National Merit Semifinalist Cut-off Scores for High School Class of 2016

[Anonymous]

I started a thread like this last year for the high school Class of 2015, to share info between this forum and a National Merit Scholarship thread on College Confidential.

To parents of current high school seniors (Class of 2016) with kids who have been officially notified of National Merit *Semifinalist* status by their school this week, would you be willing to post your student's PSAT score (test taken as a Junior in HS), your state, and any other information provided by the principal or GC regarding your state's *Semifinalist* cut-off?

We had some helpful posts here last year, and I hope we'll have the same again this year.

Thank you.

[Anonymous]

Do you think cutoff score will go up this year?

[Anonymous]

Isn't the notification date September 10th?

[Anonymous]

The letters were mailed to schools on Aug. 25, so they should all have them now - it's just a matter of when they choose to inform the students. I think the public release date is 9/9.

From early individual reports posted on College Confidential, it looks like the cutoff score is up this year in most states.

We learned yesterday that our child made NMSF for Maryland. Guidance counselor at our Baltimore private said that some of the "top" schools had unexpectedly low numbers of semifinalists and that 1 or 2 of the other schools that you might not expect had as many. He didn't say what the cutoff was.

[Anonymous]

Congratulations to the poster from MD with a NMSF DC! This is the OP, and I wondered if you would please be willing to post your DC's score either here or on the College Confidential thread as a data point? If you've already done this, thank you.

Here's the link:

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/national-merit-scholarships/1696275-class-of-2016-nmsf-nmf-qualifying-scores-p66.html

[Anonymous]

Could you please let us know the score that qualified your daughter for maryland. Thanks much

[Anonymous]

i believe chelsea clinton was a semifinalist, do you guys think malia obama will be one?

[Anonymous]

NMSF parent again - DC's score was around 230, so probably doesn't lend much insight into this year's cutoff number

[Anonymous]

Thanks and congrats. !!!

[Anonymous]

OK, thank you PP and congratulations on your DC's excellent score!

We have lots of parents & students over on the College Confidential NMSF thread who are waiting for answers, so any additional info here (or there) is very much appreciated.

[Anonymous]

Homeschoolers should also receive letters directly. We're anxiously awaiting any data from Maryland NMSFs. Our school has been known to sit on letters until more than a week AFTER the embargo. Anonymous reports of scores known to qualify are fine.

[Anonymous]

Yes please. Highly appreciate anyone who has any news in maryland. My son is sitting at 223 in Maryland.

[Anonymous]

^ I wonder if this would also be worth a post in the MD Forum? Perhaps more posters would respond there, though it looks like that forum is mainly for parents w/kids in younger grades.

[Anonymous]

PSAT is useless even worse than SAT. SAT doesn't predict the college performance and produces one dimensional drones. Top colleges can fill its classes with perfect SAT score applicants and still have applicants with perfect SATs left over.

In fact doing well on PSAT/SAT is inconsistent with creativity and leadership ability and high scores on these tests shows the opposite to be true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PSAT is useless even worse than SAT. SAT doesn't predict the college performance and produces one dimensional drones. Top colleges can fill its classes with perfect SAT score applicants and still have applicants with perfect SATs left over.

In fact doing well on PSAT/SAT is inconsistent with creativity and leadership ability and high scores on these tests shows the opposite to be true.

Let me guess. Your kid was no NMSF?