I think 216 ought to be good enough to get you a National Merit Scholarship.   NMS's get full tuition to a number of places, like Oklahoma, Baylor, Tulane....    Although, when I took it, there was no Writing section, so my scores and yours might not be the same (mine they took Verbal, doubled it, and added it to Math).

PSAT not SAT... also known as NMSQT. So I'm not sure about the SAT... Also, while searching online, the PSAT seems to have been changed from Verbal to the two sections, as tetley noted above.

Edit: after a quick search, it seems the SAT was also changed to 3 sections, the same name and such as the PSAT sections... And looking over the PSAt packet, the equivalent SAT score can be found by multiplying PSAT scores by 10.

Depends on what you mean by "recently." From the Wikipedia just now: "Old scores may be recentered to compare to 1995 to present scores by using official College Board tables[26] , which in the middle ranges add about 70 points to Verbal and 20 or 30 points to Math. In other words, current students have a 100 (70 plus 30) point advantage over their parents."

Beg pardon, I wasn't talking about the National Merit stuff, just the 'grade inflation' thing, which is extra confusing on account of having 3 scores now instead of the 2 that most of us 'geezers' had. From what I know of that program, there is no fixed number--each year's candidates are compared amongst themselves and you win by being in the top percentiles. The National Merit site seems to carefully avoid talking about scores as they relate to scholarships.

It was eight years ago. It's my understanding that most schools (at least in this area) go by the ACT instead now. In any case I ended up getting where I got based on grades and class rank more than test scores.

If only money grew on trees, I might have bothered applying to MIT myself. My dad got accepted back in the late 70s based on his SAT score (which I beat, even accounting for the recentering) but he couldn't afford to go either.

I am looking into going to college for game programing and development, and by the looks of it RIT (Rochester) appears to be a good choice... A few months ago, I was sent a letter about my ACT scores in which it said I qualified for around $15,000 a year; a figure which it said could increase based on my PSAT score.

By the way Moosetek, I don't care about those two scores.... Its the one question I missed in math that bothers me If not for that missed math question I would have got a perfect score on math in both the ACT and PSAT...

Yes, a 216 is good enough to receive a National Merit, as that is about what I got on the PSAT (though I only ended up being a semi-finalist for the actual award - still looks good on your transcript).  Also, if you add a 0 to the end of your PSAT score, that is supposed to be about where you'll score on the SAT, though I don't know how accurate that really is (I received a 1960 on the SAT, should have been around a 2100 if that was true).

The SAT today consists of three sections: Math, Writing, and Critical Reading, each worth up to 800 points, unless they changed it since last year.  The Writing section is fairly new, and so colleges have not been considering your score in that area when applying for scholarships.  It consists of a multiple choice section and one essay.  However, I believe that starting this coming spring semester that they are taking it into account, so lucky you gets to worry about it.

It's my personal opinion that the essay part of the Writing section is a little out of whack.  I think that they're looking for people who follow the silly "tell them what you're going to tell them, tell them, then thell them what you told them" format, which I adamantly did not adhere to, because it's stupid.  My college writing professor has said the same thing.  He's also said that I'm a gifted writer, which is hilarious because I only got half credit for the essay both times I took the SAT, and failed another essay for a CLEP.

Apologies, rant over.

However, on the subject of scholarships, absolutely do not forget about your high school GPA.  When being considered for non-need-based scholarships, SAT scores and your GPA are always found together (except maybe for the National Merit, I don't remember).  Also, if you were homeschooled like me, expect to be excluded from a very large percentage of state-funded scholarships.  I was denied a full ride scholarship I qualified for simply because I did not have an obviously arbitrary 'class rank', and was not even offered financial aid of any kind from Purdue for the same reason.  But yes, if you have a good cumulative GPA (at least 3.5, preferably higher) and a good SAT score (about 1300 Math + Reading for the higher scholarships last year, but if they start including Writing I don't know), you shouldn't have too much trouble getting a good scholarship.

Oh, and Moosetek... misspelling a word doesn't affect your Critical Reading score, because they're all multiple choice - at least on the SAT.  The only thing that might hurt is your essay score in the Writing section.

I am planning on staying in high school as long as I can. Mostly, this is because our state (ohio) has a PSEOP program, which lets those who score sufficiently high take college courses as a substitute for high school classes. I have been taking classes (paid completely by the state, even books) at the local community college since my freshman year. I took 6 semester hours my first year, 9 my second, 9 first semester of this year, and signed up for 15 credit hours next semester. Next year I will not be taking any courses at the high school (I am only taking 2 this year) and will be taking entirely courses at the community college. This should reduce the coursework I do in my first year or two by a large amount and save thousands.

By the way, the maximum classes the state will fully pay for is equal to 2.5 semester hours per high school class semester I am not taking, so next year I will be able to take 40 semester hours at the community college if I so choose, all paid for by the state. This is why I am not choosing to graduate early... why stop milking the golden cow when its still got a few thousand left in it?

Also, after a quick search online the cuttoff score for Ohio NMSC is 211, so mine was high enough to get me into that.

Kryo if MIT would look at your SAT scores and accept you right away... wouldn't you be able to get scholarships somewhere!?!?!?!

And yeah my PSAT scores weren't that good (pretty much average, 75 percentile or something >.>). Then again I didn't study or really care since it isn't the real SATs.

Not really - GPA has a lot more to do with scholarships (IMO) than the SAT's. I know for me, I could get in to MIT easy, but I couldn't get scholarships because my GPA was only moderate and my class placement was in the bottom quarter of my graduating class.

So I went to the Military and my Uncle Sam ended up paying for my edumakashen - {G}.

High end ones like MIT certainly are, but public universities aren't so bad if you can support yourself and be fairly responsible with your finances (the latter being the big issue for most people these days). I certainly wouldn't complain if it were cheaper, but I could pay my university tuition out of pocket if I really had to and I'm not rich by any means. I just prefer to earn some interest on that money now and pay off the subsidized loans as soon as they come up, netting a few hundred bucks extra to show for the trouble.

216 on the PSAT will get you into the National Merit Scholoship program.

There are a LOT of scholarships avaliable nowadays, just keep your eyes open. If you get into the semi finals/finals of the NationalMeritScholarship program, you'll get $10,000 a year.

Haha, you're in Ohio too! I took a few PSEOP programs, but my school wasn't really enthused about that; so I haven't taken any this year. I hate my school, they don't let me do anything on my own, I have to take all the low level classes they offer, and won't recognize 3 of my college credits in Robotics and C++

95% of the students accepted into MIT get scholarships, so it should be okay. I plan to go to MIT, and I'm banking on a full/partial scholorship, because we just bought a house and the economy and yeah.

Thank god i live in a country where education is free and my parents didn't have to worry about if they could afford sending me to a university.