2024_NSMF

[Anonymous]

Are these numbers pretty much consistent year to year? Many schools here getting 1-2 per year?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DC
St. Alban’s 5
NCS 2
GDS 1
Sidwell 8
Gonzaga 1
St. Anselm’s Abbey 1
Maret 1
WIS 1

Maryland
Holton 5
Landon 1
Heights 1
Stone Ridge 1
Bullis 2

Virginia
Potomac School 7
St. Stephens/St. Agnes 1
Basis McLean 3
Madeira 1

Wow these are pathetic numbers compare to some of the public schools in FX/MoCo.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The NMSF program always struck me as ridiculous. (And I qualified some decades ago.) You get an award for doing well…on a practice test? And you’ll probably do well on the actual SAT and go to a good college. Isn’t that recognition enough? NMSF is like a standardized test fetish.

Many corporate merit scholarships are based on it.

[Anonymous]

Sidwell had 16 for class of 2022. It was a very strong cohort.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The NMSF program always struck me as ridiculous. (And I qualified some decades ago.) You get an award for doing well…on a practice test? And you’ll probably do well on the actual SAT and go to a good college. Isn’t that recognition enough? NMSF is like a standardized test fetish.

Many corporate merit scholarships are based on it.

Seems like a relic of another era.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sidwell had 16 for class of 2022. It was a very strong cohort.

You are absolutely right. I have several kids in Sidwell. The class of 2022 is definitely the strongest class

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sidwell had 16 for class of 2022. It was a very strong cohort.

Class of 2022 was the class year when most students couldn't take the PSAT at all, and so they allowed, but did not well-publicize, an alternate entry option.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC
St. Alban’s 5
NCS 2
GDS 1
Sidwell 8
Gonzaga 1
St. Anselm’s Abbey 1
Maret 1
WIS 1

Maryland
Holton 5
Landon 1
Heights 1
Stone Ridge 1
Bullis 2

Virginia
Potomac School 7
St. Stephens/St. Agnes 1
Basis McLean 3
Madeira 1

Wow these are pathetic numbers compare to some of the public schools in FX/MoCo.

NMSFs are essentially the top 1% PSAT scores of each state. I can't comment on the MD or VA schools, but by definition there will never be that many coming from DC because the number of HS PSAT test takers is not changing year-to-year and is relatively small...so the distribution by specific school may change, but the total number of DC NMSFs will always essentially be the same (i.e., around 30...the above list doesn't include kids from Walls, JR, Basis and SJC).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The NMSF program always struck me as ridiculous. (And I qualified some decades ago.) You get an award for doing well…on a practice test? And you’ll probably do well on the actual SAT and go to a good college. Isn’t that recognition enough? NMSF is like a standardized test fetish.

There are monetary scholarships for finalists. It’s not some piece of paper.

[Anonymous]

OP, it’s NMSF, not NSMF.

It stands for National Merit Semi-Finalist.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The NMSF program always struck me as ridiculous. (And I qualified some decades ago.) You get an award for doing well…on a practice test? And you’ll probably do well on the actual SAT and go to a good college. Isn’t that recognition enough? NMSF is like a standardized test fetish.

There are monetary scholarships for finalists. It’s not some piece of paper.

how much is it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC
St. Alban’s 5
NCS 2
GDS 1
Sidwell 8
Gonzaga 1
St. Anselm’s Abbey 1
Maret 1
WIS 1

Maryland
Holton 5
Landon 1
Heights 1
Stone Ridge 1
Bullis 2

Virginia
Potomac School 7
St. Stephens/St. Agnes 1
Basis McLean 3
Madeira 1

Wow these are pathetic numbers compare to some of the public schools in FX/MoCo.

NMSFs are essentially the top 1% PSAT scores of each state. I can't comment on the MD or VA schools, but by definition there will never be that many coming from DC because the number of HS PSAT test takers is not changing year-to-year and is relatively small...so the distribution by specific school may change, but the total number of DC NMSFs will always essentially be the same (i.e., around 30...the above list doesn't include kids from Walls, JR, Basis and SJC).

I find the different cutoffs for different states problematic. DC's cutoff is always equal to the state with the highest one, which this year I think was NJ at 223. Virginia's has fallen to 219 I believe. West Virginia was 207?

The 223 makes it hard to compare DC numbers with FFX/ Montgomery County students who had it easier this year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The NMSF program always struck me as ridiculous. (And I qualified some decades ago.) You get an award for doing well…on a practice test? And you’ll probably do well on the actual SAT and go to a good college. Isn’t that recognition enough? NMSF is like a standardized test fetish.

There are monetary scholarships for finalists. It’s not some piece of paper.

how much is it?

You have to be a scholarship winner, not just a finalist. A number of colleges give merit awards and even full rides to NMSF semifinalists and finalists. Those colleges may not be on top students' wishlists though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC
St. Alban’s 5
NCS 2
GDS 1
Sidwell 8
Gonzaga 1
St. Anselm’s Abbey 1
Maret 1
WIS 1

Maryland
Holton 5
Landon 1
Heights 1
Stone Ridge 1
Bullis 2

Virginia
Potomac School 7
St. Stephens/St. Agnes 1
Basis McLean 3
Madeira 1

Wow these are pathetic numbers compare to some of the public schools in FX/MoCo.

NMSFs are essentially the top 1% PSAT scores of each state. I can't comment on the MD or VA schools, but by definition there will never be that many coming from DC because the number of HS PSAT test takers is not changing year-to-year and is relatively small...so the distribution by specific school may change, but the total number of DC NMSFs will always essentially be the same (i.e., around 30...the above list doesn't include kids from Walls, JR, Basis and SJC).

I find the different cutoffs for different states problematic. DC's cutoff is always equal to the state with the highest one, which this year I think was NJ at 223. Virginia's has fallen to 219 I believe. West Virginia was 207?

The 223 makes it hard to compare DC numbers with FFX/ Montgomery County students who had it easier this year.

DC is the only place where 80% of the schools represented are private. I am not surprised if that results in a very high cut-off...combination of high income demographic and again, only 30 kids at any one time in the top 1%.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC
St. Alban’s 5
NCS 2
GDS 1
Sidwell 8
Gonzaga 1
St. Anselm’s Abbey 1
Maret 1
WIS 1

Maryland
Holton 5
Landon 1
Heights 1
Stone Ridge 1
Bullis 2

Virginia
Potomac School 7
St. Stephens/St. Agnes 1
Basis McLean 3
Madeira 1

Wow these are pathetic numbers compare to some of the public schools in FX/MoCo.

NMSFs are essentially the top 1% PSAT scores of each state. I can't comment on the MD or VA schools, but by definition there will never be that many coming from DC because the number of HS PSAT test takers is not changing year-to-year and is relatively small...so the distribution by specific school may change, but the total number of DC NMSFs will always essentially be the same (i.e., around 30...the above list doesn't include kids from Walls, JR, Basis and SJC).

I find the different cutoffs for different states problematic. DC's cutoff is always equal to the state with the highest one, which this year I think was NJ at 223. Virginia's has fallen to 219 I believe. West Virginia was 207?

The 223 makes it hard to compare DC numbers with FFX/ Montgomery County students who had it easier this year.

DC is the only place where 80% of the schools represented are private. I am not surprised if that results in a very high cut-off...combination of high income demographic and again, only 30 kids at any one time in the top 1%.

DC has the highest cut-off because there is a rule that DC automatically gets the cut-off of the highest state which this year is New Jersey with 223. Americans living abroad are given the same cut-off.

It's not because this cohort of DC testers personally scored as the highest in the country.