National merit 2026?

[Anonymous]

Cross posting from the DCPS forum as the DC list is finally out.

https://www.reddit.com/r/.../#lightbox

Rearranged the list to public/private and ordered:

Public, total 15:
Jackson-Reed (3)
School Without Walls (3)
Washington Latin Public Charter (3)
BASIS (2)
MacArthur HS (1)
DC International School (1)


private, total 24
National Cathedral School (5)
Sidwell Friends (4)
Georgetown Day School (4)
St Anselm's Abbey (3)
Georgetown Visitation (2)
St Albans (2)
St John's College HS (1)
Washington International (1)
Edmund Burke (1)
Maret (1)

[Anonymous]

I'm not reading 20+ pages of this, but congrats to the kids who've been recognized. Question - DC's selection score is 213. So they should receive a letter of commendation, right? When will they officially find this out? I feel like they shouldn't put it on a college app until they know for sure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

FCPS and MCPS - Same Cut-Off (MCPS in Bold)

TJ 113
Richard Montgomery 37
Blair 36
Oakton 25
Langley 23
McLean 20
Chantilly 17
Poolesville 17
Marshall 15
Churchill 12
B-CC 11
Whitman 10
Madison 8
Woodson 8
Centreville 7
Walter Johnson 7
Wootton 7
Westfield 6
Fairfax 5
Lake Braddock 5
Springbrook 3
Wheaton 3
Edison 2
Einstein 2
Herndon 2
Northwest 2
West Springfield 2
Falls Church 1
Justice 1
Sherwood 1
South Lakes 1
West Potomac 1
Annandale 0
Blake 0
Clarksburg 0
Damascus 0
Gaithersburg 0
Hayfield 0
Kennedy 0
Lewis 0
Magruder 0
Northwood 0
Mount Vernon 0
Quince Orchard 0
Paint Branch 0
Robinson 0
Rockville 0
Seneca Valley 0
South County 0
Watkins Mill 0

Sometimes Maryland had a higher cutoff than Virginia, but this year it was the same. It looks like FCPS did considerably better than MCPS. One caveat is that TJ is a regional governor's school so it gets kids from outside Fairfax, but even so the FCPS numbers are better. It also looks like about 1/4 of the FCPS high schools had no NMSFs whereas it's more like 1/2 of the MCPS high schools with no NMSFs.

By the numbers, MCPS magnets did better. Roughly 20% of TJ seniors vs. 35% of RMIB and Blair seniors earned NMSF.

You’re forgetting that those numbers are for Blair and RMIB overall. Not all are magnet students and there are something like 3400 kids at Blair. Most are magnet, i believe but you’re not comparing like with like without having the magnet only numbers.

Nice try, but at least 95% of that list is magnet.

[Anonymous]

DC list is here (link in previous post didn’t work for me)

https://www.reddit.com/r/psat/comments/1nilcp6/2026_national_merit_for_alaska_arizona_colorado/

[Anonymous]

For national merit semifinalist, DC cutoff was 225 this year. Commended was 210 (for all states).

Anonymous wrote:I'm not reading 20+ pages of this, but congrats to the kids who've been recognized. Question - DC's selection score is 213. So they should receive a letter of commendation, right? When will they officially find this out? I feel like they shouldn't put it on a college app until they know for sure.

[Anonymous]

Is the commended 210 confirmed? DCs school won't notify the students until the end of year. He is trying to get a meeting with GC but not getting responses. Is it okay to list the award in Honors section? He only has rolling and EA apps that are due on Nov 1.

[Anonymous]

Our commended student was notified on Thursday

[Anonymous]

Does MoCO schools typically have more students as semifinalists? It used to be about half of their 25 public high schools (so about 12 high schools) with at least one student on the list

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is the commended 210 confirmed? DCs school won't notify the students until the end of year. He is trying to get a meeting with GC but not getting responses. Is it okay to list the award in Honors section? He only has rolling and EA apps that are due on Nov 1.

Commented 210 is confirmed. Ages ago. He can put it on his apps even if he doesn’t have the piece of paper yet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does MoCO schools typically have more students as semifinalists? It used to be about half of their 25 public high schools (so about 12 high schools) with at least one student on the list

13 schools had semi-finalists this year but it did seem like there was a bit less in total than previous years.