<p>I personally think that the process is dragged out so that the College Board can sell more mailing lists. First, they get to sell to colleges mailing lists of students who took the test. Then, in late spring, they get to sell to colleges mailing lists of the top 50,000 scorers. Then, in probably Aug., they get to sell to colleges mailing lists of the commended students and semi finalists (These are from the top 50,000). Finally, in Dec. or Jan., they can sell the lists of the finalists. </p>
<p>From what I can figure, the essays that the semi finalists have to write in the fall probably count mainly for the National Merit scholarships sponsored by companies that want to support students going into certain fields (probably things like engineering and the sciences). I would bet that those essays and EC lists are how most companies select their winners. The exception would be companies sponsoring employee’s children.</p>
<p>To make finalist, students need to have a certain level gpa, and they need to have a certain level of SATs. I am not sure what these levels are since the College Board does not announce this info. From what I have seen on the boards, though, I would guess the gpa would need to be at least a weighted 3.5 and the SAT would need to be around 1300.</p>
<p>thanks northstarmom… my daughter did seem to think it was crucial to do well on the March SAT. She has a decent gpa, AP-dual credit classes and plenty of ec’s…NHS, varsity and competitive cheerleader, Spanish NHS, Civil Rights, Key Club, newspaper reporter…blah,blah, blah…lol. And she is National History Day State Champ and National Bronze Medalist…she has already received small scholarships for the NHD accomplishments, so hope this helps with NM as well. </p>
<p>One problem though…her school is an incredibly competitive public h.s. in a Houston suburb…about 10 kids tied for number 1 with 6.9 (7.0 scale) gpa’s…(that’s what the 'top 10 percent law" will do to ya!). So even though she has a solid 6.5, she is is barely top 10%. Wonder if that will hurt? </p>
<p>One other question for those in the know. I understand she will also be eligible for National Hispanic Scholar…any ideas about how this contest works?</p>
<p>Laurensmom, there is no submission of new materials after the semi-finalist packet is completed. The student does their part of the form and the essay, then the counselor does their part of writing the recommendation and filing out the rest of the forms. That’s it. </p>
<p>Only 1,000 of the 16,000 semi-finalists don’t make finalist. From what I understand, those 1,000 are the ones who don’t fill out the forms, have low GPA or SAT, have been in some fairly serious trouble at school or with the law, etc. From finalist to actual National Merit Scholars who win the NM scholarship is something I don’t understand. Our school always has 15-20 finalists, and last year we had the best class we’ve had in a long time. Very bright kids with 1600, 4.0, national awards for math/science/writing competitions, USA today teams, national scholarships for community service, academics, and on and on. Phenomenal kids, and not one of them made Scholar. (I’m not including the corporate ones.) So I can’t help you with that part of the competition - I have no idea what they’re looking for.</p>
<p>National Hispanic Scholar is much easier to get than is National Merit. They don’t publish the qualifying scores, but I have seen on boards like this, students saying they got it with index scores as low as 180. I think that either a grandparent or a parent has to be 100% Hispanic. Use a search engine and check the site for that info. </p>
<p>National Hispanic Scholar seems to have about the same benefits as National merit as many colleges sponsoring National Merit offer similar scholarships to National Hispanic scholars. Seems the NHS know by the fall that they have gotten this honor.</p>
<p>“Our school always has 15-20 finalists, and last year we had the best class we’ve had in a long time. Very bright kids with 1600, 4.0, national awards for math/science/writing competitions, USA today teams, national scholarships for community service, academics, and on and on. Phenomenal kids, and not one of them made Scholar. (I’m not including the corporate ones.)”</p>
<p>I think that the most scholarships are sponsored by colleges. If your school has mainly students going to places like HPYS MIT, then the students are out of luck because those universities don’t sponsor National Merit scholars. </p>
<p>The universities that do are places like University of Florida, George Washington, mainly tier 2 universities and schools at the bottom of tier 1.</p>
<p>You see, I don’t think they did. Remember there are National Scholars for Hispanics and African-Americans. Those should make up the remaining 5,000. Anyways, you are partially right; the number of Semifinalists and Commended Scholarss goes up a little each year due to population increases. In reality, there are more 51,000 of those people instead of 50,000. Oh yeah, Alex Martin, you’re in Illinois right? I think you might make it this year with a 214.</p>
<p>Northstarmom, I’m not talking about the college or the corporate sponsored scholarships, but the actual National Merit Scholar $2,500 one-time scholarships. I just don’t understand what it takes to make this level.<br>
We don’t send many of our top kids to HYPSM, partly because most of them are in that middle-class crunch where they need merit money and don’t qualify for a lot of financial aid. The majority end up at schools that offer a lot of merit aid.</p>
<p>If you get mail from a certain school doe it mean that your PSAT score was in the range of teh usual SAT scores for that school? I was wondering because I have to wait until the end of january for my scores but I’ve been getting alot of mail from similar caliber schools…</p>
<p>i think the reason why it takes so long is because the number of semis fromeach state is based on the percentage of high school graduates nationwide who graduate from that state. so in order to know that they have to wait until the summer after graduation and start their calculations</p>
<p>Here’s the good news:
I should definitely be a semi-finalist. My scores are 76CR/70M/77W for a selection index of 223 in Pennsylvania. These were scores that i hoped to get.</p>
<p>Bad news:
For one of the grid-ins on my test (wednesday), the answer was 1/45 and my score report says i had just /45. I am positive that i bubbled it in correctly. This would give me a 73M instead of 70M. I’m not too worried about it because i should def make the cutoff, but is there anything i can do? The score report says i can order a copy of my answer sheet, but can i then get my score changed? I don’t want to be a complete ass because i am happy with the score, but i would still like to have it changed.</p>
<p>You will undoubtedly make semis. Once you make semis, they stop looking at the PSAT. Hell, colleges will have already accepted or rejected you by the time the finalist list is anounced. So if you make semifinalist, then the slate is wiped clean. I wouldn’t worry about it, unless you want bragging rights of course :)</p>
<p>"Northstarmom, I’m not talking about the college or the corporate sponsored scholarships, but the actual National Merit Scholar $2,500 one-time scholarships. I just don’t understand what it takes to make this level. "</p>
<p>I think there have been some NM winners in my area and these are kids who have had Presidential Scholar type of stats – 1600 SATs, class presidents, national achievements, etc., the type that go off to Harvard and similar schools or turn down HPYS for huge merit aid from places like Wake and Wash U.</p>
<p>It’ll stay pretty much the same. It might move up a point or 2 but nothing big, since the PSAT scores corellate with SAT scores pretty closely, and SAT percentiles tend to stay around the same year in, year out.</p>
<p>many others have said it should go down, since the 99th % cutoff went down by quite a lot (idk exactly), which leads to the cutoff scores of each state on average going down. Probably because of the CR section i hear</p>
<p>I agree. Was 212 99th percentile this year? Anybody with a 212 can tell me? What does it say on your score report? I think the percentiles posted in the pdf may be wrong. Otherwise, 213 is the mininum required for the 99th percentile.</p>
<p>Interesting question… I’m 14 and the equivalent of a freshman, and I’m in a school of 15 people, where everyone continues on to college the next year. I’m fairly sure that I made semi-finalist (219 selection index, 1490 SAT), but I don’t know if the scholarship would still apply normally - I will be a freshman in college by the time I’m even notified.</p>