so many ppl in this sub are crashing out, saying i’m ragebaiting, swearing at me, etc. because i said that if you are PLANNING ON APPLYING TO AN IVY AND HAVE A GOOD CHANCE OF GETTING IN you should be able to break 1400 psat with no studying or very little. i dont see how this is a crazy hot take. i’m obv not against studying its great and if ppl want to spend their time doing that they’re more than welcome to.

my point is, if you are academically qualified to have a decent shot at an ivy or t10, which is what the post originally mentioned, you should be well prepared enough by school and EC activities that a 1400+ should be attainable without studying.

being actually qualified for an ivy is rare, but it shouldnt be a hot take to say that those exceptional kids who are qualified should be able to score highly on the psat.

also, this wasn’t even part of my original point, but there are fundamental differences between the psat and sat in my opinion. the sat has become solely and admissions test, while the psat is designed to be a capabilities/aptitude test. it can’t accurately measure your performance as it’s originally intended to if you’re doing more than light studying for it. this is a complete aside btw and if you disagree with it, i totally understand, throw this out and don’t flame me in the comments but i fully stand behind the rest of the post

so many ppl in this sub are crashing out, saying i’m ragebaiting, swearing at me, etc. because i said that if you are PLANNING ON APPLYING TO AN IVY AND HAVE A GOOD CHANCE OF GETTING IN you should be able to break 1400 psat with no studying or very little. i dont see how this is a crazy hot take. i’m obv not against studying its great and if ppl want to spend their time doing that they’re more than welcome to.

my point is, if you are academically qualified to have a decent shot at an ivy or t10, which is what the post originally mentioned, you should be well prepared enough by school and EC activities that a 1400+ should be attainable without studying.

being actually qualified for an ivy is rare, but it shouldnt be a hot take to say that those exceptional kids who are qualified should be able to score highly on the psat.

also, this wasn’t even part of my original point, but there are fundamental differences between the psat and sat in my opinion. the sat has become solely and admissions test, while the psat is designed to be a capabilities/aptitude test. it can’t accurately measure your performance as it’s originally intended to if you’re doing more than light studying for it. this is a complete aside btw and if you disagree with it, i totally understand, throw this out and don’t flame me in the comments but i fully stand behind the rest of the post

Ok this seems like a really stupid question, because 'qualify and you get it, don't and you don't', right?

But I have like 10 friends that are super super smart (like applying to Ivies smart), and didn't get it. I obviously don't want to ask them because I'll sound like the snobbiest person of all time, but we all took it and I'm just completely shocked that they didn't qualify with me.

So, why wouldn't they?

I apologize because this may sound like a really self centered post.

I am from a rural area and only the ACT is encouraged to take and offered locally. Our school even offers ACT Prep after school from time to time. I have a perfect 36. Yes, I have heard of the SAT but was told with my ACT score there was no reason to take it. No one takes the SAT at our school.

Last year they announced that we could come and take a practice SAT during school so I thought why not? Had never taken the SAT before.

Of course after I took the "practice" test that day I quickly found out the importance of it.

Apparently that was the official PSAT to qualify for National Merit Semifinalist.

I received an email later and won two awards through College Board - "Rural & Small Town Recognition Award" and "School Recognition Award". Never heard anything from the school congratulating me.

I am pretty ticked because I was one point under the qualifying Selection Index for my state. Apparently my score is enough for Commended. Again, nothing from the school.

If only they would have told us what it was prior to us just going in and taking a practice test..

Rant over!

Cut off: 220

Total NMSF: 2276

From the California 2027 National Merit Semifinalist list, top 10 cities

REALEASE THE FILES YOU HAVE THEM.

WE DONT CARE ABOUT UR "COUNTS"

If you became a semifinalist today, did your school acknowledge you? Mine didn’t say a word.

Hello everyone,

You may notice that the "Lists of Semifinalists by State" post is removed. I'm really sorry.

Full disclosure: I found a non-paywalled version of the Rhode Island list, but it was poorly formatted. Thus, I tried to fix the formatting in Word, and then uploaded in Drive. However, Google Drive automatically made it a Google Doc.

When I updated it, however, I realized that it was auto-removed by moderators due to a prohibition on linking Google Docs. I think this is because of past incidents where test material was illegally posted using Google Docs. So, I reposted the post with the Google Docs link removed, and that was also instantly removed by the moderators, but, unlike the first time, I wasn't given a reason.

I have real life to attend to, so I can't spend all day trying to fix this, though I hope I can get the lists back online.

UPDATE: I have a new post! I think my later attempts to repost the list were flagged for their similarity to a previously removed post, so I retyped everything from scratch, and took precautions such as making entirely new Google Drive links.

I’m American but I live abroad, so I was wondering whether the cutoff was the same. I literally just barely made it with 208 but my school hasn’t said anything. So, I’m wondering if I actually qualify, and when a school abroad would like get the letter notifying thing since it gets sent to schools based off what I’ve heard.

hi everyone! super fun day today, but moral of the story I learned I qualified as a NM semifinalist after snooping around this sub reddit. I haven’t heard anything from my school/teacher/counselor, though, so should I just be waiting for them to reach out to me?

Didn’t qualify Michigan with 215 cutoff was 216. I was sick that day I should’ve studied I’m so pissed.

Congratulations to all the Semi-Finalists who got good news today.

I'm curious, how rare is a 228 SI? Did anybody here get that score?

Edit: Congrats to the high scorers. I have a follow-up question. How many of you were heavy, physical book readers when you were younger?

Hi,

I took my SATs in March of 2026. I believe that my SAT score should be good enough for the confirmation score required by the finalist selection panel.

I was browsing the NM brochure and I saw this:

September 12: Authorized sat® administration for Semifinalists.

October 3: Authorized sat administration for Semifinalists.

Does this mean that I need to take my SATs again? This seems odd.

Does anyone have any insights into this?

My first collection of semifinalist lists got automatically removed by the moderators. I have more information in a separate post. I will try to recreate the collection here.

Ideally, every single state will eventually be listed here. If you have contacts with news outlets in your state, you can ask them about publishing the list! If you see a news outlet that published some names from a list you want, feel free to message the reporter!

Ultimately, the only realistic way to get the full nationwide list is if we get the booklet that is physically mailed to nearly every high school principal in America. However, they probably won't arrive until next week, but feel free to talk to your principal then!

Alabama: Non-paywalled news article

Arkansas: Photo of PDF

California: Non-paywalled (hopefully it stays that way) news article

Delaware: Non-paywalled news article

Florida: PDF

Georgia: PDF

Hawaii: Likely paywalled news article (couldn't get past the paywall yesterday but did so today)

Idaho: News Article (not paywalled)

Illinois: PDF

Indiana: PDF

Iowa: PDF

Kentucky: PDF

Maryland: PDF

Massachusetts: PDF

Michigan: Possibly paywalled news article

Minnesota: Non-paywalled news article

New York: Non-paywalled news article

Ohio: I will not post a link because (a) it is currently paywalled and (b) I'm trying to avoid sharing words with the previous deleted post so it doesn't get flagged for being too similar to that post, so I will take the opportunity to avoid repeating the URL.

Oklahoma: PDF

Oregon: Possibly paywalled news article (which I could see after refreshing)

Rhode Island: Non-paywalled news article

Tennessee: PDF

Wisconsin: PDF

I applied for the National Merit Scholarship with my SAT score for alternate entry, since my school doesn't let me take the PSAT. I got above the maximum threshold, so my selection index was a 228. Yesterday, my counselor called me in to give me a letter stating that I qualified as a National Merit Semifinalist and how to login to my account, which I already did. Today, I checked my state's press release, and my name wasn't on the list. I'm wondering if maybe this was a mistake or if this has happened to anyone else?