Announcing National Merit Semi-Finalists

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does your school announce the names of National Merit Semi-Finalists on its website or in a press release or social media? MCPS posts the list of names on its website. What do private schools normally do? Do they prefer not to post since NMSF isn’t as big of an accomplishment in a private school setting?

Apparently this year the National Merit Scholarship Corporation decided not to publicly announce the names as they normally do and schools have to tell the kids themselves. The schools were notified by snail mail, which they may have missed. Also the list was sent to the press. It sounds like it was poorly handled. Especially for a city like DC where we really don't have any local paper that would normally announce something like this.

You are incorrect. This year's process is no different from prior years' (at least the last several). The NMSC has always left it up to schools to notify commended and semi finalist students and they have never published the list of names, but have always sent the list to the press.

Yes, they publish the list.

https://www.reddit.com/r/psat/comments/1ndby41/lists_of_semifinalists_by_state_2026/?chainedPosts=t3_1fehvjy

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does your school announce the names of National Merit Semi-Finalists on its website or in a press release or social media? MCPS posts the list of names on its website. What do private schools normally do? Do they prefer not to post since NMSF isn’t as big of an accomplishment in a private school setting?

Apparently this year the National Merit Scholarship Corporation decided not to publicly announce the names as they normally do and schools have to tell the kids themselves. The schools were notified by snail mail, which they may have missed. Also the list was sent to the press. It sounds like it was poorly handled. Especially for a city like DC where we really don't have any local paper that would normally announce something like this.

You are incorrect. This year's process is no different from prior years' (at least the last several). The NMSC has always left it up to schools to notify commended and semi finalist students and they have never published the list of names, but have always sent the list to the press.

Yes, they publish the list.

https://www.reddit.com/r/psat/comments/1ndby41/lists_of_semifinalists_by_state_2026/?chainedPosts=t3_1fehvjy

Those lists were not published by NMSC. NMSC gave them to news outlets/schools and those outlets published the lists.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does your school announce the names of National Merit Semi-Finalists on its website or in a press release or social media? MCPS posts the list of names on its website. What do private schools normally do? Do they prefer not to post since NMSF isn’t as big of an accomplishment in a private school setting?

Apparently this year the National Merit Scholarship Corporation decided not to publicly announce the names as they normally do and schools have to tell the kids themselves. The schools were notified by snail mail, which they may have missed. Also the list was sent to the press. It sounds like it was poorly handled. Especially for a city like DC where we really don't have any local paper that would normally announce something like this.

You are incorrect. This year's process is no different from prior years' (at least the last several). The NMSC has always left it up to schools to notify commended and semi finalist students and they have never published the list of names, but have always sent the list to the press.

Yes, they publish the list.

https://www.reddit.com/r/psat/comments/1ndby41/lists_of_semifinalists_by_state_2026/?chainedPosts=t3_1fehvjy

Those lists were not published by NMSC. NMSC gave them to news outlets/schools and those outlets published the lists.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eH4WYg3mc8FIb9IhZGqvbIbcVIjXziJF/view

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does your school announce the names of National Merit Semi-Finalists on its website or in a press release or social media? MCPS posts the list of names on its website. What do private schools normally do? Do they prefer not to post since NMSF isn’t as big of an accomplishment in a private school setting?

Apparently this year the National Merit Scholarship Corporation decided not to publicly announce the names as they normally do and schools have to tell the kids themselves. The schools were notified by snail mail, which they may have missed. Also the list was sent to the press. It sounds like it was poorly handled. Especially for a city like DC where we really don't have any local paper that would normally announce something like this.

You are incorrect. This year's process is no different from prior years' (at least the last several). The NMSC has always left it up to schools to notify commended and semi finalist students and they have never published the list of names, but have always sent the list to the press.

Yes, they publish the list.

https://www.reddit.com/r/psat/comments/1ndby41/lists_of_semifinalists_by_state_2026/?chainedPosts=t3_1fehvjy

Those lists were not published by NMSC. NMSC gave them to news outlets/schools and those outlets published the lists.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eH4WYg3mc8FIb9IhZGqvbIbcVIjXziJF/view

Not sure what point you're trying to prove. This list was published by MCPS and someone from Reddit linked it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does your school announce the names of National Merit Semi-Finalists on its website or in a press release or social media? MCPS posts the list of names on its website. What do private schools normally do? Do they prefer not to post since NMSF isn’t as big of an accomplishment in a private school setting?

Apparently this year the National Merit Scholarship Corporation decided not to publicly announce the names as they normally do and schools have to tell the kids themselves. The schools were notified by snail mail, which they may have missed. Also the list was sent to the press. It sounds like it was poorly handled. Especially for a city like DC where we really don't have any local paper that would normally announce something like this.

You are incorrect. This year's process is no different from prior years' (at least the last several). The NMSC has always left it up to schools to notify commended and semi finalist students and they have never published the list of names, but have always sent the list to the press.

Yes, they publish the list.

https://www.reddit.com/r/psat/comments/1ndby41/lists_of_semifinalists_by_state_2026/?chainedPosts=t3_1fehvjy

Those lists were not published by NMSC. NMSC gave them to news outlets/schools and those outlets published the lists.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eH4WYg3mc8FIb9IhZGqvbIbcVIjXziJF/view

Not sure what point you're trying to prove. This list was published by MCPS and someone from Reddit linked it.

Not sure you actually read it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does your school announce the names of National Merit Semi-Finalists on its website or in a press release or social media? MCPS posts the list of names on its website. What do private schools normally do? Do they prefer not to post since NMSF isn’t as big of an accomplishment in a private school setting?

Apparently this year the National Merit Scholarship Corporation decided not to publicly announce the names as they normally do and schools have to tell the kids themselves. The schools were notified by snail mail, which they may have missed. Also the list was sent to the press. It sounds like it was poorly handled. Especially for a city like DC where we really don't have any local paper that would normally announce something like this.

You are incorrect. This year's process is no different from prior years' (at least the last several). The NMSC has always left it up to schools to notify commended and semi finalist students and they have never published the list of names, but have always sent the list to the press.

Yes, they publish the list.

https://www.reddit.com/r/psat/comments/1ndby41/lists_of_semifinalists_by_state_2026/?chainedPosts=t3_1fehvjy

Those lists were not published by NMSC. NMSC gave them to news outlets/schools and those outlets published the lists.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eH4WYg3mc8FIb9IhZGqvbIbcVIjXziJF/view

Not sure what point you're trying to prove. This list was published by MCPS and someone from Reddit linked it.

Not sure you actually read it.

Just stop it. You don’t know what you’re talking about.

This is the MCPS press release with the linked document.

https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/news/

[Anonymous]

Our school did a social media post highlighting the winners. Congrats to all!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wouldn’t private schools want the information on social media so it’s available to prospective families applying this year?

Why?

Maybe some families would infer that the schools with semifinalists have more rigorous curricula?

Or they value their high academic achievers as much as their athletes?

Our school hypes up their robotics, math, debate, and quiz bowl teams just as much as the sports teams. But that's different from publishing the names of kids who got high scores on one standardized test.

[Anonymous]

The corporation prints and distributes the list for each jurisdiction. No one in DC “publishes” that list yet anyone can get it with a simple search. No one has to wait for their school to let NMSFs know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does your school announce the names of National Merit Semi-Finalists on its website or in a press release or social media? MCPS posts the list of names on its website. What do private schools normally do? Do they prefer not to post since NMSF isn’t as big of an accomplishment in a private school setting?

Apparently this year the National Merit Scholarship Corporation decided not to publicly announce the names as they normally do and schools have to tell the kids themselves. The schools were notified by snail mail, which they may have missed. Also the list was sent to the press. It sounds like it was poorly handled. Especially for a city like DC where we really don't have any local paper that would normally announce something like this.

I thought that was how it was always done.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wouldn’t private schools want the information on social media so it’s available to prospective families applying this year?

Why?

Maybe some families would infer that the schools with semifinalists have more rigorous curricula?

What makes you think that would be a reasonable inference?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wouldn’t private schools want the information on social media so it’s available to prospective families applying this year?

Why?

Maybe some families would infer that the schools with semifinalists have more rigorous curricula?

What makes you think that would be a reasonable inference?

Doesn’t it make sense that these schools are at the top of the list given how rigorous they are?
Sidwell (11)
GDS (7)
STA (6)
NCS (3)

[Anonymous]

Correlation and causation are not the same thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wouldn’t private schools want the information on social media so it’s available to prospective families applying this year?

Why?

Maybe some families would infer that the schools with semifinalists have more rigorous curricula?

What makes you think that would be a reasonable inference?

Doesn’t it make sense that these schools are at the top of the list given how rigorous they are?
Sidwell (11)
GDS (7)
STA (6)
NCS (3)

I'm a former NMSF who went to bad public schools and I tend to think the award is not that correlated to school (these kids would have been NMSFs anywhere). The list is interesting bc it indicates where these families like to go, and that probably correlates with rigor.

However Sidwell number is so good I wonder if Sidwell is actually doing something active that helps prepare kids to do their very best on the PSAT.

[Anonymous]

Is it true the test was “easier?”