our private doesn't have any APs, but kids could have taken on their own. Not many do that in sophomore year.

top 10% usually getting NMSF anyway.

I guess for kids who didnt get it and someone did take 2 APs, this is a nice needle to thread. Any AO will assume it's about the PSAT. I'd almost be tempted to leave the AP scores off unless there were many more

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I had no idea what this letter meant! Figured it was to say DD would at least be NM commended - she’s got 222 index in MD and is on the cusp for semi finalist. Why would any college care that’s she’s in the top 10% of her high school class? Is this for kids who don’t make commended to have something to put in the honors section?

Exactly. For top kids this is superfluous and meaningless.

As I noted above, some of us have kids going to schools where more than 10 percent of students are NM commended (in our case about 60 commended out of 360, plus 10-15 semifinalists), so to be in the top 10 percent at our school is actually a further differentiation.

But you can qualify based on 2 AP scores of 3+ which could be nearly all kids at top performing schools...colleges won't know by which criteria your kid qualified. Seems like a meaningless award at schools that send many to T20

I don’t think most kids at our school have 2 APs before junior year. We don’t have AP Precal and no AP sciences are permitted until you’ve taken the intro level. So most kids only have APUSH by the end of 10th grade. But maybe some also have computer science. Not sure about that.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I had no idea what this letter meant! Figured it was to say DD would at least be NM commended - she’s got 222 index in MD and is on the cusp for semi finalist. Why would any college care that’s she’s in the top 10% of her high school class? Is this for kids who don’t make commended to have something to put in the honors section?

Exactly. For top kids this is superfluous and meaningless.

As I noted above, some of us have kids going to schools where more than 10 percent of students are NM commended (in our case about 60 commended out of 360, plus 10-15 semifinalists), so to be in the top 10 percent at our school is actually a further differentiation.

But you can qualify based on 2 AP scores of 3+ which could be nearly all kids at top performing schools...colleges won't know by which criteria your kid qualified. Seems like a meaningless award at schools that send many to T20

Pretty much every kid in my DC's class at their top magnet will be getting this award.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Commended Student cutoff for the class of 2026 is confirmed at 210.

Isn't that lower than prior years?

It is higher than in recent prior years. https://www.compassprep.com/national-merit-semifinalist-cutoffs/

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I had no idea what this letter meant! Figured it was to say DD would at least be NM commended - she’s got 222 index in MD and is on the cusp for semi finalist. Why would any college care that’s she’s in the top 10% of her high school class? Is this for kids who don’t make commended to have something to put in the honors section?

Exactly. For top kids this is superfluous and meaningless.

As I noted above, some of us have kids going to schools where more than 10 percent of students are NM commended (in our case about 60 commended out of 360, plus 10-15 semifinalists), so to be in the top 10 percent at our school is actually a further differentiation.

Anonymous wrote:I had no idea what this letter meant! Figured it was to say DD would at least be NM commended - she’s got 222 index in MD and is on the cusp for semi finalist. Why would any college care that’s she’s in the top 10% of her high school class? Is this for kids who don’t make commended to have something to put in the honors section?

Exactly. For top kids this is superfluous and meaningless.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Commended Student cutoff for the class of 2026 is confirmed at 210.

Isn't that lower than prior years?

I think it is usually lower.

Anonymous wrote:The Commended Student cutoff for the class of 2026 is confirmed at 210.

Isn't that lower than prior years?

The Commended Student cutoff for the class of 2026 is confirmed at 210.

Anonymous wrote:I had no idea what this letter meant! Figured it was to say DD would at least be NM commended - she’s got 222 index in MD and is on the cusp for semi finalist. Why would any college care that’s she’s in the top 10% of her high school class? Is this for kids who don’t make commended to have something to put in the honors section?

Well my daughter is on the cusp of being commended, so she was thrilled to to receive it. All that matters is how your student stacks up with others in their school, and this award is going to make her stand out in her small limited AP private school where few ever get commended yet 20% matriculate to fantastic top 25 schools.

Hopefully your daughter's commended award will also make her stand out. If her school has many commended students, it probably won't matter. It really depends on the school!

^ not list scores

For a kid who qualified w 2 AP scores of 3, this is a great time to include award and not lost scores.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So annoyed our private school in DC strongly discouraged kids from taking the PSAT and made it optional this year. Said the National Merit cut off in DC is so high it is a waste of time.

Private schools hate it when public school kids paying nothing beat their students. Better to not participate and sniff disdainfully at the merit recognition as being for the plebes.

For the schools like the PP’s school, it’s a combination of not prioritizing the few kids they have who need scholarship money and might benefit from having a good score and avoiding comparisons of NMSFs with other area schools. Same reasons for dropping APs.