National Merit Finalist - Update Ivies or no?

RedSeven
Wed, 22 Feb 2012 14:40:44 +0000

Definitely not something to send in an update about. You’ve presumably already told them you’re a Semifinalist, which, as noted above, is basically the same thing. You’d just be spamming them and loading your file up with useless paper.

The other reason it’s not a worthwhile update is that National Merit is essentially all about how well you did on a practice version of a standardized test. Colleges already have your real standardized test scores, so they have all the information they need to decide how well you did in that area.

The only difference between NMSF and NMF is that NMFs have to have maintained a strong GPA and done well on the SAT. The colleges you applied to are already seeing that information.