NMSFs in DC 2026

[Anonymous]

The students know the DC cutoff now so they will know if they are NMSF w/o anyone publishing it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I gotta be honest, this whole thread has been confusing as hell to me...
I grew up in NYC in the in the (just barely) web era and attended a poorly funded school in a outer borough, and my recollection is that literally nobody - not one single human - gave a flying leap that I was a NMSF...yes, up to and including my very supportive immediate family and teachers. I got some official looking results mailing at home that mentioned that was my designation somewhere, and that was the end of that.
I think I asked a teacher once if being a semifinalist meant something special and they said: nope, not really... that the only thing that counted was being a finalist - and in retrospect, they're right.
Am I missing something here - what is this, rural Iowa? why do a few local high school students getting a reasonably decent (but not outstanding) score on a standardized test merit any kind of wide public notice?

They don’t actually care about the kids, they just want to count noses so they can assert that the high school with the most NMSFs is the best high school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nobody gives a shit about being a national merit semifinalist, and I'm speaking from experience. It's the most overrated award out there.

You have had an atypical experience.

It's a warmup for the SAT. However you do on the SAT is a million times more important.

Not anymore. Plenty of strong applicants are applying to top schools without submitting SAT scores and getting in, true since 2021. Even Harvard doesn't require SAT scores in admissions these days. If a kid isn't going to stand out by scoring high on the SATs, they're free to find another way. The PSAT as a warmup for the SATs just isn't as relevant as it was pre-Covid.

Harvard is test required.

Yale was one of the first to move back with a detailed discussion from the Dean about how test optional was (1) bad for academic performance and (2) worst for poor kids when admissions started moving to "safer" schools and profiles to make up for (1).

It was a much more nuanced discussion than that. The only correlation they made between test scores and academic performance was for STEM—math, specifically, I believe.

The main reasons they shifted back were to ensure students from lower-performing schools submitted schools that might not look high relative to all applicants but distinguished them within their school context (your reason 2). And the largely unspoken reason that they get an overwhelming number of applications so need scores as a weed-out factor.

Nope. Not what he said. Here's one quote from the NYT:

"Jeremiah Quinlan, the dean of undergraduate admissions at Yale, said in a statement that the university had determined that test scores, while imperfect, were predictive of academic success in college.

“Simply put,” he said, “students with higher scores have been more likely to have higher Yale G.P.A.s, and test scores are the single greatest predictor of a student’s performance in Yale courses in every model we have constructed.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I gotta be honest, this whole thread has been confusing as hell to me...
I grew up in NYC in the in the (just barely) web era and attended a poorly funded school in a outer borough, and my recollection is that literally nobody - not one single human - gave a flying leap that I was a NMSF...yes, up to and including my very supportive immediate family and teachers. I got some official looking results mailing at home that mentioned that was my designation somewhere, and that was the end of that.
I think I asked a teacher once if being a semifinalist meant something special and they said: nope, not really... that the only thing that counted was being a finalist - and in retrospect, they're right.
Am I missing something here - what is this, rural Iowa? why do a few local high school students getting a reasonably decent (but not outstanding) score on a standardized test merit any kind of wide public notice?

Because it is so difficult to get a qualifying score in DC. Sounds like it's much easier in NYC so agree, probably not impressive at all.

Uh, the best public high schools in NYC are much, much better than the best public high schools in DC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I gotta be honest, this whole thread has been confusing as hell to me...
I grew up in NYC in the in the (just barely) web era and attended a poorly funded school in a outer borough, and my recollection is that literally nobody - not one single human - gave a flying leap that I was a NMSF...yes, up to and including my very supportive immediate family and teachers. I got some official looking results mailing at home that mentioned that was my designation somewhere, and that was the end of that.
I think I asked a teacher once if being a semifinalist meant something special and they said: nope, not really... that the only thing that counted was being a finalist - and in retrospect, they're right.
Am I missing something here - what is this, rural Iowa? why do a few local high school students getting a reasonably decent (but not outstanding) score on a standardized test merit any kind of wide public notice?

Because it is so difficult to get a qualifying score in DC. Sounds like it's much easier in NYC so agree, probably not impressive at all.

Or perhaps PP's experience isn't universal (something the PP should know, as an adult.) I also grew up in NY State at a school that hadn't had a NMSF in 5 years when I became one, and it was big news in the local paper, and they put my picture up in the school lobby (along with the other 3 kids who had been semifinalists in the last decade.) It is not "easy" to be a NMSF in many states, including New York, as you can see by its 224 threshold this year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I gotta be honest, this whole thread has been confusing as hell to me...
I grew up in NYC in the in the (just barely) web era and attended a poorly funded school in a outer borough, and my recollection is that literally nobody - not one single human - gave a flying leap that I was a NMSF...yes, up to and including my very supportive immediate family and teachers. I got some official looking results mailing at home that mentioned that was my designation somewhere, and that was the end of that.
I think I asked a teacher once if being a semifinalist meant something special and they said: nope, not really... that the only thing that counted was being a finalist - and in retrospect, they're right.
Am I missing something here - what is this, rural Iowa? why do a few local high school students getting a reasonably decent (but not outstanding) score on a standardized test merit any kind of wide public notice?

NMSF = national merit scholar finalist.

Confusingly, people use that acronym to mean semi finalist and scholar finalist, which are two different things. That said, semi finalists are a way more objective cut off that are relevant to everyone than finalists, which only matter are particular schools that give scholarships (i.e., not the most selective schools) or to kids with hooks at places that give scholarships (i.e., my step mother's company gave one every year). You also find out about finalists at the same time or even post college admission, so by then college admission was the relevant thing folks were talking about. I also grew up in NYC and semifinalists were the only ones mentioned on colleges apps and therefore the only ones ever mentioned.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I gotta be honest, this whole thread has been confusing as hell to me...
I grew up in NYC in the in the (just barely) web era and attended a poorly funded school in a outer borough, and my recollection is that literally nobody - not one single human - gave a flying leap that I was a NMSF...yes, up to and including my very supportive immediate family and teachers. I got some official looking results mailing at home that mentioned that was my designation somewhere, and that was the end of that.
I think I asked a teacher once if being a semifinalist meant something special and they said: nope, not really... that the only thing that counted was being a finalist - and in retrospect, they're right.
Am I missing something here - what is this, rural Iowa? why do a few local high school students getting a reasonably decent (but not outstanding) score on a standardized test merit any kind of wide public notice?

Because it is so difficult to get a qualifying score in DC. Sounds like it's much easier in NYC so agree, probably not impressive at all.

Uh, the best public high schools in NYC are much, much better than the best public high schools in DC.

Uh, that is irrelevant to the how the cutoff score for NMSF is set by state.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I gotta be honest, this whole thread has been confusing as hell to me...
I grew up in NYC in the in the (just barely) web era and attended a poorly funded school in a outer borough, and my recollection is that literally nobody - not one single human - gave a flying leap that I was a NMSF...yes, up to and including my very supportive immediate family and teachers. I got some official looking results mailing at home that mentioned that was my designation somewhere, and that was the end of that.
I think I asked a teacher once if being a semifinalist meant something special and they said: nope, not really... that the only thing that counted was being a finalist - and in retrospect, they're right.
Am I missing something here - what is this, rural Iowa? why do a few local high school students getting a reasonably decent (but not outstanding) score on a standardized test merit any kind of wide public notice?

I was a semifinalist. I got my picture in the paper. That's it. It's kind of a nothingburger.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I gotta be honest, this whole thread has been confusing as hell to me...
I grew up in NYC in the in the (just barely) web era and attended a poorly funded school in a outer borough, and my recollection is that literally nobody - not one single human - gave a flying leap that I was a NMSF...yes, up to and including my very supportive immediate family and teachers. I got some official looking results mailing at home that mentioned that was my designation somewhere, and that was the end of that.
I think I asked a teacher once if being a semifinalist meant something special and they said: nope, not really... that the only thing that counted was being a finalist - and in retrospect, they're right.
Am I missing something here - what is this, rural Iowa? why do a few local high school students getting a reasonably decent (but not outstanding) score on a standardized test merit any kind of wide public notice?

Because it is so difficult to get a qualifying score in DC. Sounds like it's much easier in NYC so agree, probably not impressive at all.

Uh, the best public high schools in NYC are much, much better than the best public high schools in DC.

Uh, that is irrelevant to the how the cutoff score for NMSF is set by state.

Stuyvesant High School had 173 (!) semifinalists in one year, a couple years ago. Bronx Sci routinely has almost 50. How many did JR have? One?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I gotta be honest, this whole thread has been confusing as hell to me...
I grew up in NYC in the in the (just barely) web era and attended a poorly funded school in a outer borough, and my recollection is that literally nobody - not one single human - gave a flying leap that I was a NMSF...yes, up to and including my very supportive immediate family and teachers. I got some official looking results mailing at home that mentioned that was my designation somewhere, and that was the end of that.
I think I asked a teacher once if being a semifinalist meant something special and they said: nope, not really... that the only thing that counted was being a finalist - and in retrospect, they're right.
Am I missing something here - what is this, rural Iowa? why do a few local high school students getting a reasonably decent (but not outstanding) score on a standardized test merit any kind of wide public notice?

Because it is so difficult to get a qualifying score in DC. Sounds like it's much easier in NYC so agree, probably not impressive at all.

Uh, the best public high schools in NYC are much, much better than the best public high schools in DC.

Uh, that is irrelevant to the how the cutoff score for NMSF is set by state.

Stuyvesant High School had 173 (!) semifinalists in one year, a couple years ago. Bronx Sci routinely has almost 50. How many did JR have? One?

NY cut off is 223, while DC cut off is 225. Why is it easier to become NMSF in NY when it already has so many great schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Only 3 NMSF at walls this year (compared with 6 last year)

How do you know this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I gotta be honest, this whole thread has been confusing as hell to me...
I grew up in NYC in the in the (just barely) web era and attended a poorly funded school in a outer borough, and my recollection is that literally nobody - not one single human - gave a flying leap that I was a NMSF...yes, up to and including my very supportive immediate family and teachers. I got some official looking results mailing at home that mentioned that was my designation somewhere, and that was the end of that.
I think I asked a teacher once if being a semifinalist meant something special and they said: nope, not really... that the only thing that counted was being a finalist - and in retrospect, they're right.
Am I missing something here - what is this, rural Iowa? why do a few local high school students getting a reasonably decent (but not outstanding) score on a standardized test merit any kind of wide public notice?

Because it is so difficult to get a qualifying score in DC. Sounds like it's much easier in NYC so agree, probably not impressive at all.

Or perhaps PP's experience isn't universal (something the PP should know, as an adult.) I also grew up in NY State at a school that hadn't had a NMSF in 5 years when I became one, and it was big news in the local paper, and they put my picture up in the school lobby (along with the other 3 kids who had been semifinalists in the last decade.) It is not "easy" to be a NMSF in many states, including New York, as you can see by its 224 threshold this year.

+1. It was a big deal at my mediocre HS too. I can imagine if you attend a magnet like TJ where there are 100+ NMSF in a year that it isn’t a big deal, but most high schools are looking for good news to trumpet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Only 3 NMSF at walls this year (compared with 6 last year)

How do you know this?

Walls sent an email out to school with the three names

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Only 3 NMSF at walls this year (compared with 6 last year)

Essential context: the cutoff went up from 223 last year to 225 this year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I gotta be honest, this whole thread has been confusing as hell to me...
I grew up in NYC in the in the (just barely) web era and attended a poorly funded school in a outer borough, and my recollection is that literally nobody - not one single human - gave a flying leap that I was a NMSF...yes, up to and including my very supportive immediate family and teachers. I got some official looking results mailing at home that mentioned that was my designation somewhere, and that was the end of that.
I think I asked a teacher once if being a semifinalist meant something special and they said: nope, not really... that the only thing that counted was being a finalist - and in retrospect, they're right.
Am I missing something here - what is this, rural Iowa? why do a few local high school students getting a reasonably decent (but not outstanding) score on a standardized test merit any kind of wide public notice?

Because it is so difficult to get a qualifying score in DC. Sounds like it's much easier in NYC so agree, probably not impressive at all.

Uh, the best public high schools in NYC are much, much better than the best public high schools in DC.

Uh, that is irrelevant to the how the cutoff score for NMSF is set by state.

Stuyvesant High School had 173 (!) semifinalists in one year, a couple years ago. Bronx Sci routinely has almost 50. How many did JR have? One?

NY cut off is 223, while DC cut off is 225. Why is it easier to become NMSF in NY when it already has so many great schools?

Because it's a statewide rather than a city-wide designation, so you're averaging the score across some great and some less great school systems.