<p>IxnayBob - sounds like your DS will get some wonderful recs and is in great shape.</p>
<p>@eyemamon, contact the office of admissions, asap. You’re not the first one to make that mistake :)</p>
<p>OK here’s a happy confusion to discuss (a distinct possibility, but still in the hypothetical though):</p>
<p>If you apply ED and the school accepts you, you are committed to go there. I got that. </p>
<p>But, what if you apply ED, and while you are waiting to hear, you get told you’re accepted AND getting a full ride from another school (2ish or 3ish on list)? Can you withdraw your application from the ED school since they haven’t yet made a decision?</p>
<p>If you are admitted ED, you only have to go there if the ED scholl meets your financial aid needs, as the school defines it. however, you can disagree with the school and appeal. If you cannot afford to go to that school, you do not have to go. At that point, you asked to be relieved of your ED committment.</p>
<p>Having said that, it is very unlikely that you will hear that you have been admitted with a full-ride to a non-ED school BEFORE you hear from your ED school.</p>
<p>Once you hear from your ED school, you should immediatly contact your other school to withdraw your RD application, as you have committed to do (once you are assured that you can afford to go to the ED school).</p>
<p>If you need FA, ED might not be right for you.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Why is that unlikely? It could certainly happen if School #2 is a rolling admission school.</p>
<p>And there is no reason a candidate could not withdraw an ED application at any time, for any reason, prior to issuance of a decision. An ED candidate is bound to attend only if accepted. If he or she withdraws the app prior to acceptance, that may cause some inconvenience to the college to which the ED app was submitted, but there’s no broken contract.</p>
<p>But, if the ED college offers the option, it might not be a bad idea to go with EDII instead of ED I, just so you have a bit more time to hear back from the rolling app school.</p>
<p>School #2 is rolling admission (match/high safety) and has said they will give a thumbs up or down for admission and scholarship by by mid-November. ED school (reach/far reach) has a 10/15 ED app deadline and will notify around mid December. No EDII at ED school.</p>
<p>Finances figure only insofar as, with a full ride, #2 might actually be #1 and without a full ride #2 is definitely #2.</p>
<p>It seems like it’s been forever since I’ve had a chance to post but I’ve been keeping up on the reading. Congrats to those who made NMSF! No chance here in this house so I have no idea what the state cut off is but it’s usually at the highest level.</p>
<p>DD started school the week before Labor Day. She helped with her last Freshman Orientation on Tuesday and went back herself on Wednesday. Sent her off to school, packed DS’11 up in his car for his last trip back to school later that morning and then took everything out of hall pantry closet, coat closet and upstairs linen closet in preparation for wood floors to be installed to replace damage done from AC leak in June. It’s been a long summer of repairs! Left over the weekend with piles of stuff on DS’s bed, coats all over the living room floor and pantry contents all over (temporary) kitchen table - DS too the original to school apartment! Luckily, it’s mostly put back together except for the pantry as we’re waiting for some drawers to arrive from Home Depot so I may actually be able to reach/see what is in the closet. </p>
<p>DD has done a very little ACT practice. She managed to work one reading section and one science section when babysitting a couple of weeks ago. She was supposed to take a practice test on Sunday but after listening to her cough and blow her nose repeatedly during the first section I asked if it was even worth it for her to be trying - no. What we thought were allergies was definitely the start of a cold. So she’ll do a practice test this Saturday, with not a lot of time to study anything that needs work. Maybe the osmosis method will work for her too!</p>
<p>And I just got a call from DS - “I need to come home tomorrow.” Panic mode - “what’s wrong?” One of his friend’s mother’s passed away and they’re coming home for the wake and funeral. I think it’s a good thing on his part and am glad he’s coming but really wish he would learn to start a conversation with “I’m going to come home tomorrow to go to …”! He’s been close friends with her since elementary school and it’s going to be a very sad service. Their class has lost too many parents starting from when they were in 6th and 8th grade. They were a very close class in high school despite being almost 400 kids but they still are really supportive of each other. Just really hard to see them going thru this again.</p>
<p>Welcome newbies! This is a very diversified crowd. No clue how a child just motivates themselves without a bit of pushing/nagging from the parents. Neither of my kids ever started researching, planning, filling out forms without me giving a jump start.</p>
<p>You can pull an ED app before you get the answer. I’d take the gamble and get the answer from the other school. My older son applied ED but put out other apps EA and heard back from them before the ED decision. </p>
<p>I looked at the messed up app today while at work, and I think she can still go in and add grades to it. I’m going to actually try it myself tonight -she’s so frazzled and frustrated I figure that’s no biggie. She was ready to say forget it and not apply - after she wrote 5 essays. </p>
<p>I hate the how will you add diversity to the school questions as well as tell me about a hardship you overcame.</p>
<p>Hi all! I’ve lurked here on an off for a while and tried to do some catching up today. I also have a 2013er who has been at school for 3 weeks now, and now we are starting all over with our 2014er. I am regretting not “pushing” him more over the summer to start those essays. We have started the Common App and I knew there were new topics, but had not realized the whole thing was revamped! At first, I was thrown for a loop! Why did it look so different? What was I doing wrong? Especially the EC part… 120 words, huh? I wish they would at least give a box instead of a measly single line… And of course the main essay. My son will not touch the diversity/hardship essays and will try for the “favorite place” one, but I’m at a loss as to how he can use that prompt to show the school what he can bring to them! My 2013er got to write about the person who inspired him the most! That sounds like a piece of cake compared to this year’s essays. </p>
<p>Anyone know if the 203 is Commended everywhere, or is that state by state also? The PSATS were not my son’s best test day… His SAT’s are much better, so I’m thankful for that. Yet still no free apps… Got the RPI expedited one, but that’s about it. </p>
<p>I’m looking forward to hearing about everyone’s upcoming visits!</p>
<p>PS should I know what an “Extended Essay” is?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Sorry; I didn’t know what one was a year ago myself. For students getting an IB diploma, they are required to write a relatively long essay (i.e., Extended Essay). More detail:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>So, I guess that the shorter answer is: No, unless you’re going for an IB diploma, you don’t need to know what an Extended Essay is :-)</p>
<p>my3gr8boyz: The 203 is the cutoff for Commended everywhere, every state, every city! The cutoff for semi-finalist varies from state to state and in most states the cutoff was higher this year than last. </p>
<p>Here are the cutoffs by state:
NMSQT/PSAT Qualifying Scores for High School
Class of 2014 National Merit Semifinalists
AL=211 (-1 from 2007 & 2006)
AK=212 (-2 from 2011 & 1999)
AZ=214 (Unchanged from 2007)
AR=205 (-1 from 2007 & 2006)
CA=223 (+1 from 2012) ALL TIME HIGH
CO=215 (-1 from 2007)
CT=221 (Unchanged from 2007)
DE=218 (-1 from 2010 & more)
DC=224 (+1 from 2012 & more) ALL TIME HIGH
FL=214 (-1 from 2007 & 2006)
GA=217 (-1 from 2012 & more)
HI=215 (-3 from 2007 & 2001)
ID=211 (Unchanged from 2012)
IL=216 (-2 from 2007)
IN=215 (+1 from 2012) ALL TIME HIGH
IA=210 (Unchanged from 2012 & 2006)
KS=216 (+1 from 2006) ALL TIME HIGH
KY=211 (-1 from 2012 & more)
LA=209 (Unchanged from 2013 & more)
ME=215 (+1 from 2005 & 1999) ALL TIME HIGH
MD=223 (Unchanged from 2007)
MA=224 (Unchanged from 2007)
MI=210 (-1 from 2007 & 2006)
MN=215 (Unchanged from 2012 & more)
MS=207 (+2 from 2012 & 2011) ALL TIME HIGH
MO=213 (-1 from 2007)
MT=207 (-4 from 2006)
NE=209 (-1 from 2011)
NV=212 (Unsure)
NH=214 (-3 from 2006)
NJ=224 (+1 from 2012 & 2007) ALL TIME HIGH
NM=210 (Unchanged from 2010)
NY=219 (-2 from 2007)
NC=215 (-2 from 2012)
ND=204 (-4 from 2004)
OH=215 (Unchanged from 2007 & 2006)
OK=210 (+1 from 2012) ALL TIME HIGH
OR=218 (+2 from 2012) ALL TIME HIGH
PA=217 (Unchanged from 2007)
RI=216 (-1 from 2010)
SC=210 (-3 from 2005)
SD=206 (Unchanged from 2012 & more)
TN=212 (-5 from 2007)
TX=219 (Unchanged from 2012)
UT=208 (Unchanged from 2012)
VT=217 (-1 from 2006)
VA=222 (+2 from 2012 & more) ALL TIME HIGH
WA=220 (Unchanged from 2012)
WV=203 (-3 from 2006)
WI=210 (-1 from 2007 & more)
WY=203 (-1 from 2012 & more)</p>
<p>Commended (national cutoff) = 203 (Unchanged from 2007)
Internationals=224 (Unchanged from 2007)</p>
<p>Oh, I should credit ROCKFISHDG for compiling all those state cutoffs on the CC thread <strong><em>Class of 2014 NMSF Qualifying scores</em></strong> </p>
<p>It was a nail-biter few days as the scores trickled in and projections were made. ROCKFISHDG did a great job!</p>
<p>Can anyone explain why the cutoffs are different in different states? Presumably the kids will be mixing it up when they go to college, so why should the cutoffs be different? It’s not a huge deal, and this is a small nitpick in the grand scheme of things, but I have to admit it’s annoying that my son - below California’s 223 - could have been a NMSF in a number of other states. Yet he will be going to college with these very same kids and maybe they will be eligible for scholarships that he isn’t eligible for because he’s just commended. </p>
<p>I’m just trying to understand why it’s not national norms?</p>
<p>Thanks so much PortlandiaParent (and ROCKFISHDG!) I was shocked to see that since NJ went up by one point, if my 2013er was a 2014er, he would not have made it! He squeaked by with the “old” common app, as well as the “old” AP Biology! Lucky kid! </p>
<p>And Calla, I think they try to have relatively similar amounts of NMSF’s from all the states. It does feel unfair, especially when kids miss by a point or two. And it’s always bothered me that it is one test, once. You can’t afford to be getting a cold or had a rough night sleeping, or in my son’s case, an early morning headache is always a possibility. But there are so many unfair aspects to the college decisions process that I have to just not worry about some.</p>
<p>Thanks, my3gr8boyz, and congratulations to all the semifinalists! I’m definitely not losing sleep over the issue, I just started counting the states in which he would have made the cutoff and… well… got a little envious. But we teach our kids to bounce back and I personally can let it go (and he doesn’t even know anything about it other than he’s commended and we’re proud!)</p>
<p>More difficult (and more urgent) will be getting him to do the essay rewrite suggested by his counselor. He said he’ll look at it this weekend.</p>
<p>I hear ya, calla1 … my D missed our state’s cutoff by 2 points. And our state jumped 5 points from last year!!! An all-time high. She would have made it last year, and the year before, and … oh well. It was disappointing for a few minutes and then we had to let it go … too much to do after so much procrastination!</p>
<p>As for why there are different cut-offs for different states, I understand that the National Merit folks use different state qualifying scores to assure geographic fairness.</p>
<p>BDTD with middle son and the NM cutoffs. He’d have made it in many states (over half), but not ours. He’d have even made it in his native state had we not chosen to move (additional salt in the wound). Looking at PSAT cutoff scores never crossed our mind when choosing a state to relocate to… It certainly does make one envious, but life goes on.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, the day of the test he was using his watch for timing and hadn’t realized his watch and the school clock weren’t the same. He didn’t get to finish 3 questions on the first math section… Getting any one of those three correct would have pushed him over. But again, such is life. After finding out the results (in Dec) we opted to not even bother with the SAT. His ACT was already well into the top 1%, so we stuck with that. Had he needed the SAT for NMSF, we’d have signed up, but since we didn’t… why bother?</p>
<p>He’s now in his sophomore year of college at a school he enjoys with nice merit aid, so life does go on.</p>
<p>This is my first year without a PSATer in a long time. With youngest being a senior, we’re officially done with all testing (no APs at our school, so no tests in May either). It’s a strange feeling.</p>
<p>calla–Re: why the cut-off scores vary by state. I had wondered the same thing last year so copied this explanation from someone on CC. I didn’t keep the URL, so cannot redirect you to the conversation. I am guessing by the tone that one of those lovely CC ‘debates’ must have been taking place! </p>
<p>"Yes, I know “the cutoff score in each state takes account of the fact of how many people take the PSAT.” That’s just my point–but it doesn’t work the way you think it works (read the NMSC Annual Report). Suppose in state A 100% of the HS juniors take the PSAT. The 1% who make National Merit Semifinalist will be, presumably, the top 1% of JS juniors in the state (or the top 1% of standardized test-takers, or the top 1% of PSAT-takers because some do better on the ACT, or the top 1% of PSAT-takers on that particular day).</p>
<p>Now suppose in state B only 50% of the HS juniors take the PSAT. NMSC says it chooses as Semifinalists the top PSAT-takers in each state. But the number of Semifinalists it names from each state doesn’t reflect the top 1% of PSAT-takers; it reflects a number equal to 1% of the HS juniors in that state, whether they took the PSAT or not. In order to get that many from the state where only half the HS juniors took the PSAT, NMSC will need to reach deeper into the PSAT score pool; so it may need to take the top 2% of PSAT-takers in State B to achieve the targeted number of Semifinalists for that state, whereas in state A, where 100% of the HS juniors took the test, it only needs to name the top 1% of PSAT-takers.</p>
<p>You seem to get confused by hypotheticals, so let’s look at some real numbers here. New Jersey and Michigan are similar in population, Michigan a bit bigger at 9.8 million, New Jersey 8.8 million; Michigan with about 1.65 million kids in K-12 education, New Jersey about 1.4 million. Yet roughly twice as many New Jersey HS juniors took the PSAT (67,888) as Michigan HS juniors (32,889). (Figures are from NMSC Annual Report, p. 7). So here we have a case where probably close to 100% of the HS juniors in New Jersey are taking the test, while somewhere around half of those in Michigan are taking it. Yet look how many National Merit Semifinalists were named: 556 in New Jersey, 570 in Michigan, in each case representing 1% of the total number of HS juniors in the state–NOT the top 1% of PSAT takers. In Michigan, the 570 Semifinalists represented the top 1.73% of PSAT-takers, while in New Jersey the 556 Semifinalists represented the top 0.82% of PSAT-takers. To get its targeted number of Semifinalists in Michigan, NMSC needed to dig deeper into the PSAT pool, setting the Semifinalist cutoff for Michigan at 209, while in New Jersey it was 221. I know people in high-cutoff states like to boast that this shows how smart their kids are and how competitive their schools are, but as this example illustrates, most of the difference is just a simple mathematical artifact: if NMSC chose the top 1% of PSAT-takers in each state, Michigan’s cutoff would be significantly higher; or if 100% of the Michigan HS juniors took the PSAT, Michigan’s Semifinalist cutoff would be much higher, probably pretty similar to New Jersey’s. But since only half of those eligible in Michigan take the PSAT, NMSC needs to use a lower cutoff to generate the number of Semifinalists equal to 1% of the HS juniors in the state, in this case a cutoff representing almost the top 2% of PSAT-takers. In short, NMSC is going twice as deep into the pool to name Semifinalists in Michigan—not because Michigan kids are dumber or worse test-takers, but because only half of them are taking the test and entering the competition.</p>
<p>But that means when it comes to the final round of competition and NMSC is naming the best of the best National Merit Scholars, the pool of finalists from New Jersey is going to be much stronger—again, not because New Jersey kids are inherently smarter, but because they were chosen from a much larger pool (twice the size) applying more stringent criteria. Or, to put it differently, roughly half of the HS juniors in Michigan aren’t even playing this game, which probably means somewhere around half of the very best Michigan students (or best test-takers, etc) just aren’t even in the competition. Or, to put it differently yet again, if you’ve got 100% of your students entering the competition, you should do about twice as well as a similar-sized state that has only 50% of its students in that particular competition. And that’s going to mean a heavy skew of the competition toward the states where PSAT participation rates are highest."</p>
<p>@CT1417: Thanks for that explanation, at least it doesn’t seem completely crazy any longer, but at some level it still rankles. </p>
<p>My son’s 223 just managed to miss NJ by a point. On the bright side, he did better on his SATs than his PSAT would have predicted. And, his reach schools wouldn’t take much notice, financially or otherwise, of NSMF status or lack thereof. So, as a practical matter, it makes little or no difference. Nevertheless, it still rankles.</p>
<p>DS also did not make NMSF. We knew as soon as his scores came out that he didn’t have a chance. Yet his ACT from sophomore year is the equivalent of a 225 PSAT score and would have made it without a problem in our states had all the stars aligned on that day. 
My disappointment is how scholarships are given out like candy to a student because they did well on a single test. At Alabama, the difference is about $50k!</p>