National merit 2026?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son has a 225 in MD and to be honest the idea that it jumped to 226 is totally throwing me off here. It’s making me re-think if we are being too optimistic about his chances at safeties, targets, and reaches. This just feels so unexpected and outside what we imagined was possible.

It isn’t so much about NMSF, although it would have been nice, but this has shaken our confident in his chances overall even at schools that should be easy safeties. A 225 score felt totally safe for MD NMSF but wasn’t.

This is exactly where we are. My DD got a 226, so she's almost certainly a lock for NMSF.

However, her 1590 on the SAT seemed like it was insanely great last week. Now, I'm wondering if schools will be getting a ton of applicants with 1590-1600s. Decided to add in another two safety schools just to be sure.

This is entirely logical to wonder about with the new digital SAT. Does anyone know what the data says?

My child took the SAT twice and got a wildly different math score. Got a 630 on the math at the first testing session and then got a 790 the next testing session. Same amount of rest, etc no significant prep and only about two months between the tests. Have heard from other parents that the scores have huge swings. So, if you keep testing, are you are likely to get one of the tests that is easier for one section? And then able to superscore an insanely high score?

I don't know, but my child took the sat three times and received almost the exact same disappointing score every time. So, I think a lot more data is needed to draw any conclusions

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son has a 225 in MD and to be honest the idea that it jumped to 226 is totally throwing me off here. It’s making me re-think if we are being too optimistic about his chances at safeties, targets, and reaches. This just feels so unexpected and outside what we imagined was possible.

It isn’t so much about NMSF, although it would have been nice, but this has shaken our confident in his chances overall even at schools that should be easy safeties. A 225 score felt totally safe for MD NMSF but wasn’t.

This is exactly where we are. My DD got a 226, so she's almost certainly a lock for NMSF.

However, her 1590 on the SAT seemed like it was insanely great last week. Now, I'm wondering if schools will be getting a ton of applicants with 1590-1600s. Decided to add in another two safety schools just to be sure.

This is entirely logical to wonder about with the new digital SAT. Does anyone know what the data says?

My child took the SAT twice and got a wildly different math score. Got a 630 on the math at the first testing session and then got a 790 the next testing session. Same amount of rest, etc no significant prep and only about two months between the tests. Have heard from other parents that the scores have huge swings. So, if you keep testing, are you are likely to get one of the tests that is easier for one section? And then able to superscore an insanely high score?

Yes to both. This is why taking the new digital SAT multiple times is important.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of bitter losers here.

I don't live in MD, but I feel for the kid that got 1500/1520 and didn't make the cut - that kind makes this whole process seem a bit silly now. At least in trying to call it national recognition. Ultimately the system is what it is and that's life. But one can have empathy.

There is increasingly little money connected to NMF anymore so it's largely about bragging rights unless one was hoping to go to Bama or Tulsa. And bragging rights kinda lose its sheen when the differences across states are so vast. And it still has legacy 2x weight for verbal which is pretty arbitrary when they went from 2 section to 1.

It's actually a rather strange national recognition program/process. Maybe thats partly why schools have been dropping scholarships over the years.

Its still a huge deal if you are from one of the states that has a high cutoff. In the age of superscoring and kids taking the test 5+ times, having a one day test that shows a very high score on both sections is a big deal.

Closer to home, VCU gives a full ride for NMSF. This is huge for the parents in the DC area who have very intelligent children, but not enough resources to pay $90K for per year to a T10 school. https://honors.vcu.edu/admissions/scholarships--aid/

Yup. Unfortunately, my child missed the cutoff by one point and now VCU is off the list

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of bitter losers here.

I don't live in MD, but I feel for the kid that got 1500/1520 and didn't make the cut - that kind makes this whole process seem a bit silly now. At least in trying to call it national recognition. Ultimately the system is what it is and that's life. But one can have empathy.

There is increasingly little money connected to NMF anymore so it's largely about bragging rights unless one was hoping to go to Bama or Tulsa. And bragging rights kinda lose its sheen when the differences across states are so vast. And it still has legacy 2x weight for verbal which is pretty arbitrary when they went from 2 section to 1.

It's actually a rather strange national recognition program/process. Maybe thats partly why schools have been dropping scholarships over the years.

Its still a huge deal if you are from one of the states that has a high cutoff. In the age of superscoring and kids taking the test 5+ times, having a one day test that shows a very high score on both sections is a big deal.

Closer to home, VCU gives a full ride for NMSF. This is huge for the parents in the DC area who have very intelligent children, but not enough resources to pay $90K for per year to a T10 school. https://honors.vcu.edu/admissions/scholarships--aid/

Yup. Unfortunately, my child missed the cutoff by one point and now VCU is off the list

If your child has a very high SAT score and is actually serious about VCU, they should still apply. Presidental Scholarships are automatically given to NMSF, but they are also given to students who did not make the cutoff but who have a high SAT score.

[Anonymous]

College campus is saying 224 for VA. How reliable is this source?

[Anonymous]

Is there a list of names or numbers from each school in DC?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:College campus is saying 224 for VA. How reliable is this source?

Only as reliable as the source of one person reporting their child's results 🤷

It doesn't seem likely someone would lie, but official results will be available on Wednesday

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of bitter losers here.

I don't live in MD, but I feel for the kid that got 1500/1520 and didn't make the cut - that kind makes this whole process seem a bit silly now. At least in trying to call it national recognition. Ultimately the system is what it is and that's life. But one can have empathy.

There is increasingly little money connected to NMF anymore so it's largely about bragging rights unless one was hoping to go to Bama or Tulsa. And bragging rights kinda lose its sheen when the differences across states are so vast. And it still has legacy 2x weight for verbal which is pretty arbitrary when they went from 2 section to 1.

It's actually a rather strange national recognition program/process. Maybe thats partly why schools have been dropping scholarships over the years.

Its still a huge deal if you are from one of the states that has a high cutoff. In the age of superscoring and kids taking the test 5+ times, having a one day test that shows a very high score on both sections is a big deal.

Closer to home, VCU gives a full ride for NMSF. This is huge for the parents in the DC area who have very intelligent children, but not enough resources to pay $90K for per year to a T10 school. https://honors.vcu.edu/admissions/scholarships--aid/

Yup. Unfortunately, my child missed the cutoff by one point and now VCU is off the list

FWIW, my child was offered substantial scholarships (one from the engineering school and another from admissions) to VCU for Fall 2023 entry and he was not a NMSF, but he did have a high SAT score. The scholarships, in total, covered the cost of tuition (we are in-state).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son has a 225 in MD and to be honest the idea that it jumped to 226 is totally throwing me off here. It’s making me re-think if we are being too optimistic about his chances at safeties, targets, and reaches. This just feels so unexpected and outside what we imagined was possible.

It isn’t so much about NMSF, although it would have been nice, but this has shaken our confident in his chances overall even at schools that should be easy safeties. A 225 score felt totally safe for MD NMSF but wasn’t.

This is exactly where we are. My DD got a 226, so she's almost certainly a lock for NMSF.

However, her 1590 on the SAT seemed like it was insanely great last week. Now, I'm wondering if schools will be getting a ton of applicants with 1590-1600s. Decided to add in another two safety schools just to be sure.

This is entirely logical to wonder about with the new digital SAT. Does anyone know what the data says?

My child took the SAT twice and got a wildly different math score. Got a 630 on the math at the first testing session and then got a 790 the next testing session. Same amount of rest, etc no significant prep and only about two months between the tests. Have heard from other parents that the scores have huge swings. So, if you keep testing, are you are likely to get one of the tests that is easier for one section? And then able to superscore an insanely high score?

I don't know, but my child took the sat three times and received almost the exact same disappointing score every time. So, I think a lot more data is needed to draw any conclusions

Yeah, my kid took the digital SAT twice within one week (weekend and school day) and got the exact same score. You can’t argue from anecdotes, you need data.

[Anonymous]

TD was informed on Friday by her high school that she made NMSF. Her index was 224

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:TD was informed on Friday by her high school that she made NMSF. Her index was 224

Which state?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:TD was informed on Friday by her high school that she made NMSF. Her index was 224

Sorry. Meant to add we are in VA

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:TD was informed on Friday by her high school that she made NMSF. Her index was 224

Sorry. Meant to add we are in VA

Congrats!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Will these unusually high cut offs make the new college board recognition for “top 10% psat score in your school” mean more? I had thought it was fairly meaningless, but I also thought my 223 kid in Md had a shot of NMSF(!). FWIW her CC says this new “recognition” is worth putting on application.

It’s the same recognition for getting 2 or more APs with scores of 3 or higher. Meaning that it’s unclear which achievement you got it for, or both. I can’t imagine that it’s worth anything at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Will these unusually high cut offs make the new college board recognition for “top 10% psat score in your school” mean more? I had thought it was fairly meaningless, but I also thought my 223 kid in Md had a shot of NMSF(!). FWIW her CC says this new “recognition” is worth putting on application.

It’s the same recognition for getting 2 or more APs with scores of 3 or higher. Meaning that it’s unclear which achievement you got it for, or both. I can’t imagine that it’s worth anything at all.

Yeah, if they have any other honors they should report those, since they only get five slots. They can just report their AP scores in that section and the colleges will have basically the same information