Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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).

Also in DC this business of using NMF to signal academic skill without disclosing a mediocre SAT score won’t work. Kids with SAT scores in the top 25% of elite colleges routinely don’t get NMSF here, because the NMSF cut score is so high.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

This is reversing. A bunch of schools, including basically the entire Ivy League, that dropped the SAT have brought them back.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Mildly off topic but the performance of test optional kids is so bad most everyone has moved back to requiring a test, and I doubt there will be any holdouts in a decade.

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:POST THE LIST!!’

Where can one find the list?

Who are the local education reporters in DC?

This is honestly so depressing. Lauren Lumpkin is supposed to cover education for the Post but she clearly doesn't really want to, and most of her articles more nationally hooked.

I can't find any other dedicated dc education reporters at any publication.

We are so screwed. Not bc of this particular small topic, but it's a canary in a coal mine -- there is NO media paying any attention to what's going on in DC schools. So all changing curriculum etc, will happen with no scrutiny.

Anonymous wrote:POST THE LIST!!’

lol!

Anonymous wrote:POST THE LIST!!’

Where can one find the list?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Obviously, kids who are NMS generally do well in the SAT.

Lots of parents here are butt hurt that their snowflakes are not or will not be NMS.

Yeah this. "No one cares, nerds!"

The NMS thing is what gives the PSAT stakes. Otherwise why would you try to do well?

The SAT has stakes bc it identifies your aptitude to colleges, the PSAT has stakes bc of NMS. It is a big deal for the kids who get it -- there are all these steps they have to take and paperwork to file, I seem to remember having to choose two colleges to send the notice to (and got into both, so I think it's very meaningful to colleges), and getting a $25k scholarship to Boston University on the basis of it (though I didn't go there).

Absolutely none of my classmates cared or knew, except the one other NMSF.

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Obviously, kids who are NMS generally do well in the SAT.

Lots of parents here are butt hurt that their snowflakes are not or will not be NMS.

POST THE LIST!!’

Anonymous wrote:Anyway, someone should message / e-mail Jeff. Out of curiosity.

leave Jeff alone. of all the things discussed on this website knowing this is the least important.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Again, it's an on ramp for many academic scholarship offers. Is it necessary? Is it the most important thing? No. But it can be helpful.

No one is saying it's a bad thing. But it's a trailer for an upcoming movie. If the movie isn't good, no one is going to care about the great trailer.

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Again, it's an on ramp for many academic scholarship offers. Is it necessary? Is it the most important thing? No. But it can be helpful.