National Merit Semifinalist 2018

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NMSF designation is based on the location of the School the student attends, and not where the student actually lives.

If your School is located in DC (even if you live in Maryland or Virginia) you will need to attain a PSAT Index Score of 223 or higher. If your School is located in Maryland or Virginia (even if you live in DC) you will have to achieve a PSAT Index Score of 222 or higher.

Many DC School students will earn a 222, and just miss NMSF status, although that score would have been high enough for NMSF status in both Maryland and Virginia Schools.

That is also why one cannot compare the number of NMSFs in DC Schools to the number of NMSFs in Maryland and Virginia Schools, in order to assess strength of the School or student body. Although you can compare Maryland and Virginia Schools to each othet, as they have the same measure.

The point of NMSF is not to compare schools to each other. And you can't compare MD and NoVA schools to each other because they have very different approaches to magnet schools which impacts the distribution of good test takers.

The DC NMSFs are overwhelmingly in the private schools - this is hardly a disadvantaged bunch and the selection process is also heavily weighted to good test takers. So a one point difference is not unfair. I suspect there aren't that many 222s in the public schools who just missed the threshold.

If you want to compare, you use Commended.

[Anonymous]

When will the Schools notify their National Merit Semifinalists?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How many people care about NMSF? My DC knew a long time ago he wasn't going to any college where it would mean merit aid (Bama, Ole Miss, Arizona etc.). He chose to take the SATs the same week as PSATs and we told him not to worry about the PSAT. Scored 1550+ on the SATs and below DC's cut-off for NMSF. I'm pretty sure his higher SAT score trumps a lower scoring NMSF student's PSAT, but there are a lot of other factors that will determine who gets into which schools.

It totally mattered when I was applying to college in the 1990s -- my dad worked for IBM and they gave fairly substantial merit scholarships to National Merit Finalists (which was usually a foregone conclusion if you were a NMSF), which ended up covering about a third of my undergrad tuition over the four years. So with the stakes so high, I was cramming for the PSAT before junior year like there was no tomorrow.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Holy crap! Back in fall 1991, the qualifying PSAT score for MD was 204. Makes you wonder how much of this is (1) the test getting easier vs. (2) kids becoming better coached for it.

It doesn't really matter - the qualifying score is set so that it captures the top 1/2% of test takers in each state.

Is this true? That seems like a really small cohort to me. I received a national merit scholarship 30 years ago ($2000 per year, IIRC), but so did my brother, and his scores were substantially better than mine. I would have guessed that it was top 5% or so.

[Anonymous]

Yes, that is the case.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Holy crap! Back in fall 1991, the qualifying PSAT score for MD was 204. Makes you wonder how much of this is (1) the test getting easier vs. (2) kids becoming better coached for it.

It doesn't really matter - the qualifying score is set so that it captures the top 1/2% of test takers in each state.

Except for DC and international cut offs, which are automatically set to the cut off of the highest state (typically NJ), and US territories are automatically set to the cut off of the lowest state, and US Boarding schools which are set according to regions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When will the Schools notify their National Merit Semifinalists?

Every school is different.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"Three states (MA, NE, and TN) saw no change between 2017 and 2018. Rhode Island was the only state with a lower cutoff for the class of 2018 (-1 point)."

http://www.compassprep.com/national-merit-semifinalist-cutoffs/

Sorry, I meant between the early 1990s and late 2010s, not the last two years.

Yes, every State and the District has seen the cutoff rise since the 1990s. For one thing the exam is scaled differently. I also personally think that International migration has made today's student pool more competitive. Immigration, Making America Great Again!

And yet, the average SAT score keeps falling...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"Three states (MA, NE, and TN) saw no change between 2017 and 2018. Rhode Island was the only state with a lower cutoff for the class of 2018 (-1 point)."

http://www.compassprep.com/national-merit-semifinalist-cutoffs/

Sorry, I meant between the early 1990s and late 2010s, not the last two years.

Yes, every State and the District has seen the cutoff rise since the 1990s. For one thing the exam is scaled differently. I also personally think that International migration has made today's student pool more competitive. Immigration, Making America Great Again!

And yet, the average SAT score keeps falling...

Many more people (as a percent of seniors) take the SAT/ACT today because more are "college bound".

[Anonymous]

Our DC School informed individual students this afternoon.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"Three states (MA, NE, and TN) saw no change between 2017 and 2018. Rhode Island was the only state with a lower cutoff for the class of 2018 (-1 point)."

http://www.compassprep.com/national-merit-semifinalist-cutoffs/

Sorry, I meant between the early 1990s and late 2010s, not the last two years.

Yes, every State and the District has seen the cutoff rise since the 1990s. For one thing the exam is scaled differently. I also personally think that International migration has made today's student pool more competitive. Immigration, Making America Great Again!

And yet, the average SAT score keeps falling...

Many more people (as a percent of seniors) take the SAT/ACT today because more are "college bound".

And it is administered free (and sometimes mandatory) in some locations.

[Anonymous]

The cutoff scores are arrived at so as to include approx the top 1% of students taking the test in each state. If the methodology simply was to select the top !% of test-takers in the country, then some states would have woefully few selectees.

[Anonymous]

My grandson in Virginia is among the current selectees. In his case, we're more interested in this fact being on his college applications than we are in the possibility of actually winning a few thousand dollars. We just went through the very very tough process of being accepted at an Ivy League school with my granddaughter (his cousin). She made it in, but we learned that the National Merit designation is a definite plus to add to GPA, extracurricular achievements, and SAT scores.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How many people care about NMSF? My DC knew a long time ago he wasn't going to any college where it would mean merit aid (Bama, Ole Miss, Arizona etc.). He chose to take the SATs the same week as PSATs and we told him not to worry about the PSAT. Scored 1550+ on the SATs and below DC's cut-off for NMSF. I'm pretty sure his higher SAT score trumps a lower scoring NMSF student's PSAT, but there are a lot of other factors that will determine who gets into which schools.

It totally mattered when I was applying to college in the 1990s -- my dad worked for IBM and they gave fairly substantial merit scholarships to National Merit Finalists (which was usually a foregone conclusion if you were a NMSF), which ended up covering about a third of my undergrad tuition over the four years. So with the stakes so high, I was cramming for the PSAT before junior year like there was no tomorrow.

I know IBM offered this at least through 2005 as I had an IBM co-worker with a daughter who received this scholarship! Congrats.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My grandson in Virginia is among the current selectees. In his case, we're more interested in this fact being on his college applications than we are in the possibility of actually winning a few thousand dollars. We just went through the very very tough process of being accepted at an Ivy League school with my granddaughter (his cousin). She made it in, but we learned that the National Merit designation is a definite plus to add to GPA, extracurricular achievements, and SAT scores.

Congratulations Proud (Grand)Mama!