I was reading these posts and my S wandered by and asked what I was doing. So I explained the situation, to which he replied “By the way, I got a note from the Counselor’s office that I’m supposed to go by and pick up some forms for that… but I haven’t had time to go…”</p>
<p>So, he will go pick up the information on Thursday (he had an AP exam today and has another tomorrow). As I think is typical of kids this age, he seems mostly unconcerned about it and is certain he will have no trouble getting into the college and program of his choice. He was well above the 200 cutoff number and maybe high enough to be a NMS in Washington State… so I just don’t want him to miss any opportunity which might open the right door for him.</p>
<p>i scored a 217 and i lived in arizona. do you guys know if thatll be good enough for being a semifinalist? im pretty sure that arizona isnt that great academically</p>
<p>yes, its extremely likely you will make the cutoff for az.</p>
<p>I finally saw the letter which was talked about several messages up. What it said is that the student was one of the 50,000 who had scored high enough (top 1 percent nationally) to be at least a commended scholar. It also talked about the selection process and that of those 50,000, 16,000 would be named as NMSF in September/October of 2007.</p>
<p>The purpose of the letter was to provide, free of charge, the opportunity for these students to have NMS Corp. send information to two colleges of choice for the commended student. The letter provided a login name and password but the information has to be entered by May 23 or the offer expires.</p>