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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here again, hoping we'll have some generous parents and/or students post their qualifying NMSF scores for Class of 2016, and their respective states, in an effort to help those who are trying to determine this year's cut-offs over on College Confidential (and here, for that matter).

For some students, like my *white DS who lives in a flyover state*, being a National Merit Scholar provides the necessary scholarship to attend college. Like most other things in life, the scholarship competition not completely fair, but it's what we're working with at the moment. My DS is attending a state school on a full merit scholarship + other fantastic opportunities, thanks to National Merit. I'm just trying to help some fellow parents this year, like I was helped last year, in gathering information. For some folks, this scholarship means a lot, and the waiting is very hard.

Thanks to anyone who can help by posting on the topic.

Given the cut-offs are different between various states, would your son have qualified if he lived in DC, MA, or MD? Just curious.

Why does it matter? What's the point of your Q?

- NP

Just curious if OP's son took advantage of geographic affirmative action.

I feel bad for the black kids in MD - MD is one of the blackest states in the country and yet in 45+ other states they would be in the running but they live in MD due to no fault of their own.

I wouldn't care if all states were bunched together by 2-3 points. The gaps are shocking though. Especially so called 'educated' states like Wisconsin.

And yet with this shocking gap, flyover politicians say they don't want national standards on curriculum and assessment (common core).

Are you kidding me?

Question, do they post the racial score breakdown by state?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here again, hoping we'll have some generous parents and/or students post their qualifying NMSF scores for Class of 2016, and their respective states, in an effort to help those who are trying to determine this year's cut-offs over on College Confidential (and here, for that matter).

For some students, like my *white DS who lives in a flyover state*, being a National Merit Scholar provides the necessary scholarship to attend college. Like most other things in life, the scholarship competition not completely fair, but it's what we're working with at the moment. My DS is attending a state school on a full merit scholarship + other fantastic opportunities, thanks to National Merit. I'm just trying to help some fellow parents this year, like I was helped last year, in gathering information. For some folks, this scholarship means a lot, and the waiting is very hard.

Thanks to anyone who can help by posting on the topic.

Given the cut-offs are different between various states, would your son have qualified if he lived in DC, MA, or MD? Just curious.

Why does it matter? What's the point of your Q?

- NP

Just curious if OP's son took advantage of geographic affirmative action.

I feel bad for the black kids in MD - MD is one of the blackest states in the country and yet in 45+ other states they would be in the running but they live in MD due to no fault of their own.

I wouldn't care if all states were bunched together by 2-3 points. The gaps are shocking though. Especially so called 'educated' states like Wisconsin.

And yet with this shocking gap, flyover politicians say they don't want national standards on curriculum and assessment (common core).

Are you kidding me?

Question, do they post the racial score breakdown by state?

That I don't know - but the gap between 208 (wisconin) and 221 (MD) is pretty large. I'm certain atleast 50-100 black kids get hammered due to that gap.

[Anonymous]

Black kids have a separate award category - National Achievement Scholarship.

[Anonymous]

National Merit also has the Achievement Scholars which recognizes the highest- scoring African American students and Commended Scholars (which has a nationwide cutoff).

[Anonymous]

Op is from MD, I believe.

[Anonymous]

TN 212 - my son got the NMSF letter from school GC today.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:National Merit also has the Achievement Scholars which recognizes the highest- scoring African American students and Commended Scholars (which has a nationwide cutoff).

ah ok. So it seems other PP's are right. It is a policy aimed at making sure not too many asians 'spoil' things.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:TN 212 - my son got the NMSF letter from school GC today.

Is TN education bad? Why is the cutoff so low there?

[Anonymous]

There are some good schools in TN, but most schools are average and less competitive than Northeast or west coast. P.S. Some States' cut off scores are even lower than TN's. Keep in mind that NMSF and its PSAT cut off score by State is a high school game. The objective of playing the NMSF game is to get a free ride or maximum scholarships for your target college. Once you achieve your objective, the PSAT score becomes obsolete whether it's 209 or 240. Once in college, a new game (MCAT, LSAT, etc.) is waiting for you to play. All standardized tests are just means that help you to get into a particular occupation (doctor, lawyer, engineer, etc.) that you want and enjoy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:interesting that MD consistently beats VA by a couple of points.

Asian population on a % basis is pretty equal, MD has more blacks (who statistically score lowest), MD has more latinos I believe as well -

does this mean MD whites are way smarter than VA whites?

I think it does.

The Asian percentages are equal between the states, but Maryland has a much larger jewish population which may increase the scores in Maryland over virginia.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:interesting that MD consistently beats VA by a couple of points.

Asian population on a % basis is pretty equal, MD has more blacks (who statistically score lowest), MD has more latinos I believe as well -

does this mean MD whites are way smarter than VA whites?

I think it does.

The Asian percentages are equal between the states, but Maryland has a much larger jewish population which may increase the scores in Maryland over virginia.

It's not race based. MD has better school system than VA and students just score higher.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:National Merit also has the Achievement Scholars which recognizes the highest- scoring African American students and Commended Scholars (which has a nationwide cutoff).

ah ok. So it seems other PP's are right. It is a policy aimed at making sure not too many asians 'spoil' things.

NMSC has been designating semifinalists the same way for decades, since long before the more recent increase in numbers of Asian Americans. They want their competition to represent all 50 states and the method they use assures that every state is equally represented.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:National Merit also has the Achievement Scholars which recognizes the highest- scoring African American students and Commended Scholars (which has a nationwide cutoff).

ah ok. So it seems other PP's are right. It is a policy aimed at making sure not too many asians 'spoil' things.

NMSC has been designating semifinalists the same way for decades, since long before the more recent increase in numbers of Asian Americans. They want their competition to represent all 50 states and the method they use assures that every state is equally represented.

And I think this is perfectly acceptable methodology.

- Asian parent

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:National Merit also has the Achievement Scholars which recognizes the highest- scoring African American students and Commended Scholars (which has a nationwide cutoff).

ah ok. So it seems other PP's are right. It is a policy aimed at making sure not too many asians 'spoil' things.

NMSC has been designating semifinalists the same way for decades, since long before the more recent increase in numbers of Asian Americans. They want their competition to represent all 50 states and the method they use assures that every state is equally represented.

And I think this is perfectly acceptable methodology.

- Asian parent

Are you married to white/Jewish?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here again, hoping we'll have some generous parents and/or students post their qualifying NMSF scores for Class of 2016, and their respective states, in an effort to help those who are trying to determine this year's cut-offs over on College Confidential (and here, for that matter).

For some students, like my *white DS who lives in a flyover state*, being a National Merit Scholar provides the necessary scholarship to attend college. Like most other things in life, the scholarship competition not completely fair, but it's what we're working with at the moment. My DS is attending a state school on a full merit scholarship + other fantastic opportunities, thanks to National Merit. I'm just trying to help some fellow parents this year, like I was helped last year, in gathering information. For some folks, this scholarship means a lot, and the waiting is very hard.

Thanks to anyone who can help by posting on the topic.

Given the cut-offs are different between various states, would your son have qualified if he lived in DC, MA, or MD? Just curious.

Why does it matter? What's the point of your Q?

- NP

Just curious if OP's son took advantage of geographic affirmative action.

I feel bad for the black kids in MD - MD is one of the blackest states in the country and yet in 45+ other states they would be in the running but they live in MD due to no fault of their own.

I wouldn't care if all states were bunched together by 2-3 points. The gaps are shocking though. Especially so called 'educated' states like Wisconsin.

And yet with this shocking gap, flyover politicians say they don't want national standards on curriculum and assessment (common core).

Are you kidding me?

Question, do they post the racial score breakdown by state?

Yes if you contact the college board directly they can provide breakdowns by state, ethnicity. I am AA and wanted to find out how my DC scores stacked up against other AA students. I live in DC and feel like the score cut-offs are unfair somehow. For DC to be at 224 cut-off which I think is the highest in the country, seems crazy. I'm in the camp of figuring out how to use the NSMF as a tool for scholarships. My DC is only a sophomore but took the PSAT as a freshman and will take it again this year. I'm hoping by taking them as practice it will help when the real deal comes around junior year. We will need scholarship money for sure.