National merit 2026?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm the parent of the 222 kid above. It sucks, but in the end, NMSQT is not all that important, especially since my kid is not interested in any of the schools that provide scholarships to NM scholars. Moving on...

But it's an honor that lasts lifetime.

It's a pretty narrow honor, and a boring one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm the parent of the 222 kid above. It sucks, but in the end, NMSQT is not all that important, especially since my kid is not interested in any of the schools that provide scholarships to NM scholars. Moving on...

But it's an honor that lasts lifetime.

It's a pretty narrow honor, and a boring one.

Sorry it didn't work out for your kid, but bitter is a bad look.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid got his today. VA public. They handed them out in school, which was good. I thought it would come by email.

What score did they receive to get it in VA? Congratulations to your child!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm the parent of the 222 kid above. It sucks, but in the end, NMSQT is not all that important, especially since my kid is not interested in any of the schools that provide scholarships to NM scholars. Moving on...

But it's an honor that lasts lifetime.

I hope you're being sarcastic. But this being dcum, you can never be sure. If one of your lifetime accomplishments is a high test score when you're 16, you're doing life wrong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm the parent of the 222 kid above. It sucks, but in the end, NMSQT is not all that important, especially since my kid is not interested in any of the schools that provide scholarships to NM scholars. Moving on...

But it's an honor that lasts lifetime.

I hope you're being sarcastic. But this being dcum, you can never be sure. If one of your lifetime accomplishments is a high test score when you're 16, you're doing life wrong.

LOL. My life is fine. Thank you. As PP said bitter is not a good look. Sorry it didn’t work out for your kid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I personally think having different cutoffs for different states is bogus. Why should one kid be a NMSF with a 212 while a kid with a 222 in another state is not?

Because some states/school districts have a lot more resources. I personally think the current approach is fair.

I think that the system is generally fair. As a public school teacher in DC, I think that DC's scores are inflated by kids who come into DC for private school from MD and VA. I think it's hard when there are lower income kids in DC whose score would get them NMSF in almost every other state, who don't get NMSF, in state tuition, or in state financial aid. I know a kid like this whose scores would have qualified in any state except DC, NJ, and MA, and who would have qualified in DC if their scores were flipped.

How is that "generally fair"?

As someone who lives in MD, where there are more opportunities. I think it's fair that our cut off is set higher than South Dakota, because it's about exceeding the norm for your community.

South Dakota's population is 900,000 and Maryland's is over 6 million. Do you think possibly there are more resources available to students in Maryland.

South Dakota's top employers are a couple of health systems and Smithfield Packaged Meats. If you feel the advantages for your child are so great in South Dakota relative to Maryland, you can always move there.

My guess is that DC has a higher percentage of out of state kids earning NMSF than any other state. If you look at the list of who won, it's a lot of kids from Sidwell, GDS, St. Anselm's etc. . . and a high percentage of those kids don't live in DC. So, I think that that is unfair for kids from DC. I think the cut off should be based on the percentiles of kids who live in DC.

I also think that when the high cut off is combined with the lack of instate options in DC, and an extremely unfair DC TAG program that is designed to help MC and UMC kids, but that doesn't address the fact that state schools generally don't give financial aid to low income kids who are OOS, I think it is unfair for kids from DC.

Given that DC makes up 0.2% of the population, I would describe a system that is fair for everyone but 0.2% of the population as "generally fair".

Did you know that in July, the unemployment rate for South Dakota was 1.9%, the lowest in the nation, and Maryland’s was 3.4%?

The median household income in SD’s wealthiest county (Lincoln) is $112,681. Last year, their students had a cutoff of 209. The median household income in MD’s poorest county (Somerset) is $44,980, and last year’s cutoff for them was 221.

The difference in cutoffs doesn’t reflect the difference in resources or opportunities available to students. The cutoffs reflect NMSF’s prioritizing geographic diversity and proportionality (in relation to the population of the US). They reward students for test performance (verbal more than math) strictly within that framework.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I personally think having different cutoffs for different states is bogus. Why should one kid be a NMSF with a 212 while a kid with a 222 in another state is not?

Because some states/school districts have a lot more resources. I personally think the current approach is fair.

I think that the system is generally fair. As a public school teacher in DC, I think that DC's scores are inflated by kids who come into DC for private school from MD and VA. I think it's hard when there are lower income kids in DC whose score would get them NMSF in almost every other state, who don't get NMSF, in state tuition, or in state financial aid. I know a kid like this whose scores would have qualified in any state except DC, NJ, and MA, and who would have qualified in DC if their scores were flipped.

How is that "generally fair"?

As someone who lives in MD, where there are more opportunities. I think it's fair that our cut off is set higher than South Dakota, because it's about exceeding the norm for your community.

My guess is that DC has a higher percentage of out of state kids earning NMSF than any other state. If you look at the list of who won, it's a lot of kids from Sidwell, GDS, St. Anselm's etc. . . and a high percentage of those kids don't live in DC. So, I think that that is unfair for kids from DC. I think the cut off should be based on the percentiles of kids who live in DC.

I also think that when the high cut off is combined with the lack of instate options in DC, and an extremely unfair DC TAG program that is designed to help MC and UMC kids, but that doesn't address the fact that state schools generally don't give financial aid to low income kids who are OOS, I think it is unfair for kids from DC.

Given that DC makes up 0.2% of the population, I would describe a system that is fair for everyone but 0.2% of the population as "generally fair".

Did you know that in July, the unemployment rate for South Dakota was 1.9%, the lowest in the nation, and Maryland’s was 3.4%?

The median household income in SD’s wealthiest county (Lincoln) is $112,681. Last year, their students had a cutoff of 209. The median household income in MD’s poorest county (Somerset) is $44,980, and last year’s cutoff for them was 221.

The difference in cutoffs doesn’t reflect the difference in resources or opportunities available to students. The cutoffs reflect NMSF’s prioritizing geographic diversity and proportionality (in relation to the population of the US). They reward students for test performance (verbal more than math) strictly within that framework.

The population of South Dakota is 900,000 and Maryland's is 6 million+. The top employers in South Dakota are a couple of health systems and Smithfield Packaged Meats. If you feel the resources are so much better for your child in South Dakota, you can always move there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I personally think having different cutoffs for different states is bogus. Why should one kid be a NMSF with a 212 while a kid with a 222 in another state is not?

Because some states/school districts have a lot more resources. I personally think the current approach is fair.

I think that the system is generally fair. As a public school teacher in DC, I think that DC's scores are inflated by kids who come into DC for private school from MD and VA. I think it's hard when there are lower income kids in DC whose score would get them NMSF in almost every other state, who don't get NMSF, in state tuition, or in state financial aid. I know a kid like this whose scores would have qualified in any state except DC, NJ, and MA, and who would have qualified in DC if their scores were flipped.

How is that "generally fair"?

As someone who lives in MD, where there are more opportunities. I think it's fair that our cut off is set higher than South Dakota, because it's about exceeding the norm for your community.

South Dakota's population is 900,000 and Maryland's is over 6 million. Do you think possibly there are more resources available to students in Maryland.

South Dakota's top employers are a couple of health systems and Smithfield Packaged Meats. If you feel the advantages for your child are so great in South Dakota relative to Maryland, you can always move there.

My guess is that DC has a higher percentage of out of state kids earning NMSF than any other state. If you look at the list of who won, it's a lot of kids from Sidwell, GDS, St. Anselm's etc. . . and a high percentage of those kids don't live in DC. So, I think that that is unfair for kids from DC. I think the cut off should be based on the percentiles of kids who live in DC.

I also think that when the high cut off is combined with the lack of instate options in DC, and an extremely unfair DC TAG program that is designed to help MC and UMC kids, but that doesn't address the fact that state schools generally don't give financial aid to low income kids who are OOS, I think it is unfair for kids from DC.

Given that DC makes up 0.2% of the population, I would describe a system that is fair for everyone but 0.2% of the population as "generally fair".

Did you know that in July, the unemployment rate for South Dakota was 1.9%, the lowest in the nation, and Maryland’s was 3.4%?

The median household income in SD’s wealthiest county (Lincoln) is $112,681. Last year, their students had a cutoff of 209. The median household income in MD’s poorest county (Somerset) is $44,980, and last year’s cutoff for them was 221.

The difference in cutoffs doesn’t reflect the difference in resources or opportunities available to students. The cutoffs reflect NMSF’s prioritizing geographic diversity and proportionality (in relation to the population of the US). They reward students for test performance (verbal more than math) strictly within that framework.

Weighting verbal is there to increase proportionality as well -- they wanted more even numbers of boys and girls. At the time they started doing this, there weren't really enough Asians to try to cut back on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid got his today. VA public. They handed them out in school, which was good. I thought it would come by email.

What score did they receive to get it in VA? Congratulations to your child!

Thanks! PSAT was 1500. IDK what the index is. The letter didn't say. I calculated the index last year but I don't remember what it was now. Whatever it was, 1500 was comfortably above the usual cutoff.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid got his today. VA public. They handed them out in school, which was good. I thought it would come by email.

What score did they receive to get it in VA? Congratulations to your child!

Thanks! PSAT was 1500. IDK what the index is. The letter didn't say. I calculated the index last year but I don't remember what it was now. Whatever it was, 1500 was comfortably above the usual cutoff.

DP. Compass Prep is reporting VA cutoff as 223 or 224.

[Anonymous]

Can someone explain how a state’s cutoff could be 226? Was the test too easy for the high achievers?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can someone explain how a state’s cutoff could be 226? Was the test too easy for the high achievers?

Yes, too many high scorers results in a higher cutoff.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid got his today. VA public. They handed them out in school, which was good. I thought it would come by email.

What score did they receive to get it in VA? Congratulations to your child!

Thanks! PSAT was 1500. IDK what the index is. The letter didn't say. I calculated the index last year but I don't remember what it was now. Whatever it was, 1500 was comfortably above the usual cutoff.

Does anyone know what is the index score for 1500 psat?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid got his today. VA public. They handed them out in school, which was good. I thought it would come by email.

What score did they receive to get it in VA? Congratulations to your child!

Thanks! PSAT was 1500. IDK what the index is. The letter didn't say. I calculated the index last year but I don't remember what it was now. Whatever it was, 1500 was comfortably above the usual cutoff.

Does anyone know what is the index score for 1500 psat?

We would need the math/verbal breakdown to tell you. Index = (2x the verbal score + math score) / 10.

Keep in mind the maximum score on each section for the PSAT is 760 vs 800 for the SAT, so some of these high index scores require an almost perfect score on the test.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid got his today. VA public. They handed them out in school, which was good. I thought it would come by email.

What score did they receive to get it in VA? Congratulations to your child!

Thanks! PSAT was 1500. IDK what the index is. The letter didn't say. I calculated the index last year but I don't remember what it was now. Whatever it was, 1500 was comfortably above the usual cutoff.

Does anyone know what is the index score for 1500 psat?

We would need the math/verbal breakdown to tell you. Index = (2x the verbal score + math score) / 10.

Keep in mind the maximum score on each section for the PSAT is 760 vs 800 for the SAT, so some of these high index scores require an almost perfect score on the test.

What is the highest index one can get with 1500 score?