<p>wow, lilmom, she actually asked you?! cool. so maybe when I was working in Guidance this AM I shouldn’t have just whipped out my checkbook and taken care of the whole thing for her? ;)</p>
<p>I keep talking about grounding the helicopter but I always find a reason for just one more flight…</p>
<p>PRJ, this helicopter may be temporarily grounded but only for refueling! ;)</p>
<p>Hello - </p>
<p>D1 (who had problems with AP Bio the first few weeks school) will be taking the PSAT as a junior next week on Wednesday morning. She doesn’t seem to have the drive to study for it, but I’ve decided that based on her course load of 2 APs, and 4 Honors classes, (not to mention color guard practice, Tri-M and private music lessons), I won’t push her too much about it. Nevertheless, I hope she will do the practice PSAT test this weekend just to get use to the time constraints of the PSAT. </p>
<p>As for AP Bio, we ended up getting her a tutor. She’s gotten her bearings with AP Bio but now has problems with Honors Precalc. So she is now being tutored once a week in Honors Precalc.</p>
<p>My son is also taking the PSAT at school next Wednesday. They have set time aside in their math and English classes to practice for the test, so I don’t need to bully him. I am supposed to call his summer tutor to have one last session before the November SAT. I guess I’d better get on that.</p>
<p>D1 was not able to find time to study for PSAT in the past couple weeks. I underestimated her school workload and overestimated her available time to prepare for PSAT. Should have started the preparation much earlier.<br>
I get the sense here that some of the parents here feel it is more important to do well on the Oct or Nov SAT than the upcoming PSAT. I feel just the opposite. For kids who have a shot at making the NMSF cutoff, this PSAT is their ONLY chance. Otoh, they can take many more shots at SAT if they don’t do well this year.</p>
<p>We live in NY, a state with a very high cutoff level. If my DS was dedicated to “making the cut off” and was willing to put the time in during the summer, he might have made “commended”. However, he was more interested in having a great summer. So, we are not looking at the PSATs as anything other than a practice test for the SAT’s in the spring. He’s off to a good, but not great, start to Jr. year. 3 APs and more honors classes are testing his laissez faire attitude toward school work. I think he is on track to get into the kinds of colleges he would enjoy, top 50, but towards the bottom on the list.</p>
<p>Do your kids have a college list yet? We are looking (when I say we, I really mean me, with a few grunts of approval from DS):</p>
<p>SUNY Binghampton
SUNY Geneseo
Boston University
Miami University
Brown (high reach)
Cornell (high reach)</p>
<p>Need a few more matches.</p>
<p>D’s school recommends not to study for the PSAT, but rather to use it as a practice for the SAT. </p>
<p>Many of D’s friends already started their “brag sheet”. Her best friend is already looking at college sites where kids rate their schools.</p>
<p>PCP, D won’t make NMSF so that’s one worry I don’t have! But I want her to get used to the format of the test, and I want her to do well enough that she doesn’t lose confidence for the SAT. The school didn’t give out the booklets until this week, sigh…and we are, well, looking at colleges over the long weekend. We shall see…</p>
<p>We are visiting colleges over the weekend, too. We have to be back early on Monday unfortunately. I am not sure how much we can see.</p>
<p>My S is taking the PSAT next Saturday. His scores last year were very good so I decided to put money into tutoring so maybe he will make NM. I’m not sure how that will go. He started tutoring over the summer but was gone a lot so never really got into a rhythm with the studying. He has been to some sessions since school started but he is so busy with his Junior year classes and play practice that PSAT studying gets pushed to the back burner. I have a feeling he will make commended but not NM. He is also signed up for the Nov. SAT. I thought it would be nice for him to get it out of the way and if he scores high enough it can be done.</p>
<p>Junior year has started out on a good note… his grades are my worry much more than his test scores. I’m really hoping for a great upward trend this year so it will push up his applications for some of his reach schools he is interested in. So far he has gone to a few of the info sessions from traveling colleges at his school and nearby hotels. He has really liked a few of them. I’m hoping that will give him the momentum to push harder this year… a mom can only hope.:-)))</p>
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<p>Your D’s school was not advising responsibly. </p>
<p>PSAT is also called the National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (NMSQT). When referring to the test, most people skip the NMSQT part and just called it “Pre-SAT”, which gives the notion that it is just a preparation for the all important SAT. You become a National Merit Scholarship Semifinalist if you make your state’s cutoff score. Almost all (>90%) of the Semifinalists advance to become National Merit Scholarship Finalists (about 15,000 students nationally), and approximately half of these Finalists receive either one time or 4-year renewable scholarships ranging in the thousands from National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) or from sponsoring colleges and corporations. In addition to the scholarships, the National Merit Scholarship Semifinalist or Finalist distinction may be the only national level award/honor kids can proudly put on their college apps.</p>
<p>But the biggest deals are from colleges who aggressively court these coveted NMF’s. These colleges report on their websites the number of NMSF’s matriculated to their schools every year to show how selective and competitive they are. Some of these colleges provide much bigger scholarships outside of the NMSC administration. These scholarships range from a few thousands to half-tuition to full-tuition to…full-ride for 4 years! For families who need (or want) financial aid, this could be the best deal available. It pains me to see kids who are capable of achieving this feat get robbed of this chance because of misinformation or lack of awareness.</p>
<p>S1, who was a Finalist, received a 4-year full-ride offer from our state flagship last year. Check the following threads if you are interested. </p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/national-merit-scholarships/649276-nmf-scholarships-updated-compilation-25.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/national-merit-scholarships/649276-nmf-scholarships-updated-compilation-25.html</a></p>
<p><a href=“nmsqt -- crushed - Parents Forum - College Confidential Forums”>nmsqt -- crushed - Parents Forum - College Confidential Forums;
<p>We have a list of 25+ possibilities, haha. D is a theater kid so she really wants a BFA which means auditioning and facing very low acceptance rates. But it is fun to see her thinking it over with her two friends-- three very, very different girls who have been close for 5 years. One hopes to do a gap year with Americorps in Costa Rica or Guatemala … one is an invincible student near the top of the class who insists she’d be happy at Community College. And D, a mad dog for theater and a good student who could be great if she would push 10% harder (though she has never missed a rehearsal or forgotten a line for in her life… ) It’s just a joy to see them begin on this project-- their futures!</p>
<p>Iglooo, I’ll bet you’ll see a lot. I think of the campus tour we took at Bowdoin just because we were there a few years ago–very nice young tour guide, but really we’ve seen empty classrooms before. Bumping around by ourselves would have been just as telling. (Same at BU now I think of it.)</p>
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<p>I think I asked this question before and the answer was NO, but I could be wrong, so ask it again:</p>
<p>Does it make any difference for a student to get as high as possible on the PSAT or it’s fine as long as she makes the cut (e.g., 210)?</p>
<p>^The answer is still No :). </p>
<p>There are however, competitive summer programs that base their selection, in part, on PSAT scores. For admissions to these programs, the higher the better.</p>
<p>^^ If 210 is the cut in your state…if you lived in MA, 210 would be 18 points too low. (This is how I understand it, anyway.)</p>
<p>In MA, you drink different water and kids get more stimulation. You are getting off easy with 228.:)</p>
<p>I am not going to worry about it now. It’s stressful enough for my junior without the added pressure of making it to…</p>
<p>^223 is the MA cutoff for the seniors who took the test last October.</p>
<p>sorry my math skills are low (and abysmal for MA) [:)] 
;)</p>
<p>I’ll take a NO for an answer. I think PCP answered that the first time too, thanks. As for the PSAT cutoff point, if it’s any indicator of schools, then DC has the best, at least tied with MA.</p>
<p>PCP, I am aware of the NMS. It’s just the school’s opinion, not mine. I would love for D to win the award, just like her older sister did. She is going to take two practice tests before Wednesday.</p>
<p>D is a talented painter. She is not sure she wants to study that in college.<br>
She visited Cooper Union and hated it. I think it will a good fit for her.
She loved NYU, I am not sure it’s for her.
She did not like Columbia that much, but loved the view from the dorm.</p>