National Merit Semifinalist Cutoffs for the Class of 2027: All 50 States, Trends and Dates

The Class of 2027 National Merit Semifinalist cutoffs range from a Selection Index of 208 to 223, and every one of the 50 states and the District of Columbia is lower than it was for the Class of 2026. New Jersey and DC sit at the top (223), five states share the bottom (208), and the national Commended line is 208. The table below lists all 51 jurisdictions for four classes, so you can see how much your state moves from year to year, and the CSV lets you reuse the data.

This page owns the cutoff data. To turn your own PSAT section scores into a Selection Index and compare it with one state, use the PSAT score calculator, which does the arithmetic for you.

Where the numbers come from

NMSC does not post a public state-by-state cutoff table. The National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) sends each state’s cutoff to high schools, and test-prep company Compass Education Group compiles those official figures into a public table↗. Every cutoff on this page comes from that compilation, which is a secondary source. We cross-checked the totals against NMSC’s own announcement as published by local media, but we could not open an NMSC state list. Treat a cutoff as confirmed once your school counselor has the NMSC letter.

What we did ourselves: computed the year-over-year changes, the four-class ranges and the averages. The averages are unweighted (each of the 50 states and DC counts once) and leave out the Studying Abroad and U.S. Territories categories, which appear in the table in italics.

Dates and program numbers come from NMSC’s September 2026 release (via Greenwich Free Press↗), and score scales and release dates come from College Board.

Class of 2027 Semifinalist cutoffs by state

Select a column heading to sort. “Change” is Class of 2027 minus Class of 2026. The Class of 2027 took the PSAT/NMSQT in October 2025 as juniors.

Download the table as CSV (51 states and DC, Studying Abroad, U.S. Territories and the Commended line; UTF-8; columns: state, code, class_2027, class_2026, change_2026_2027, class_2025, class_2024, low_2024_2027, high_2024_2027, source).

Which states have the highest and lowest cutoffs?

Nine jurisdictions are at 220 or higher for the Class of 2027: New Jersey and DC (223), Maryland, Massachusetts, Virginia and Washington (221), and California, Connecticut and New York (220). At the other end, Alaska, Montana, North Dakota, West Virginia and Wyoming are at 208, which equals the Commended cutoff. In those five states, any student who reached Commended also reached the Semifinalist line.

High cutoffs do not mean a state’s students are smarter. NMSC allocates roughly 16,500 Semifinalist places among states in proportion to their number of high school graduates, according to Compass. A state with many high scorers relative to its allocation ends up with a high cutoff. That is why densely populated, high-income states cluster at the top, while large rural states with fewer top scorers per graduate sit near 208.

The middle of the distribution is crowded. The median state cutoff is 214, and 27 of the 51 jurisdictions fall between 210 and 216. A single Selection Index point separates whole groups of states, so small score changes matter.

How much did each state’s cutoff change?

All 51 cutoffs fell, and none rose. The average drop was 3.2 points. Nineteen states fell by exactly 3 points, 11 by 4, and 10 by 2. The biggest moves were Alaska (−7, from 215 to 208), Rhode Island (−6, from 219 to 213), and Arkansas, Louisiana, Minnesota, Montana and Tennessee (−5 each).

Small states move the most. Alaska, Rhode Island and Montana have small Semifinalist allocations, so a handful of students scoring higher or lower can shift the line by several points. Big states move more gradually because their allocations are large: California, Texas, New York and Florida each fell by 3 or 4.

Why did everyone fall at once? NMSC has not given a reason. Compass Education Group’s analysis points to a 27% drop in very high Reading and Writing scores on the October 2025 PSAT and argues that the test’s scale, not student ability, is the likely cause. That is one company’s interpretation. Whatever the cause, a cutoff measures relative standing: if fewer students reach the very top, the lowest qualifying score falls.

Is the Class of 2027 drop unusual?

Not when you look at four classes instead of two. The average state cutoff was 214.4 for the Class of 2024, 215.8 for 2025, 217.6 for 2026 and 214.4 again for 2027. In other words, the Class of 2026 was the high point, and the Class of 2027 is back where the Class of 2024 was.

The state-level picture says the same. Compared with the Class of 2024, 22 jurisdictions have exactly the same cutoff for the Class of 2027, 14 are higher and 15 are lower. Over the four classes, 43 of 51 states had a spread of 3 to 5 points between their highest and lowest cutoff. The widest was Alaska (208 to 215, a 7-point range). Delaware moved the least (219 or 220 every year).

Spread of each state’s Semifinalist cutoff across the Classes of 2024 to 2027. Source: Compass Education Group; computed by The Homework Site.

For planning, the range is more useful than any single year. If your state’s cutoff has moved between 216 and 219, a Selection Index of 220 is comfortable, 217 is a coin flip and 214 is unlikely to be enough.

How the Selection Index turns PSAT scores into one number

The Selection Index is (2 × Reading and Writing + Math) ÷ 10. College Board’s PSAT/NMSQT score guide↗ for fall 2026 gives each section a range of 160 to 760, a total of 320 to 1520, and a Selection Index range of 48 to 228. NMSC uses the index, not the total, to screen entrants. Because Reading and Writing is doubled, two students with the same PSAT total can land on opposite sides of a cutoff.

Example section score pairs that produce each Selection Index. Our arithmetic from College Board’s formula; many other pairs give the same result.

The same index of 208 can come from a 1320 or a 1420 total. A 100-point difference in total score, the same National Merit result.

Worked example. A Texas junior scores 720 in Reading and Writing and 740 in Math, a 1460 total. The index is (2 × 720 + 740) ÷ 10 = 2180 ÷ 10 = 218. Texas’s Class of 2027 cutoff is 219, so the student misses Semifinalist by 1 point but clears Commended (208) by 10. Texas has been at 219 to 222 across the last four classes, so 218 would have missed in all of them. Ten more Reading and Writing points (730) would have produced 220. To run your own numbers, the PSAT score calculator shows the gap to your state automatically.

How rare is a Semifinalist score?

Roughly 1 in 75 entrants becomes a Semifinalist. NMSC says more than 1.2 million juniors from about 20,000 high schools entered the Class of 2027 program through the 2025 PSAT/NMSQT (River Journal, NMSC release↗). Dividing Compass’s 16,230 Semifinalists by 1.2 million gives about 1.35% (our arithmetic). NMSC puts Semifinalists at under 1% of all US high school seniors, a larger group than test entrants.

College Board’s 2025 SAT Suite annual report↗ shows how thin the top of the PSAT scale is. Among 1,449,296 eleventh graders who took the PSAT/NMSQT or PSAT 10 in 2024–25, the mean total was 998, the 75th percentile was 1150, and only 4% scored 1400 to 1520. A Semifinalist index of 214 to 223 usually requires a total in the mid-1400s, inside that top 4%.

Source: College Board, 2025 SAT Suite of Assessments Annual Report (Total Group) and PSAT/NMSQT Understanding Scores, Fall 2026. These are the scores of the year before the Class of 2027 tested.

PSAT 2026 score release dates and the Class of 2028 timeline

Juniors taking the PSAT/NMSQT this fall are the Class of 2028. College Board’s fall 2026 testing window runs October 1 to 30, and each school picks its date. When scores appear depends on when the school submits answers, according to College Board’s score release schedule↗:

Confirmed dates come from College Board; later steps follow the Class of 2027 calendar and may shift.

Your score report will show a Selection Index, but no cutoff exists yet for your class. Compare your index with the four-class range for your state in the table above, not with a single year.

What happens after you reach Semifinalist

Semifinalist status is a qualifying step, not an award. NMSC’s September 2026 release says about 95% of Semifinalists are expected to become Finalists, and about half of Finalists win a Merit Scholarship. For the Class of 2027 that means roughly 6,700 scholarships worth about $24 million, funded by NMSC and about 260 corporate, college and individual sponsors.

To move from Semifinalist to Finalist, NMSC requires a detailed application covering the student’s academic record, activities, leadership, employment and honors; an outstanding high school record; a recommendation from a school official; an essay; and SAT or ACT scores that confirm the PSAT performance, according to the NMSC release published by River Journal. Finalists are notified in February, and winners are announced in four national releases from April to July.

Two practical points follow. First, the confirming SAT or ACT score means you still need a strong test date in junior or senior year; plan it with the SAT score calculator or the ACT score calculator. Second, the “outstanding record” requirement makes grades part of the picture, so keep track of your weighted and unweighted GPA.

If your score is close to the line

The right next step depends on where your Selection Index falls relative to your state’s recent range.

Rules of thumb from the four-class data on this page, not NMSC guidance.

A Selection Index is also a decent preview of the SAT. If your PSAT total is in the top band, check what that translates to with what counts as a good SAT score (or the ACT equivalent), and compare state averages in our SAT and ACT scores by state study.

A confirming score matters beyond National Merit, too. A growing list of selective colleges has dropped test-optional admissions, which we track in our list of colleges requiring the SAT or ACT again. Meanwhile, the number of high school graduates peaked with the Class of 2025, so the applicant pool is starting to shrink; our enrollment cliff study shows how that varies by state. National Merit cutoffs themselves depend on PSAT scores and each state’s Semifinalist allocation, not on college testing policies.

Limitations

• Secondary source for cutoffs. All state cutoffs come from Compass Education Group’s compilation. NMSC’s own site could not be read for this study, and NMSC does not publish a public state table. Errors in the compilation would carry into this page.
• Counts differ slightly. Compass reports 16,230 Semifinalists; NMSC’s release says “more than 16,000.” Some school notices cite 1.3 million entrants instead of 1.2 million.
• No prediction. Class of 2028 cutoffs depend on the October 2026 test and will not be known until about September 2027. Past ranges show typical movement, not a forecast.
• Unweighted averages. Our state averages treat Wyoming and California equally. They describe the spread of cutoffs, not the average student.
• Percentiles are from the prior year. The College Board distribution figures describe 2024–25 test takers, the year before the Class of 2027 tested.

Cite this page

The table and CSV are free to reuse under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0) with credit to The Homework Site and a link to this page. Please also credit Compass Education Group’s compilation and NMSC as the original source of the cutoffs.

Sources

• Compass Education Group, “National Merit Semifinalist Cutoffs” (Class of 2027 table, Commended cutoffs, Semifinalist count and analysis). compassprep.com↗
• National Merit Scholarship Corporation, announcement of 2027 Semifinalists, as published by Greenwich Free Press (September 10, 2026). greenwichfreepress.com↗
• National Merit Scholarship Corporation release as published by River Journal (entrants, Finalist requirements, timeline). riverjournalonline.com↗
• College Board, PSAT/NMSQT Understanding Scores, Fall 2026 (score ranges, Selection Index, benchmarks). satsuite.collegeboard.org↗
• College Board, fall 2026 in-school testing window and score release dates. satsuite.collegeboard.org↗
• College Board, 2025 SAT Suite of Assessments Annual Report, Total Group (PSAT/NMSQT participation and percentiles). reports.collegeboard.org↗

PSAT/NMSQT® and SAT® are registered trademarks of College Board. National Merit® is a registered trademark of the National Merit Scholarship Corporation. Neither organization is affiliated with or endorses this site.

Checked October 15, 2026. If a cutoff here differs from your school’s NMSC letter, the letter is correct; please tell us so we can fix the table.