<p>What is the Reasoning behind Minimum score per State to achieve National Merit Status? Why are some higher than others, and vice versa?</p>
<p>There are a few reasons…</p>
<p>1) the desire that each state will have about the top 1% recognized</p>
<p>2) if there was just one nationwide cutoff, some states wouldn’t have any students recognized.</p>
<p>3) education across the country is not of equal standard, therefore a student with a PSAT of 205 from a low cut-off state probably would have had a higher score if he lived in a higher cut-off score state.</p>
<p>4) The cut-off score is about the top 1% in each state. However, there is a max cut-off number (usually around 223), so the states that that number as their cut-off number probably have more than 1% of their students qualifying. </p>
<p>There are probably more reasons, but I think the main reason was to ensure that every state had a good representation.</p>
<p>because all the NY, MA, MD, and CA kids would take them all.</p>
<p>Calif, NY, and MD do not have the max cut-off scores.</p>
<p>Qualifying Scores for the Class of 2011 National Merit Semifinalists:
Alabama 210
Alaska 214
Arizona 209
Arkansas 203
California 219
Colorado 212
Connecticut 219
Delaware 215
District of Columbia 223
Florida 210
Georgia 215
Hawaii 215
Idaho 208
Illinois 214
Indiana 212
Iowa 209
Kansas 211
Kentucky 208
Louisiana 210
Maine 213
Maryland 220
Massachusetts 223
Michigan 209
Minnesota 213
Mississippi 205
Missouri 210
Montana 208
Nebraska 210
Nevada 208
New Hampshire 214
New Jersey 221
New Mexico 206
New York 217
North Carolina 214
North Dakota 202
Ohio 212
Oklahoma 206
Oregon 215
Pennsylvania 216
Rhode Island 211
South Carolina 208
South Dakota 205
Tennessee 212
Texas 215
Utah 203
Vermont 212
Virginia 218
Washington 218
West Virginia 202
Wisconsin 209
Wyoming 202
Commended 201
International 223
New England Boarding Schools 223</p>