@whataboutcollege Thanks. Yeah, needless to say, our state flagship doesn’t care about much of anything. They act like you should feel privileged to even apply. With D17 (I mis-typed earlier, she is not a D18 
) I sweated the whole NMSF thing…and it was such a waste of energy. It really did not end up mattering that she missed by a couple points, for the schools she was interested in. It was a weird year where it looked like she would make it, initially. Then the estimated cutoffs started rising and rising…
@bigmacbeth I have a D17 also. I didn’t know what NMSF was until after she took PSAT I never paid much attention to her classes, grades etc., until I went through the application cycle with her. I think S20 is kind of frustrated why all of a sudden I become so school aware and is directing all of the attention at him 
I doubt PSAT scores will be posted on Naviance until Monday at the earliest. The GC’s have to upload the scores to Naviance, it isn’t automatic but it’s only a few key stokes, but they won’t have access to the scores until then. I tried some hacks that where posted in reddit in the past but it looks like those loopholes have all been patched:-( I’ll keep checking to see if some bright kid comes up with another ‘work around’
The tension in our house gets thicker by the day! DS20 wants NM so badly, we’ve told him repeatedly we’re good either way but it sure would be nice to know if he needs to start working on his plan “B” We too hope he clearly misses or clearly makes it for our state. I’m not sure my nerves can take 9 months of being “on the bubble”
I’m so glad this is my 3rd and last time at this rodeo!
@janiemiranda my DD20 is in AP Research this year. A summer internship is not required here but I would recommend that he ask a lot of questions about what kind of research projects will be supported/ encouraged / approved by your district. The stress has been identifying a project that works for all involved.
2882.So seeing a 221 would make things worse? At my daughter's school (in Illinois) not a big deal. Probably because most NMSF schools are south.
For us, most of the schools DS looks at don’t really “care” (whatever that means) about NMSF, our cut off has been 222 for the past several years, so we are pretty cool here, if he is higher than the cutoff, great, if not, no big deal. Not many kids at his school got that distinction historically (I think one current senior got commended?) and most kids don’t care about it at all, for better or worse. Enough stress already for these juniors.
In our area only Northwestern gives $2500. Besides the difficult of getting in that amount is a drop in the bucket to go there.
s20 is looking at state schools here. Flagship gives $2k for NM. He didn’t study at all; i don’t think it’ll happen at all based on his scores last year ( he was in the 190s). He’s so busy in the fall with XC and his haunted house community project. But - when my youngest gets to be that age, she will be studying.
@Nicki20 yes a score of 221 would make things more stressfull and it would make it harder to get DS to consintrate on plan “B” which would include studying for the ACT over the summer. If he gets a high enough PSAT to make our states historic cut off he won’t need to take the ACT at all.
Our school averages about 28 NMSF a with class sizes ranging 650-700 kids. DS20 wants to attend UT Dallas. Their NM scholarship is full tuition and required fees for 8 semesters plus $1.5K per semester on campus housing stidend, $4K per semester general stipend plus $6K for study aboard so thier NM package works out to be a full ride give or take $100 or so depending on meal plan and books. If he makes NM this will save over $100,000.
DS18 is currently a NMS attending UTD and there are also lots of extra perks for being NM there (early registration, early housing assignment, special activities…) https://dox.utdallas.edu/publication1322
@3scoutsmom Darn, that looks great! If by some stroke of great fortune my D20 gets national merit scholar we will definitely look into this further.
Daughter had a classmate that went to Alabama and got $200,000 for 4 years. Her school had 2 in 2018 and 0 in 2019. Her class is about 500 kids. District wide (4 other schools totally 2500) had 31 for the class of 2019.
I remember last year, seeing S19’s SI score was exciting but then we realized what it meant. A lot of waiting and hoping. Being on the bubble can be stressful – S19 had a 1pt buffer but CO had seen a 2pt increase the year before and some upward movement could still be possible since CO switched from an ACT mandated state to an SAT mandated state. More kids now taking PSAT 8/9, PSAT 10 and PSAT. If you are looking for merit, being on the bubble makes for a very long process.
S20 definitely prepped for it as he was in striking distance but I just don’t know. Getting a 221+ is just hard. He has instead now focused on the ACT which is more his type of test. He should have solid scores and grades regardless and will definitely get some merit somewhere. I am just not so sure he won’t just end up at flagship and that may be best fit for him.
I get that for a lot of schools being NMF is no big deal. But if your kid is willing to entertain the idea of some of the NMF schools, it is a definite game changer that saves well into the six figures. Luckily, S19 has really loved all three of the NMF options where he submitted applications so it is nice to have those options as he waits to hear on competitive merit at other schools.
It is fun to be starting this process with S20 - also a strong student but very different from his older brother.
Wow, are there really schools where the GCs divert their attention from the seniors, who are in the thick of finishing their applications (except for the ED kids), to enter the PSATs into Naviance the very day they arrive? I am sure it’s true if you all have seen it happen, but around here it’s seniors first and the juniors (and sophomores, for whom it’s just a NMSQT-free number) have to wait until the scores are released to students.
On the other hand, the GCs do take time to sit with the sophomores and juniors and talk about what the scores (and SIs, for the juniors) do and don’t mean, so for people who are new to the process, the wait has its upside.
This week at our school the juniors are picking classes. Next week sophomores and so on. I believe one counselor has about 200 kids. I know with college visits to school and so on I believe the counselors have been more involved with the seniors till this week.
@HarrietMWelsch it’s all electronic and only takes a few minutes. The GC that is in charge of testing gets a notification that scores are available, she logs into her administrative CB account and sends the scores to the school’s Naviance system and it auto fills for all students it not like they have to individually enter each score. It’s the same thing they do for SAT and ACT scores, they don’t enter the scores separately for different grades everyone that took that setting of the test gets their scores posted to Naviance at the same time.
Interesting how different schools use Naviance - no scores are entered at all till senior year when things are about to uploaded to common app.
We don’t even have Naviance! Will GC still get the scores earlier than the students? Does GC get every student’s regular SAT scores from CB directly too? Just curious.
We don’t have it either. I would assume the school does. I’m not sure about the GC.
@mountainmomof3 does your school use the scattergrams feature on Navience? Our school lists the GPA and test scores for all students for the past three years and all the school they applied to and if the were accepted, waitlisted or Denied. Students can see where they stand based on prior admission cycles from our school. Students are encourged to use this as a tool when thinking about where to apply.
@3scoutsmom - i know what you are talking about but I don’t believe so but I was only standing over S19 while he input stuff for the resume feature. He noted that his test scores weren’t in there - this was late junior year. Perhaps we were not looking in the right place but S19 indicated that nothing was really in there. They did just do a big upgrade to Naviance late summer/early fall so maybe we should check again for S20. We did okay without it - test scores always were on CB/ACT portal so no big deal. S19 is chasing merit so scattergrams would not be very helpful for him. 3 of his 7 schools have never had students apply from his HS.