@Kayak3 – I wouldn’t take the “expects” word in a negative light, as in they’ll be disappointed if she doesn’t make NMF on the PSAT. They saw the extremely high ACT score and think that she’ll probably meet the NMF threshold.
D18’s public HS school took the top 10% of the PSAT students from 10th grade and put them in a free, three week on-campus PSAT training class their junior year. This was an attempt to get the school’s NMF count higher. I guess we’ll find out whether it worked or not soon. I’m tempted to contact D18’s GC but I doubt I’d get anything back.
Hey guys, I’m a student, not a parent, but I would like to shed some light onto this year’s PSAT score cutoffs… I was told by my counselor that I was a national merit scholar (yay) in Pennsylvania with a score of 1450. I will get commended, but I missed the state cutoff for semifinalist with an SI of 216, one point below that needed of 217 . Kinda bummed, but happy that I was able to do so well when I expected the worst… it seems outrageous that missing a mere 70 points on the entire exam can cost you semifinalists. Regardless, best of luck to all!
My S18 has a 225 in Ohio, which I think will be good enough for recognition. We are pretty new to this, so just trying to gain as much inormation as we can. My older son, S12, while a great student (now in a funded graduate position), wasn’t quite as good an exam taker. Is is true that we won’t know anything for sure until September? That’s a long time!
Our school hasn’t put the PSAT results on Naviance. Heck, they haven’t even put the November SAT scores there. GCs must be busy taking care of seniors. Fooey!
Our school doesn’t even have this marvelous thing called Naviance. Boo. But on a lark I checked her college board portal and nothing is posted yet. Don’t expect much of anything, but it’s like Schrodinger’s Score at this point :-p
@OSUDad that’s right September. But you can guesstimate pretty well by going off last year’s NMSF cutoff for your state. It usually only goes up a point or drops a point. I am too lazy to look up OH but I suspect your kiddo is safe with a 225. I don’t think any state was higher than 222-223.
@suzy100, The GC knew her ACT score b/c D18 requested a meeting with her GC to determine whether she should bother sitting for the Nov SAT or if it could possibly work against her. At that meeting, the GC told her that she would “bet money” that she will be NMF and then another adult there told her “with a 35 ACT you are absolutely expected to be NMF.”
I know neither of them meant it to be taken literally, but it doesn’t take much for perfectionist kids to feel like they are letting people down. This is a private school and her classmates have been vigorously preparing for the PSAT. D18 did not prepare for the PSAT b/c she was focused on the ACT. I guess that was our choice (and maybe a rookie mistake) but the publicity and attention on these PSAT scores are part of the consequence for that, whereas she doesn’t want anyone to know about her 35.
I KNOW there’s no way the scores will be posted in Naviance or given out by the GCs this week (the school is ridiculous about delays on Naviance and most GCs are quite unimpressive) but I’m still checking Naviance several times a day and wishing S would come home to say he’d been given his score report. Sigh. Honestly, this whole business of giving schools a week to “understand the scores” makes no sense. GCs work with scores for a living, how complicated can it possibly be that they need a whole week to watch webinars on the CB site before the kids can access their scores??? The cynical part of me thinks this is some kind of marketing ploy by CB to generate buzz around the PSAT.
Last year with minimal prep S scored a 220 SI, and we are in TX where 220 was the NMSF cutoff. This year he prepped a lot more so we’re hoping for a bump in SI…so this wait has seemed very long to me. S doesn’t seem to think about it much so I don’t mention it to him often; don’t want to cause him stress.
@vistajay thanks for the post. Based on some other information I came across, I think Ohio was 217 for Class of 2017 and 215 for Class of 2016, so we are optimistic.
@Benji3025, at this point we don’t know what the exact cutoff score will be for each state, so there is no way to know whether you’ve missed the cutoff. Pennsylvania’s cutoff last year was 218, but we don’t know what it will be for this year so you still have a shot.
@OSUDad, your son is comfortably above Ohio’s cutoff from last year. Congratulations to him!
Speaking of pressure, S18 is laid back generally. While we emphasized prep for the test, we tried not to discuss being NM other than to say he would do fine without it. Still, since D15 was NMF and his school emphasizes the honor, I am sure he felt some pressure. The one I need to watch is my third child. He is a stressmonger.
Our public HS doesn’t, either. When I asked at the GC office they said, “Naviance, what is that, some sort of fancy French perfume? Hey Mabel, we have a guy in here asking about something called ‘Nav-ee-ance’, ever heard of it?"”. Eventually, I found out that they have a spreadsheet containing the colleges that (some) students went to over the years. I can’t really expect much because there are only six GC for ~3000 students.
@vistajay, our approach with S was: “you made NMSF cutoff score with little prep sophomore year and some of the schools you’re interested in offer NMF scholarships. It could literally pay to improve your score junior year, so you should work to be well prepared for the exam. If you don’t make NMF after preparing, at least you’ll know you did your best and you’ll use that prep to help with SAT and ACT.” He knows we aren’t going to be upset with him if he doesn’t make the cutoff, and that even if he does make NMF we won’t limit his college choices to NMF scholarship schools. The approach seems to have worked; S took his test prep seriously but as far as I can tell isn’t anxious about his score.
Since I had to go to the high school to drop off a power cord for ds18, I thought I’d pop my head into the GC’s office to ask about the PSAT scores even though I knew they won’t give out the scores until they are on Naviance I thought that a polite inquiry might prod them along a little. The entire GC office was closed for a staff luncheon! Ugh! I have no hope of see the PSAT until Monday!!!
@droppedit, we have 10 counselors for about 3000 kids but sadly the support is hit and miss. Some are wonderful, others very poor. The school uses Naviance but the data entry is delayed and incomplete. I’m quite sure that the vast majority of GC recommendations for college apps from the school are just form letters, as there’s no way the GCs develop personal relationships with the kids.
I forgot all about the PSAT as I’m sure DD has as well. :"> Oops, slacker parent. I’ll check Naviance but if it’s not there I guess I’ll just wait until Dec. 12. I’ll fall out of my seat if DD makes the cutoff because it’s just so darned high in our state. DS was only commended and did just fine in the college application process so I am not sweating it. Too busy planning for the holidays and our trips to California and Europe over winter break!
@3scoutsmom your expedition to the GC office reminds me of when we were waiting for formal NM Finalist notification from the school for my older daughter. I was volunteering that day anyway so I popped into the principal’s office to ask about it. He was out of town but his asst was kind enough to check his mail for me (swear, I did not ask her to do that!). We did not find the letter but the next time I ran into the principal he had somehow gotten it into his head that I had rooted through his mail on my own initiative. I suspect his asst threw me under the bus. Awkward!
. Kinda bummed, but happy that I was able to do so well when I expected the worst… it seems outrageous that missing a mere 70 points on the entire exam can cost you semifinalists. Regardless, best of luck to all!