<p>Our school is also “withholding”. But if your school has a GC in charge of this step, who maybe has never done it before, the schedule can get out of hand if they simply put it aside to get to later. And this is WAY too much money to allow to slip through the cracks. So here is last year’s timeline. Maybe it will help your school to know that National Merit is recommending that your child have his/her paperwork back to the school BEFORE they are willing to notify your child in the first place.</p>
<p>Search here on college confidential. There are several threads that provide long lists of colleges with huge National Merit scholarships (Oklahoma, Arizona, all over). Not all information is correct of course…but it’s a good start. </p>
<p>And check your state schools too if they’re of interest to you. One of ours has the usual $1000 / year type National Merit scholarship. BUT…they have other huge, combineable scholarships that can end up a “free ride”…and one of them “gives preference to National Merit Finalists”.</p>
<p>@Highland Mom
The application does not require a letter of recommendation from a teacher.</p>
<p>The recommendation comes from “the designated school official,” who would be the principal or her/his designee, perhaps the counselor. Since those people are in on the secret already, no need to come up with an excuse for the rec.</p>
<p>Just heard from a GC in Idaho that cutoff was 209. Up 1 from last year & up 5 from 2008. D just missed the cut. Oh, well, congrats to all others!</p>
<p>We are in North Texas and my wife just got a call from the GC. MY DS who scored a 223 was given the packet this afternoon.
My son had the same score (2230) on the SAT in May (M-800, CR-670, W-760)</p>
<p>My daughters counselor says they understand the rules but that’s their policy. When I asked who’s decision it was, here’s the responce I got. Ugh! </p>
<p>I don’t know that it is any one person, but that is what the administration has done in the past. We now have mostly a new administration, and they are keeping the same policy in place. What they have done in the past is to make the announcement over ITV when we are allowed to make it public, and the local newspaper covers it as well. The concept is to make it a big surprise for everyone involved.</p>
<p>navarre, I understand. Same issue with my D’s school. The cc and principal refuse to release the information until some time early September. With school starting Sept 9th,Varsity tennis,8 academic subjects and other ECs as well as apps it would have been a big help to have had the paper work done before school starts. Oh and this is a private school, to add insult to injury, I pay for this!</p>