Reply to National Merit Semifinalist 2018

Forum Index » Private & Independent Schools

Reply to "National Merit Semifinalist 2018"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]NMSF designation is based on the location of the School the student attends, and not where the student actually lives.

If your School is located in DC (even if you live in Maryland or Virginia) you will need to attain a PSAT Index Score of 223 or higher.  If your School is located in Maryland or Virginia (even if you live in DC) you will have to achieve a PSAT Index Score of 222 or higher.

Many DC School students will earn a 222, and just miss NMSF status, although that score would have been high enough for NMSF status in both Maryland and Virginia Schools.

That is also why one cannot compare the number of NMSFs in DC Schools to the number of NMSFs in Maryland and Virginia Schools, in order to assess strength of the School or student body.  Although you can compare Maryland and Virginia Schools to each othet, as they have the same measure.[/quote]

The point of NMSF is not to compare schools to each other. And you can't compare MD and NoVA schools to each other because they have very different approaches to magnet schools which impacts the distribution of good test takers.

The DC NMSFs are overwhelmingly in the private schools - this is hardly a disadvantaged bunch and the selection process is also heavily weighted to good test takers. So a one point difference is not unfair. I suspect there aren't that many 222s in the public schools who just missed the threshold.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics