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My son is a junior and received a letter from National Merit telling him that because of his high 2002 PSAT scores they are offering him the College Plans Reporting Service. It states that it encourages college officials to communicate directly with him about educational opportunities that may be available. There is no charge. He needs to submit name, address, social security number, birth date, high school name and address, 2002 PSAT scores, tentative college major and career choices to 2 colleges of his choice. It also says that the the colleges or universities he reports should be two " that you would seriously consider attending and that you believe may be interested in you." In the end of the letter it says many students using this service have been contacted by college officials about educational opportunities available at their institution.
Has anyone used this service and if so how legitimate is it? Should he be putting down the schools that he anticipates being the most difficult to gain admission to? I am wondering whether he will just get the same typical college info that he has already recieved from these schools or is this actually about these schools coming forth with scholorships or other special considerations? Any info anyone has would be greatly appreciated.

By Northstarmom (Northstarmom) on Tuesday, April 29, 2003 - 11:35 am: Edit

My suggestion is that he send them to schools that could be his safety schools and that also might give him merit aid. Such schools probably would be glad to hear of interest from a student who would be among their top recruits. This might encourage them to offer your son special deals for admission such as honors college, merit scholarships, mentoring, summer programs, etc.

My thoughts are that many students waste their opportunity by designating reach schools like Harvard, which offers no merit aid and also probably is designated as the first choice school by thousands of stellar applicants.

By Cassatia (Cassatia) on Wednesday, April 30, 2003 - 03:54 pm: Edit

so sending it to ivies is not a good idea? how about schools like northwestern and umich?

By Northstarmom (Northstarmom) on Wednesday, April 30, 2003 - 06:02 pm: Edit

My suggestion is to send it to one school in the bottom half of tier I in the US news rating system, and to 1 school in tier 2. Look for schools that you would be interested in attending and that also offer merit aid.

Such schools may be thrilled to have attracted attention from a student in line for at least National Merit Commended. They may try to recruit you, and may offer you merit aid. They may end up being great safety schools, including for financial aid.

I think that most schools in the top 25 or so will attract lots of interest from students with the kind of scores you have. That's why I think you'd probably be wasting your effforts to designate them as your first choice. Those colleges will just add you to their high pile of info from similar students.

Of course if you're a URM or would be adding to the schools' regional diversity, it might still be worth it to select one of the top 25 schools as your choice.

I don't suggest Mich. My son did this, and they didn't appear to care. They admitted him, but never gave him any special consideration. My guess is that lots of similar students also had designated Mich as their first choice.

By Marthpodi (Marthpodi) on Wednesday, April 30, 2003 - 08:48 pm: Edit

Northwestern doesn't give any merit-based aid, including National Merit - so don't bother sending it to NU. I think Northstarmom has the right idea - send it to schools where it will actually matter.

Good luck

By Judy (Judy) on Wednesday, April 30, 2003 - 10:45 pm: Edit

It is helpful to be reading all of your responses. My son will actually be applying to all conservatory schools for technical theatre - design, specifically lighting design. Among them all ( haven't yet seen CCM and DePaul) Carnegie Mellon appears to be the most academically oriented. I am curious how the conservatory schools look at this National Merit reporting. Haa anyone ever reported to conservatory schools? Any input that addresses this would be so helpful. His guidance counselor doesn't really have a clue.

By Judy (Judy) on Friday, May 02, 2003 - 10:30 pm: Edit

Bump - please?

By Jenniferpa (Jenniferpa) on Saturday, May 03, 2003 - 09:26 am: Edit

Judy I don't know how CMU handles this but I will give you the following info:

Lots of my daughter's friends who went to PA governors school for acting applied to CMU. These kids (govies, as they refer to themselves) are no slouches academically, as well as having a great deal of talent. The competition for places at CMU is so fierce (although I don't know about the technical fields) that ANYTHING you can do to bolster your application would seem to be a good idea. Having said that, I don't know how many academic classes your son would have to take at CMU. I'm thinking that this kind of academic achievement might have value to show that he could keep up with the academic side of things, not just talent in his selected field.

I don't imagine this is much help - I'm interested in this though, because my daughter is in a similar situation (only her interest is music). She won't be applying to CMU though (because 1. we live in Pittsburgh, and 2. her father went there!)

By Cogito (Cogito) on Thursday, May 08, 2003 - 12:57 pm: Edit

Marthpodi-- My 2001 PSAT/NMSQT Bulletin (out of date??) stated that Northwestern University was a National Merit Scholarship sponsor. It was expected to award about 50 scholarships.

By Momof2 (Momof2) on Thursday, May 08, 2003 - 02:12 pm: Edit

Northwestern told us in person that National Merit scholarships, like other merit-related awards, were limited to those demonstrating financial need. Because of this, my son did not apply there. So I guess it means whatever each university wants it to mean.

By Judy (Judy) on Thursday, May 08, 2003 - 11:26 pm: Edit

I actually called National Merit today and inquired. This preliminary stage in junior year is totally a different thing than being a semi -finalist senior year. In senior year it is specifically about listing a school for the purpose of being given scholorship money from that school if you select it as first choice. In fact in senior year you can call them and change your first choice throughout senior year. In junior year the reporting National Merit does is only to bring attention to 2 specific schools as a way to notice the student who performed so well on their PSAT's.
Jenniferpa - that's for addressing my real questions about reporting to conservatories. There is so much on this board about Musical Theatre but not really anything for design/technology. What kind of reputation does CMU/Drama have by people from Pittsburgh? Do you like the city? Does your daughter think it is a good place to go to college(if she wasn't from there)?

By Jenniferpa (Jenniferpa) on Friday, May 09, 2003 - 07:04 am: Edit

Judy
Well CMU/drama has an excellent rep here in Pittsburgh. You must understand that everything I know about it is filtered through local perspective: there may well be better programs elsewhere that I just don't know about. Having said that, if CMU was anywhere but here it would definitely be on her list of possibles. I don't know much about the drama program, except for the fact that if you're a performance major at CMU you are not allowed to perform in public until your Junior year. That includes outside performance, or vacations. That's rather tough for these kids, since most of them have been performing from a young age. I understand the rationale, but you have to be very single minded to accept this, which I suppose is the whole point. As a city Pittsburgh has good and bad points. It's mostly clean and safe. It's relatively compact (which is just as well since the public transport system is abysmal) and it has quite a few "cultural" opportunities. CMU, like Pitt is in Oakland, which is also where all the hospitals are. My daughter and her friends tend to go to Oakland (and the Southside) quite a lot. The Southside (so called because it's on the Southside of the Mon!) is one long street with a more bohemian feel. On the whole I think the universities and the city get on pretty well. Mostly the students do stay in Oakland, and if you live in Oakland, you know this.

All in all, if you want a city experience for college it's pretty good, particularly if you haven't lived in a city before. If you have, you might find it a little tame.

At this point I must confess a bias. It's not really mine, it's my husband's (who went to CMU). Although the drama/business/engineering side is well respected, there is no way he would ever employ a CMU computer grad. He feels that they are dangerously misinformed about real world computing solutions, and he has had to pick up the pieces too many times (we own a software/consulting company here and on the west coast). It's just a personal opinion, but I offer it for what it's worth. He also went to MIT and Pitt, and he doesn't feel that way about them.

Personally, my DD hopes to be a music major, so we're looking at conservatories. I think she'll be using these two slots for her safeties (which aren't conservatories), to see if they come up with any money to make them even safer!

By Finprof (Finprof) on Friday, May 09, 2003 - 10:34 pm: Edit

Before designating, go to the financial aid websites of schools you are interested in (or call them) and find out if they are NMS sponsor schools. Otherwise, I think you are wasting your time. My son did get a nice letter from Rice, the school he listed first, saying thanks for your interest, why not apply early decision. But, their NM scholarships are mostly need based. Ditto for Pomona, which he listed second. As it turns out, Pomona admitted him and Rice did not, but Pomona didn't offer any scholarship. They offered admission to 100 NM finalists for a class of 325! You will get inundated with state schools offering excellent NM Scholarships whether you contact them or not. After he got acceptance letters we called his schools and several offered NM scholarships after we called. So, bottom line is the junior listing didn't really seem to do anything for us.
Jenniferpa, we found several good conservatories with NM sponsorships, but they were mostly associated with state schools. Eastman if you apply for the dual degree at Rochester, Arizona State, Florida State, Rice - but the state schools were by far the largest.

By Ladydi (Ladydi) on Thursday, May 15, 2003 - 01:12 pm: Edit

Where can I find a list of names of the 2003 National Merit semi-finalists and commended students for our state, Florida? My daughter is a commended student and a National Hispanic Recognition Program Scholar (also based on PSAT scores) and will be attending a large state school that gives NHRP scholarships to the top 50 PSAT scores. She was told she was on that list (by the school's recruiter)in late March; however, it would be a couple of weeks before they mailed the notifications (the regular financial aid office letters re FAFSA, etc. had already been mailed a month earlier). She was also was offered a full scholarship package by our state's progressive, but small, honors college in much the same manner...regular award letter followed later by the additional scholarship for NHRP scholars. Of course now that she has declined her other offers and committed to the larger school, they tell her she's in the top 60, not the top 50, and won't qualify for any NHRP scholarship from the school unless a sufficient number of those top 50 decline.
I realize there are approximately 200 NHRP scholars in this state; however, the ones we know didn't quite score high enough to make National Merit commended student status. I may be paranoid, but I feel I should do some independent verification based on Murphy's Law applied to an oversized university bureaucracy.
I have a list of 2003 NHRP scholars; however, I can't find a list of the 2003 National Merit commended students and semi-finalists. NMSC has been a dead end. Help!!

By Beenthereil (Beenthereil) on Friday, May 16, 2003 - 10:23 am: Edit

Relax...That information won't be made available until September/October...according to all of their published information.

< edited by admin >

By Ladydi (Ladydi) on Friday, May 16, 2003 - 02:54 pm: Edit

Beenthereil
No - that will be the 2004 NM commended students and semifinalists (Class of 2004).

It's a shame you are so bitter. This is obviously not the appropriate forum for you.

By Beenthereil (Beenthereil) on Friday, May 16, 2003 - 09:40 pm: Edit

Not bitter at all.

Take a look at the forum/thread which discusses the race issue in the case which is before the Supreme Court. It involves the University of Michigan Law School.

Not sure why the admin edited my post.

By Disparat (Disparat) on Sunday, May 18, 2003 - 08:35 pm: Edit

Does anyone know where I can find the cut-off rates for specific states in regard to becoming a National Merit Semi-finalist? For instance, I know to become a semi-finalist in Massachusett you needed a 222, however I cannot find similar information for other states, particularly Delaware.

By Ladydi (Ladydi) on Monday, May 19, 2003 - 11:39 am: Edit

Disparat-
I believe I saw a list of the cut-offs for the 2003 NM semifinalists, by state, in the archives section of this site (postings from March 2003 & earlier). Good luck.

By Aparent (Aparent) on Monday, May 19, 2003 - 01:54 pm: Edit

But the cut-offs change every year, depending on students' scores in each state. NMS seems to deliberately keep from publishing the cut-offs itself, presumably because in some states the semifinalist cut-off is actually lower than the national cut-off for commended student.

By Floridamom (Floridamom) on Thursday, October 16, 2003 - 12:32 pm: Edit

to ladydi--Anyway you could email me a copy of that NHRP Scholar list? My son has been getting letters from colleges congratulating him for becoming a NHRP Scholar but we have never received an official notification from anyone about this. I have tried to get a confirmation from the NHRP at the College Board and his high school counselor, but so far no luck. It would helps us a lot with his college plans to finally see his name on the list. My email is mmm1951@hotmail.com.
If anyone else knows where to get a copy of the NHRP Scholars list for 2003, please share the info!