Thanks for the info. Just read the link provided below. It’s a lot of info lol. While my son meets the requirements, it doesn’t mean that he’s automatically commended. It all depends on that cutoff index score which may change every year. We are also in VA and our Class of 2026 projected cutoff is high, at 222! So we will see! My son is happy about his score, and hopefully this means he could raise his Math SAT score in April!
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Thanks for the link! It helped me understand the process.
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Hi fellow 2026 parents! My D26 got her PSAT score today: 1510, with 227 for her index score!! She took it last year and had a 1300. Did some practice math over the summer to get ready. I’m floored!!
Does anyone know a good resource for schools that would offer scholarships assuming she pursues and becomes a finalist?
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Yes he will definitely be commended at least, that is a national ranking and doesn’t go by the individual state Commended was 208 this past year it is not going to jump to 222 ( while technically anything could happen it historically speaking it would be never be this high for commended ) looks like you are in a competitive state so hard to say until all the test are in if your state will be above 222 for this cycle
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Congratulations to your daughter I lack the tech skills to know how to share the link but there are several threads on here that go over the schools that offer generous scholarships to National Merit finalists. You can search for it and the thread should pop up and I am sure someone with better tech savvy can post the link to the thread
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CC has a forum for National Merit Scholarships
There is a popular thread about Big NMF/NMSF Schools and Their Specialties
I don’t see a thread for the Class of 2026 yet, but someone can start one.
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Congrats! Yes, he’ll be commended, as that’s usually 207 or 208. Semi-finalists are determined by the state cut-offs. Hopefully the 222 holds!
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I got a text from S26 this afternoon saying they were in lockdown and he didn’t know why. I then got numerous texts and phone calls from friends trying to figure out what was going on. Thankfully this time it turned out to be nothing and it ended after an hour. But, it was a really long afternoon waiting for him to get home. We’re both doing okay now, but it’s been a tough day. I can only hope to get through the next 1.5 years without more lockdowns and evacuations.
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(HUGS) we had a problem in our area about 3 weeks ago where several of our locals High Schools were put in lockdown over about a 2 week span due to calls that ended up being traced to another country
This was traced to another country as well. It’s awful. I’m sorry your schools dealt with it as well. Last time we had a hard lockdown, we lost 4 students. We’ve had a few drills since, but this was the first real one.
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My wife is a teacher. Her school goes into lockdown on average 6x per school year and ‘hold in place’ at 2-3x a month.
Our D26’s school has never gone into either.
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I’m sorry. It should not be part of her job description to do that.
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I can’t even imagine….
Devastating that this is our children’s reality.
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It’s awful. One criteria for my daughter for college was being able to be rescued from campus when there is a shooting. So a family member within 2 or so hours, a large enough airport right there that she could fly somewhere and work her way home. She is about 2.25 hours from her brother and the airport has flights to major cities all day, so it works for her.
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There are no words. The fact that this has to even be a consideration for our kids today is devastating to me.
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Hugs
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This is something I never thought about and don’t even want to consider. We have had 2 lock downs ever but one was due to an elderly family member using the school bathroom and the other was a student with a replica gun.
Campus safety is for sure one component we have taken very seriously in the search. Our daughter is leaning on us to help her make some of those decisions as well.
We’ve told her as far as we are concerned, it is irrelevant how good a school’s stats and programs are. If we don’t feel safe with her being there, it’s a no-go.
So far, only one school has been omitted because of safety concerns.
eta: clarification.
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There are definitely some colleges we are not considering because of campus and/or surrounding area safety concerns. Safety is something that has a lot of variation across different people. Different preferences/requirements.
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Safety is tricky, since it means different things to all of us. Lots of things to consider and ask about to make yourself comfortable.
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