Anonymous wrote:I'm the 21:02 poster. I wanted to add that my Commended kid had a 35 ACT and chose to include Commended on her college app. It is NOT a participation award by any means, especially from this area.

A 'commended' kid scored higher that 97% of ALL high school kids who took the PSAT, so certainly not a participation award by any means. However, I'm not sure at which school level (ranked 50+ maybe?) when it starts becoming relevant.

Anonymous wrote:I used to help with admissions at a tier 1 school. Applications are so competitive that every detail, award etc is important. No single aspect of an application can get you in the door, but one detail can be the difference between two applicants when there are thousands of applicants. A 1450 commended is not the same thing as a 1450 not commended. The award includes additional regional statistics. If you scored a 1450 from PG county it means a slight bit more than if you received it as a student from Mclean. It is not fruitful to downplay the importance. It is more interesting as to why notification was not given in a timely fashion. If a good reason can't be given leadership should be held responsible and possibly removed. If leadership is not there to promote the future optionality and aspirations of students the decision is clear cut.

You are not understanding how National Merit Commended is determined. It is a national determination. Everybody in the country that has or exceeds the cutoff score is a Commended Scholar. It is not like the determination of a National Merit Semifinalist (where one who has a score that qualifies him/her as a semifinalist in Wyoming would not necessarily qualify as such in DC).

I'm the 21:02 poster. I wanted to add that my Commended kid had a 35 ACT and chose to include Commended on her college app. It is NOT a participation award by any means, especially from this area.

Anonymous wrote:It wasn't "Not given in a timely fashion." It was concealed.

They were distributed at TJ. Not concealed.

One child was a National Merit Finalist/Scholarship Winner and the other was a National Merit Commended Scholar. They both indicated their awards on their college apps, and their awards continue to be on their resumes, even though they are now in college. As reference, they both attend USNWR Top 10 colleges. The acceptance margins to top schools are so slim, and the margins are even slimmer when you come from a highly competitive area like DC, so I truly believe these awards can make a difference. Sure it's just one test on one day, but a Commended score shows that you can handle a significant amount of pressure and still do well. Also, many of the DC/MD/VA Commended students would have made the NMSF cutoff in other states, as DC and Maryland historically have had the highest cutoff scores in the country, and Virginia is usually only one point behind. What a shame for all the TJ and now Langley and Westfield kids.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think commended shows admissions office that this was a kid who started off with a relatively high PSAT and didn’t need to prep to get their high SAT score.

Uh....students prep for PSATs....all the time. Where have you been? Under a rock?

Then there's killing two birds with one stone by prepping for a fall junior year SAT. That would be my suggestion for students who typically score in the top percentile on standardized tests generally.

This didn't quite work out for my older kid, who retook SAT later, but my current junior was one-and-done on the Aug SAT after prepping over the summer. Then took Oct PSAT with zero additional prep and scored 4 points higher than last year's cutoff for NMSF in our state.

+1 high achievers often study in the summer before junior year, to take the SAT and ACT at the end of the summer. These students are often one and done, or identify a specific area to fix. It allows them to focus on their generally heavy course load over the year, and in the pre-test optional world it helped identify which schools one would apply to. This timeline helped with the PSAT, coincidentally.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I used to help with admissions at a tier 1 school. Applications are so competitive that every detail, award etc is important. No single aspect of an application can get you in the door, but one detail can be the difference between two applicants when there are thousands of applicants. A 1450 commended is not the same thing as a 1450 not commended. The award includes additional regional statistics. If you scored a 1450 from PG county it means a slight bit more than if you received it as a student from Mclean. It is not fruitful to downplay the importance. It is more interesting as to why notification was not given in a timely fashion. If a good reason can't be given leadership should be held responsible and possibly removed. If leadership is not there to promote the future optionality and aspirations of students the decision is clear cut.

"Notification"? I found the commended cutoff information online by performing a Google search for it in April 2022. DC put it in the Common app for a rolling admissions application in August. Every parent I know is proactive like this (to an extreme, actually). There's really no need to fire someone over what amounts to publicly available information that is so easy to find.

I was about to say something similar. Mine had to do alternative submission due to c9vid psat cancelation. We did not realize she needed to send scores until after initial notification. Got tgem in in time, but no one prompted us, and no one told her she got nmsf. We followed up and asked. Later, an announcement was made. But, kids know when these things come out. They can ask their counselor or contact nmsc. Sure, the school should have informed, but it's not sone weird conspiracy to withhold awards. Kid should be on top of this and check.

Anonymous wrote:What awards are your students listing if commended is not impressive enough?

The usual. Started their own non-profit, won a MacArthur Grant, built a clean water system for Nigeria, standard stuff like that.

What awards are your students listing if commended is not impressive enough?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I used to help with admissions at a tier 1 school. Applications are so competitive that every detail, award etc is important. No single aspect of an application can get you in the door, but one detail can be the difference between two applicants when there are thousands of applicants. A 1450 commended is not the same thing as a 1450 not commended. The award includes additional regional statistics. If you scored a 1450 from PG county it means a slight bit more than if you received it as a student from Mclean. It is not fruitful to downplay the importance. It is more interesting as to why notification was not given in a timely fashion. If a good reason can't be given leadership should be held responsible and possibly removed. If leadership is not there to promote the future optionality and aspirations of students the decision is clear cut.

I am not following how AO at tier 1 schools are even considering applicants with 1450 commended or not

Then you don’t understand holistic admissions.

Anonymous wrote:I used to help with admissions at a tier 1 school. Applications are so competitive that every detail, award etc is important. No single aspect of an application can get you in the door, but one detail can be the difference between two applicants when there are thousands of applicants. A 1450 commended is not the same thing as a 1450 not commended. The award includes additional regional statistics. If you scored a 1450 from PG county it means a slight bit more than if you received it as a student from Mclean. It is not fruitful to downplay the importance. It is more interesting as to why notification was not given in a timely fashion. If a good reason can't be given leadership should be held responsible and possibly removed. If leadership is not there to promote the future optionality and aspirations of students the decision is clear cut.

I am not following how AO at tier 1 schools are even considering applicants with 1450 commended or not

Anonymous wrote:I used to help with admissions at a tier 1 school. Applications are so competitive that every detail, award etc is important. No single aspect of an application can get you in the door, but one detail can be the difference between two applicants when there are thousands of applicants. A 1450 commended is not the same thing as a 1450 not commended. The award includes additional regional statistics. If you scored a 1450 from PG county it means a slight bit more than if you received it as a student from Mclean. It is not fruitful to downplay the importance. It is more interesting as to why notification was not given in a timely fashion. If a good reason can't be given leadership should be held responsible and possibly removed. If leadership is not there to promote the future optionality and aspirations of students the decision is clear cut.

"Notification"? I found the commended cutoff information online by performing a Google search for it in April 2022. DC put it in the Common app for a rolling admissions application in August. Every parent I know is proactive like this (to an extreme, actually). There's really no need to fire someone over what amounts to publicly available information that is so easy to find.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think commended shows admissions office that this was a kid who started off with a relatively high PSAT and didn’t need to prep to get their high SAT score.

Uh....students prep for PSATs....all the time. Where have you been? Under a rock?

You've got to be pretty deep in the heart of Nerdville to be doing a lot of PSAT prep.

Or maybe you need the scholarships that becoming a finalist provide to you. Some of our kids have to scrape for every dollar so you can be sure they’re preparing.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think commended shows admissions office that this was a kid who started off with a relatively high PSAT and didn’t need to prep to get their high SAT score.

Uh....students prep for PSATs....all the time. Where have you been? Under a rock?

Then there's killing two birds with one stone by prepping for a fall junior year SAT. That would be my suggestion for students who typically score in the top percentile on standardized tests generally.

This didn't quite work out for my older kid, who retook SAT later, but my current junior was one-and-done on the Aug SAT after prepping over the summer. Then took Oct PSAT with zero additional prep and scored 4 points higher than last year's cutoff for NMSF in our state.

Anonymous wrote:It wasn't "Not given in a timely fashion." It was concealed.

How do you know that? Also, I saw mention that it was racially motivated — do they have the data to prove that?