Thanks for the follow-up questions @GoAskDad. I wanted to post our story because I’ve read everything on CC about National Merit with a less-than-stellar transcript. DS attends a small, highly rigorous private school in the SF Bay Area (11 NMSF’s in a class of under 70). They don’t have “year” grades, only semester grades, even in yearlong classes. DS got one semester C+ each year in freshman, sophomore and junior years, all in academic solids and none in honors classes. Freshman and sophomore year were in the fall. Junior year was in the spring. I think he may have gotten through because of a combination of any or all of the following: he has taken honors classes, done well, and gotten 5’s on the corresponding AP’s, scored a 223 in a state with a high cutoff of 221, very strong follow-up SAT, excellent essay, school recommendation which incorporated positive teacher comments partially mitigating the C+'s (which were in foreign language and math). Or just luck! Wishing the best to everyone still waiting.