God....thank you SOOOO much for making me insanely smart!  you're AMAZING!!!!

I love it!  Oh yeah baby! 

"As of 2005, of the 1.3 million entrants, about 50,000 qualify for recognition. Two-thirds of those qualified receive letters of commendation; the remainder become semifinalists, most of whom go on to become finalists. Over half of the finalists go on to receive scholarships sponsored by colleges or corporations.

. . .

The first category of recognition is Commended Scholars; it comprises about 34,000 of the top 50,000 students. Commended Scholars do not continue in the competition and do not receive scholarships from NMSC. The rest of the top 50,000 scorers are designated National Merit Semifinalists, and continue in the competition. This group numbers around 16,000, though designations factor in equitable state representation. Therefore, each state has different cutoff scores. California's cutoff score for 2004 tests was 217 out of a possible 240 points. Maryland's cutoff score was 220 out of a possible 240 points.

Approximately 15,000 of the 16,000 Semifinalists advance to Finalist standings, based on the submission of SAT scores and an application. The application includes high school courses and grades, extracurricular and volunteer activities, a recommendation from the principal, and a 500-word Personal Statement. The personal information provided is used later in the process to determine the award of scholarships to Finalists; the mere submission of required materials is generally enough to advance to Finalist standing. Generally, Semifinalists who fail to advance to Finalist standing do so because they failed to submit the application, have improper credentials (e.g. a large discrepancy between PSAT and SAT scores), or are convicted felons.

For the 15,000 Finalists, there will be about 8,200 merit awards: about 2,500 finalists receive a $2,500 National Merit Scholarship from the NMSC for use at a college or university in the United States; these winners are awarded on a state-by-state basis. There are 4,600 scholarships awarded by colleges which the recipients have reported to NMSC as their first choice ("College-Sponsored Merit Awards"). Around another 2,700 scholarships are awarded to Finalists by corporate sponsors, who often have additional qualification criteria- usually that the Finalist is the son, daughter, or other close relative (e.g. niece or nephew) of an employee of the sponsor."
--wikipedia.com

Totally top 2,500!  This rocks!  I LOVE being smart!  Thanks God!

Lol part of the gift of intelligence was even making me smart enough to really pray about this (sadly, I don't about many other things as much as I should) so it's definitely all totally God that I got there at all--217, which is the bare minimum to get to the Semifinalist in Texas as well as California (or was the year I took it).  See? Anarchism isn't dead.

Lol this is so unGodly.  I'm totally bragging.  At least I'm acknowledging that all the credit goes to God.  Even doing that, though, it's completely fun!  Ah, pride is so my most-comitted sin.

Want to know how much of a freak I am?  I just calculated: I'm in the top .192% of PSAT takers.