Why is being a National Merit Finalist a big deal?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know if places like Alabama, that give lots to NMFs, care if the student's SAT score is much lower?

-asking for a friend...

There's a strange misconception on this thread that you can become a NMF with a great PSAT score and SAT doesn't matter. That's incorrect. You can become a "Commended" student or Semifinalist based on the PSAT, but you need to score equally well on the SAT to advance to a Finalist or Scholar.

[Anonymous]

about 90% of NMSF become NMF. about 1/2 of NMF become NMS (the ones who get scholarship)

- parent of 3 NMS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You can get larger awards from some colleges and some corporations for being a NMF, so there is the possibility of more scholarship money.

Being a NMF used to be a big deal, my sense is less so today because of the prevalence of prepping. I was an NMF and so were my kids, so that’s the basis of my thought that it seems different today. It’s still a nice award to put on a college application.

Ha ha! And you and your kids never prepped!! Righhhttt!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:National Merit Finalists only get a one time award of $2500. Big whoop. Am I missing something here?

Full pay parent at an Ivy. That $2500 was a "big whoop" and I was grateful my kid won it.

Aside from the many colleges that will give giant merit aid simply for making finalist.

https://www.college-kickstart.com/blog/item/colleges-with-great-scholarships-for-national-merit-finalists

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can get larger awards from some colleges and some corporations for being a NMF, so there is the possibility of more scholarship money.

Being a NMF used to be a big deal, my sense is less so today because of the prevalence of prepping. I was an NMF and so were my kids, so that’s the basis of my thought that it seems different today. It’s still a nice award to put on a college application.

Ha ha! And you and your kids never prepped!! Righhhttt!

Well, yes, that’s right, we didn’t. Is there something surprising about that?

When I was in high school the only people who took classes to help with taking SATs were kids who had trouble with academics in general. No one in the advanced classes at my public high school was taking SAT classes, only the kids in the lower level classes would do that. Those were fairly new businesses at that time, and their advertising was clearly focused on helping kids who were not doing well in school.

I was fortunate that, even though my parents did not go to college and did not make much money, I just always did well in school and did well on tests. I lioved to read and spent a lot of time at our local public library just wandering up and down the shelves, randomly picking out books that looked good to me- no one gave me any direction or suggestions as to what I “should” read.

My kids did have the advantage of being born to parents who went to college, but they also enjoyed reading for pleasure and never needed to do test prep.

[Anonymous]

Our firm gives NMFs who are children/dependents of employees of our Firm a scholarship.

[Anonymous]

Well, it made my daughter’s college completely free - tuition, dorm, books and fees, food,.. we didn’t pay a dime. So there’s that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:National Merit Finalists only get a one time award of $2500. Big whoop. Am I missing something here?

You don't do it for money.

Not true. My kids’ school gave her $40,000.

[Anonymous]

I don’t find it a big deal because the cut off scores are different by state so it is really not standardized. One could have a lower score but qualify because the state’s cutoff score is lower.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:agree op

They should do a study and see where National Merit Finalists are at in their career and life 10, 25, 25+ years

I doubt they are at the top 1% of the society because they tested at the top 1%

If you can google, you will see some famous NMF folks.

If you google, you should find even more non-NMF folks with even more fame and fortune than NMF folks. I doubt President Trump made the cut.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t find it a big deal because the cut off scores are different by state so it is really not standardized. One could have a lower score but qualify because the state’s cutoff score is lower.

Or you could prep while others do not.

[Anonymous]

The big deal is that for kids in need of huge merit, it's out there. Alabama has one sweet deal, Florida, UTD, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:agree op

They should do a study and see where National Merit Finalists are at in their career and life 10, 25, 25+ years

I doubt they are at the top 1% of the society because they tested at the top 1%

If you can google, you will see some famous NMF folks.

If you google, you should find even more non-NMF folks with even more fame and fortune than NMF folks. I doubt President Trump made the cut.

No trump is not one of them. You can’t buy with money. Only the smart kids become one. I guess you wouldn’t know that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The big deal is that for kids in need of huge merit, it's out there. Alabama has one sweet deal, Florida, UTD, etc.

Yup. It’s a massive deal for a lot of families, and it’s really interesting to follow the NMSF hopeful threads on College Confidential each year. It’s so typical of DCUM to think the award is worthless because most posters here only focus on the top schools and can easily afford full pay—it’s a kind of elitist myopia.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:agree op

They should do a study and see where National Merit Finalists are at in their career and life 10, 25, 25+ years

I doubt they are at the top 1% of the society because they tested at the top 1%

How would you decide what “top 1% of society” means?

What would you measure? Salary, educational attainment, choice of work that benefits society as a whole rather than self? How do you decide what makes a person “top 1% of society”?

Or happiness, life satisfaction etc that were the result of the agency accorded by the scholarship money to make decisions about majors and jobs without student loan debt.

I was a NMS who took a college scholarship for a full ride and it gave me great freedom which I am only now appreciating as I save for my kids’ college education.