National Merit Scholar Process - I'm Confused!

OhMother
Fri, 12 May 2006 22:32:48 +0000

I would say your daughter has an excellent chance. My daughter also took the SAT the fall she took the PSAT and scored 1600. She was not required to take the new SAT by NMSC. All the NMSC wants to know is that their PSAT score is predictive of SAT scores. She doesn’t have to ace it, just do well and it sounds like she won’t have a problem if they require her to take it again. My D was required to take the new SAT by two schools that would not accept the old score. Are you leaving out the writing component when you mention the 1460 SAT score? I think she will likely have to take the new SAT if she has not yet done so.

We learned some valuable lessons in naming schools which cost us NMSC money, but I’m not sure it could be helped. My D applied to six schools, two ivies that don’t participate in NMSC and four that offer NMSC sponsored scholarships. She named one of the ivies as her first choice school. As the winter went on, we discussed the choice and asked for input from CC posters. Perhaps we misunderstood, but the gist was that it made no sense to name a non-sponsor school as your first choice. We switched her first choice to a NMSC sponsor school because quite honestly, we didn’t think she would get accepted at the Ivy, nor could we afford the Ivy even if she was. We also thought that it might help her in receiving other scholarships from the named school. It worked - she was offered a full-ride at the NMSC school. But she was also accepted and offered a generous financial aid package from the first choice Ivy, not close to a full-ride, but enough to make her vascillate about her decision until the last minute. She chose the Ivy (and we supported the choice), and we found out that the full-ride offer from the other school included NMSC award which she had to decline. Had she stuck with the Ivy first choice, she perhaps would have received one of the $2,500 awards from NMSC not contingent upon school selection. The whole school selection process and award is VERY convoluted and confusing. Whether or not she receives money, she is still a National Merit Finalist, which is a wonderful achievement! Feel free to pm me if you have any other questions.