Knew S18 had a 1500 from GC but got to see SI this morning. 224 with 740 V and perfect 760 M. Nice to see it in print. 
Was lightly talking about schools with scholarships yesterday with him, and he said, “Well of course I am going to look at schools with scholarships. Why wouldn’t I?” I wished I had taped it to play back later when he wants to visit schools that give little or no merit.
D18 got a 1470 (EBRW: 760, Math: 710). SI was 223, which should be safely above the cutoff for GA. We’re happy campers.
The only thing I’m mad about on this round of testing is not having D18 take the essay portion of the Oct ACT and Nov SAT. If I had signed her up for the essays on them we would be done with the testing (except for SAT Subject tests). I discovered that some of the schools she wants to apply to require the essay portion. Ugh.
Congratulations to everyone whose kids are happy with their score!
Unfortunately for d, her scores went down from last year, so we’ll be evaluating what we’re going to do from here. It may be that she needs a gap year. She went down to the 94th percentile, and when I went in and looked at what she’s done on magoosh for test prep, it was nearly empty. So, this is not a priority for her.
On the upside, at least I have a clearer idea of what her scores may be going forward if we do decide that she’s ready to apply for college next fall.
@droppedit, that’s a bummer. S really hopes to be “one and done” for SAT and ACT so we had him do the essay for both. The schools currently at the top of his list don’t require the essay portion but there are a couple of essay-required schools in the mix. He didn’t feel good about the essay portion of either test though. At this point it wouldn’t surprise me if he refuses to retest on the essay even if he decides to retest for the “regular” sections.
Finally got son’s score. SI 226 - I think we’re good
SI of 223 in WA. He’s very very happy with the score and I’m cautiously optimistic about him being a semifinalist come September. But it’s not a lot of cushion.
WA cutoff for this year was 220. But we’ll celebrate with him now and see what happens. His goal was to at least be “commended” and he for sure reached that.
Congratulations to everyone!!
@MotherOfDragons - 94th percentile is really good! And PSAT isn’t used for college admissions so I would think she should be fine applying to schools next year.
Wow! Lot’s of good news on this thread this morning! Congratulations to all.
@traveler98 – I know, major brainf*rt on my part.
I’m trying to figure out what being an NMF means for admission to various colleges. At our StateU, apparently nothing (I read on CC that it was a $500 scholarship, seriously???). Fortunately, at D18’s current favorite, USC, it makes her eligible for an NMF Presidential scholarship for half tuition. I don’t know how many of those that are eligible actually get the scholarship … but it would help tremendously with the ridiculous private school cost.
While looking into the NMF stuff I stumbled on a listing of where NMF students went in Fall 2014 on GaTech’s website. I would have never guessed the #1 school in the nation that year: University of Oklahoma with 313. It was followed by UChicago, Harvard, USC, and Northwestern. Of course, the percentage of NMF people in the incoming class was far higher for the privates. And, as yet another example of how ignorant I was/am about college admissions, I would have assumed that almost 100% of incoming students at the ultra-elites like Harvard would be NMF. I imagine that funding is the primary issue.
University of Oklahoma and University of Alabama have excellent guaranteed scholarships for all National Merit Finalists. I think every student who makes NM should seriously look at those schools. There are others with big scholarships. DS15 looked seriously at Oklahoma before tuning it down.
@droppedit, the half tuition scholarship at USC is guaranteed for NMFs if you are accepted. Acceptance is not guaranteed.
OU treats their NMFs well. It would be a great option for my D, but it’s our State U and too close to home for her. ;
Here the link to schools that offer big scholarships for National Merit
www.nmfscholarships.yolasite.com
My DD16 is a NMF currently at OU, if DS18 makes the cut for NM he will likely go to UT Dallas
When looking at scholarships be careful to look past the actual scholarship amount and figure out your out of pocket expenses for each school, the requirements to keep the scholarship and also check to see if the school allows you to “stack” outside scholarships. I was surprised to learn that some schools do not allow you to stack outside merit aid and will reduce the amount of their NM scholarship by the amount of any outside merit.
Seriously? GC at D18’s school said there are several kids they know about whose scores are “ineligible” and that they are working to talk to CB to find out what to do. This tells me that there was more than likely an error on the school’s end (and National Merit Admin told me this was a real possibility). Apparently I have to send the correct info and then find out in “Feb or March” whether it was able to be corrected to make D18 eligible. She scored 3 points higher than last year’s PA cutoff and now we wait. Ugh.
@3scoutsmom, I know you’ve looked at UT Dallas a lot and think I read another of your posts somewhere that said UTD allows stacking of outside merit. Do I have that right? I looked around on the UTD site (admissions, financial aid, scholarships, etc) but couldn’t find explicit information on what they do with outside scholarships. H’s company has a scholarship for children of employees but if stacked with the UTD NMF package it would put him over the COA; in that case would UTD actually give him money back? The UTD site implied that but just wondering if you had gotten explicit confirmation from the school. No worries if you don’t know for sure, I can always contact UTD if we end up in the very lucky position of having more scholarship money that college cost!
@ShrimpBurrito - Wichita has a good program too and might be a little further without being too far. We have a friend who took advantage of their NM package.
@traveler98 Yes, as long as the outside scholarship doesn’t state that it’s restricted to tuition only, most don’t. Don’t forget the COA is not limited to tuition, room and board, and books it can include travel expenses and personal expenses. But do be aware that you child will have to pay taxes on the scholarship amount over tuition and books and they’ll likely have to pay at your income tax rate because of the kiddie tax laws. UTD does state that you can stack outside scholarships on their web page and I’ve had some email correspondences to confirm this.
I believe the all scholarship are sent to the school and after fees are for the semester are taken out any remainder is refunded to the student. At least this is how it works with my daughter at OU. She was awarded several outside merit scholarships and even though OU’s National Merit isn’t a full ride she was refunded over $5K this semester. She set up separate account at the credit it union and they direct deposited the refund. She’ll use this to offset her bills in future semesters.
^thanks, I must have just overlooked the relevant info on the UTD site. Appreciate the help!
Thanks @KSMom1518. I went to high school in the Wichita area so I know WSU well. D wants to major in Linguistics. Good programs are few and far between! Her favorite schools are all up in Canada (she has dual citizenship so they are a tremendous value), but now potentially with NMSF she should have some comparable options here in the States. She likes USC and ASU. We’ll see what else comes up on the radar!
@traveler98
Found relevant info at http://aes.utdallas.edu/prospective-freshmen/awards near the bottom of the page
I’m impressed you all have access to your kid’s scores. My D is sitting on hers, since I don’t have access to her Naviance or College Board accounts. Will have to pry them out of her tonight, but it won’t be easy.