<p>I also asked this question under “financial aid”, but thought some parents here might know the score.</p>
<p>My son recently received his notification of NMS semi-finalist qualification. I believe everything should be in order for him to advance, with the possible exception that he received a “C” on his report card in Freshman and Sophomore years. All other grades throughout his high school career, with the exception of these 2 “C” grades, have been A’s or B’s. His GPA has increased each year. Will those 2 C grades disqualify him? </p>
<p>90% of students who are semifinalists become finalists. If you simply account for attrition of the students who don’t follow through with submitting the application forms in September or don’t follow through with SAT testing, add to that the kids who become ineligible because they either drop out (or are kicked out) of high school or graduate early, throw in the kids with really bad blemishes on their records (failing grades, behavior problems so severe that the school authorities refuse to write a recommendation)… you’ve pretty much accounted for the 10% who don’t make it.</p>
<p>In other words, once the semifinalist level is reached, a kid’s record has to be pretty bad to keep them from advancing to the next level. I doubt that they require anything above a 3.0 GPA overall.</p>
<p>A mom of a friend whose son did submit his application for NMF & did NOT advance from NMSF said that she believes the reason her son didn’t advance was because he got a “C” in his 1st semester of senior year. (He had great ECs & was otherwise a great student, etc.) Don’t think having had "C"s before would be a problem–hope not, since my son got two last year as a junior, due to health reasons.</p>
<p>Graduating early doesn’t disqualify. A friend’s daughter graduated and started college a year early. She still made finalist, and got a college sponsored NM scholarship starting her sophomore year.</p>
<p>For what it’s worth, my S was one of the 10% who didn’t advance. He had a fair amount of C’s (no D’s or F’s) on his record, but GPA was above 3.0 (ended up with a 3.3ish or 3.4ish unweighted, 3.7 UC weighted GPA) , so I don’t know exactly where the line is, but I don’t know anyother reason why he didn’t advance, so I think the C’s definitely hurt, though I don’t know how many you can get and still qualify (evidently you can get one or two? Perhaps three or more is the magic number?). Anyway, he didn’t have anything else that I can point at, no behaviour problems on his record, no, didn’t get kicked out of school, wasn’t flunking out, turned in the paperwork, etc., so it happens. He was in all the advanced math and science classes, but not humanities–just regular college prep classes there-- so don’t know if that was an issue. And yes, he had high SAT scores. Just wanted to point out that just because someone didn’t advance doesn’t mean they have severe problems of the sort Calmom mentioned . . .S’s transcript definitely had some blemishes, but I don’t know that I would classify it as “pretty bad”. . .</p>
<p>One or two C’s might not prevent a student from advancing to NMF status IF the overall GPA is very high, but there’s no guarantee. I don’t know exactly what the cut-off is, but last year my nephew had an unweighted GPA of 3.33 (his weighted GPA was much higher due to a large number of honors and AP classes) and he did not advance. The letter from NMSC telling him that he was not a finalist specifically stated that a NMF must have “a record of academic performance that is consistently very high in all of grades 9 through 12, and any college course work taken.” And that his record did not fulfill this requirement.</p>
<p>Freshman uw 3.375
soph: uw 3.4375
junior: uw 3.933
senior: Should be strong, he’s putting in top effort like last year</p>
<p>His overall gpa on his high school transcript currently uw 3.58 weighted 4.38 (I think this includes his 8th grade gpa in the cumulative weighting)</p>
<p>Old SAT 1560
New SAT 2370</p>
<p>I hope his freshman/sophomore year performance doesnt keep him from making the NMS finalist.</p>
<p>By the way, both C grades he has received were in Spanish…all other grades were A or B.</p>
<p>I am not completely sure about the grade question; however, I was told that citienship could be an issue. I am relatively saddened by this information since my academic record thus far is picture-perfect. Oh well, hopefully they’ll consider permanent residentship the near equivalent of citizenship…</p>
<p>Um, yes. Note the instructions on the national merit application - it is fine as long as you are a permanent resident or have applied for permanent residency. You are required to include either a copy of your green card, a copy of the passport page, or a copy of the for applied with.</p>
<p>Another approach to this issue is to ask for a non-binding copy of his transcript to see what it might look like when sent out to the colleges and to NM…what was a C in freshman year may be just 1 point away from a B…and overall not really stand out as a concern on a transcript…also not sure if the C was a final year end grade, or just one of the marking periods? at our school, the kids get report cards with letter grades, for each quarter…4 per year…but the transcripts have two semester grades and a final grade, all numeric grades…and so a kid can recover in the 2nd qtr of a semester…or in the 2nd half to pull the final grade up…</p>
<p>agree in general however that the “documentation” phase is really to confirm that the SAT scores don’t lie, and that the kid is considered a valid candidate by the school community also…2 C’s should not take your child out…a bad reference letter could etc…that is why they ensure they get additional input on who is a finalist…in my opinion</p>
<p>My sons transcript is exactly as you have described. The transcript does not show the quarterly grades, but shows the semester grades only. We have the transcript, it shows the semester grades only.</p>
<p>Yes, I think the backup materials are also validation for the PSAT/SAT scrores, but I also think they may have a cutoff somewhere on the yearly gpa. As you probably know, the NMS qualifications state that the student must have excellent grades for all four years. For example, does a gpa of less than 3.3 or 3.4 in one school year disqualify a student? If so, my son would be disqualified. My sons overall gpa should be fine…but he had some issues his first year and a half in high school (a serious injury impacted his grades in the first semester freshman year and a general lack of organization and focus impacted his grades freshman year through the first half of sophomore year…he has been impressive beginning second half of sophomore year). Hopefully my son’s low gpa in freshman and sophomore years doesnt stop him from advancing. Anyway, we cant change it now, so whaterver is going to happen will happen.</p>