Reply to NMSFs in DC 2026

Forum Index » DC Public and Public Charter Schools

Reply to "NMSFs in DC 2026"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]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... [b]that the only thing that counted was being a finalist - and in retrospect, they're [/b]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?[/quote]

NMSF = national merit scholar finalist.[/quote]

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.[/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