Semifinalist cutoffs aren't one national number -- slots are allocated by each state's share of the nation's graduating seniors, so the same Selection Index score can clear the bar in one state and fall short in another. NMSC officially announced Class of 2027 Semifinalists on September 9, 2026; here's the full confirmed list by state, not just the handful of examples that usually get cited. If you already have your PSAT section scores in hand, our calculator turns them into your Selection Index and checks it against your state's line directly, instead of you doing the math and the lookup separately.
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The full National Merit Semifinalists list, by state
Per Compass Education Group's confirmed reporting, cross-checked against real qualifying and non-qualifying score reports from students in every state:
| State | Class of 2027 Cutoff | Change from Class of 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Alaska | 208 | -7 |
| Montana | 208 | -5 |
| North Dakota | 208 | -2 |
| West Virginia | 208 | -2 |
| Wyoming | 208 | -2 |
| U.S. Territories | 208 | -2 |
| New Mexico | 209 | -1 |
| Utah | 209 | -4 |
| Alabama | 210 | -4 |
| Arkansas | 210 | -5 |
| Iowa | 210 | -4 |
| Oklahoma | 210 | -2 |
| South Dakota | 210 | -1 |
| Idaho | 211 | -4 |
| Kentucky | 211 | -3 |
| Louisiana | 211 | -5 |
| Mississippi | 211 | -2 |
| Nevada | 211 | -3 |
| Kansas | 212 | -4 |
| Nebraska | 212 | -2 |
| South Carolina | 212 | -3 |
| Vermont | 212 | -4 |
| Wisconsin | 212 | -3 |
| Rhode Island | 213 | -6 |
| Maine | 214 | -3 |
| Minnesota | 214 | -5 |
| Missouri | 214 | -3 |
| Tennessee | 214 | -5 |
| Arizona | 215 | -3 |
| Indiana | 215 | -3 |
| New Hampshire | 215 | -4 |
| Florida | 216 | -3 |
| Michigan | 216 | -4 |
| Ohio | 216 | -3 |
| Oregon | 216 | -3 |
| Colorado | 217 | -2 |
| Georgia | 217 | -3 |
| North Carolina | 217 | -3 |
| Hawaii | 218 | -1 |
| Illinois | 218 | -4 |
| Delaware | 219 | -1 |
| Pennsylvania | 219 | -2 |
| Texas | 219 | -3 |
| California | 220 | -4 |
| Connecticut | 220 | -3 |
| New York | 220 | -3 |
| Maryland | 221 | -3 |
| Massachusetts | 221 | -4 |
| Virginia | 221 | -3 |
| Washington | 221 | -3 |
| District of Columbia | 223 | -2 |
| New Jersey | 223 | -2 |
| Outside U.S. | 223 | -2 |
By the numbers: Class of 2027 nationally
- Roughly 17,000 Semifinalists were named nationally, drawn from the top scorers among 1.4 million juniors who took the October 2025 PSAT/NMSQT.
- Around 40,000 more students earned Commended Student status -- together, Semifinalists and Commended Students make up the top 4% of that 1.4 million, about 57,000 students in total.
- The national Commended Student cutoff -- a single fixed line, not a per-state one -- fell to 208 for the Class of 2027, down from 210 the year before. Commended and Semifinalist aren't sequential stages: both come from the same PSAT sitting, checked against this national line and your state's line at the same time.
- Every state's cutoff fell, most by 2-4 points, after the Class of 2026 set record-high cutoffs in 21 states. Alaska's 7-point drop is the single largest year-over-year decline Compass Education Group has on record. The swing traces to how College Board scored the digital PSAT's Reading & Writing section: October 2024 was scored unusually leniently (driving last year's record highs), and October 2025 corrected sharply the other way.
Every state in the table above links to its own page, with the neighbor-by-neighbor breakdown behind its exact number -- all 50 states and D.C. are covered individually now, not just the handful that usually get cited. A few of the more surprising stories: New Jersey and D.C. tie for the national high at 223, even though D.C. sits two full points above the two states that actually border it. West Virginia, Alaska, Montana, North Dakota, and Wyoming tie for the national low at 208, despite having no borders in common with each other. Idaho and Washington share a direct border but sit ten points apart, one of the widest gaps between any two adjacent states this cycle -- Virginia and West Virginia are wider still, at 13 points. And Hawaii and Utah each land on the exact same number as a state thousands of miles away that they share no border with at all -- a reminder that each state's cutoff is set independently, not by geography or region.
What this means for you
- Check your own state's specific line, not a national average or a neighboring state's number. The gap between the lowest confirmed cutoff (208, shared by five states) and the highest (223, New Jersey and D.C.) is 15 points -- large enough to change your outcome entirely on an identical score.
- These are the official, confirmed cutoffs, not projections. NMSC announced Semifinalists nationally on September 9, 2026, and Compass Education Group's table reflects real qualifying and non-qualifying score reports, not an estimate.
- A student who moves states between sophomore and junior year should check both states' cutoffs, since eligibility is based on where you're enrolled at the time of the qualifying PSAT, not where you grew up.
- If you narrowly missed last year's cutoff in your state, check this year's number specifically. Every state fell from the Class of 2026, so a score that fell short last cycle may well have cleared this one.
- Clearing your state's cutoff isn't the finish line. See exactly what NMSC requires to turn Semifinalist standing into Finalist standing -- a confirming test score, an application, an essay, and your principal's endorsement, not a second round of the same competition.
- This is one piece of the larger National Merit picture -- see the full breakdown of how National Merit actually works, including the funnel from Commended to Scholar and the real dollar value for how this cutoff fits into the bigger process, or exactly how Scholars are chosen from the Finalist pool for the step after that.