94chem - which consultant did you use?
What was the cutoff score for semifinalist? Did it say, or just let him know his recognition level? Based on the Compass Prep website, Florida came in at 216 as projected.Kool said:
My son just got notification of his status today. The counselor's email said nothing is made public until September 13th. Not sure if announcements are made by state, but we are in Georgia.
94chem said:
They have a new president, and this is the first year they've done this. They only have about 2800 total undergrads, so about 20% of the freshman class are NMS. They are totally remaking the image of the university. Tuition and fees run about $65,000/year. It's an unprecedented experiment.
combat wombat said:
Our son, a 9th grader, took PSAT 8/9 in. October. He got a 1330 - 670 R/W, 660 M. How do we go about helping him get those scores up? I understand that simply taking the his required math classes is going to help with math scores; he hasn't had all the math he needs for everything on the test. His "reach"'schools are very ambitious.
My pleasure, and yes, I would recommend a class for the twin brother and private instruction for the high scorer.combat wombat said:
Cool!
His twin brother made a 990 - 530 RW and 460 M. That puts him at about the 77th percentile of all testers and above the average at their private school. We're planning on having them both do a class next summer. It seems he'd benefit from this more than his brother?
Some schools are huge on NM and others don't care about it at all. A&M is huge on it but Texas doesn't care. Vanderbilt actually does care but most of the elites don't. It's just whether or not the school wants to brag about number of NM, if they do they give big money, if they don't care they don't care at all for the most part.Kool said:
Do you find that the higher echelon schools put much weight on National Merit status in terms of admissions? My son has gotten all kinds of letters from schools bending over backwards to give him a scholarship with in-state tuition guarantees (Texas A&M), full rides plus stipends (University of Tulsa), full tuition (Alabama, the Mississippi schools), etc. So far I have seen absolutely nothing in terms of any offers from the University of Chicago, Duke, Vanderbilt, UVA, Georgetown, etc. tier schools. And in going around to do campus tours at these schools, I never hear their numbers of NMS kids mentioned in their presentations, etc. It seems an odd dichotomy. Is NMS status very helpful in terms of acceptance at these schools (I'm hoping it is)?
"Emphasizes" may be a strong word but many of the top schools don't mention NM at all and don't offer any scholarships for NM at all. Even schools like Colorado School of Mines have no bump for NM. For Vanderbilt they have this at least:Kool said:
Thanks. Why do you say Vanderbilt emphasizes it? I went on their site:
Vanderbilt at a Glance
Looking at their stats, their freshman class should have about 1,800 students. They list 169 National Merit Scholars. That's only about 9% of their student body. When you look at their test scores, ACT middle 50 is 34-35, and SAT middle 50 is 1510-1560. It seems something is off. Those scores would tell me that a huge number of their admitted students would qualify for NMS. I wonder if they have a lot of their students qualify as Finalists, but they don't get a scholarship so they don't qualify as Scholars. That's the only way I can really work my head around those stats. Vanderbilt is on our list, so I hope you are right about their preference for these students.
Quote:
National Merit Scholarships
Vanderbilt provides scholarship assistance for admitted and enrolled students who are named National Merit Finalists. Students must designate Vanderbilt as their first choice school with the National Merit Corporation by National Merit's final deadline and enroll as an entering freshman student to receive Vanderbilt's National Merit Scholarship. For those finalists who also receive one of Vanderbilt's merit scholarships, we guarantee an additional $2,000 in National Merit total scholarship dollars per year from all sources (with Vanderbilt supplementing any smaller corporate or one-time National Merit Corporation awards). Beginning with entering students for the fall 2023 class, those finalists who do not receive an additional merit scholarship from Vanderbilt will receive a total of up to $6,000 per year in National Merit scholarship dollars from all sources (with Vanderbilt supplementing any smaller corporate or one-time National Merit Corporation awards). For students entering Vanderbilt before fall 2023, the scholarship total is up to $5,000 per year.
A lot of the top schools have had an inflation bump on SAT scores because of being test optional. If you don't have an extremely high SAT/ACT then they don't submit it. That likely takes out a lot of legacy and athlete admits as well that can drag on the numbers.Kool said:
Thanks, that does make some sense. Especially since it appears Vanderbilt allows you to Superscore. It would be interesting to see what their single score mid-50s looked like. Those superscored numbers are WAAAY high.