Shazz12

As a National Merit Semi-finalist, my daughter needs to name her NM First Choice soon. The college she wants to attend is Dartmouth which doesn't appear to participate in college-sponsored scholarships. (At least they aren't listed as a participating college in the NM Annual Report). She is not applying for financial aid, so fortunately money really isn't an issue. But is there any benefit from an admissions standpoint to list Dartmouth as her first choice? Perhaps the indication to the admissions staff that she's serious about attending Dartmouth?
Anybody have any advice about this?

Georgemil

If Dartmouth truly does not offer any NM scholarships I doubt they'll pay much attention to the student's first choice. I am a senior suffering from the same first choice problem as your D. The problem is that NM requires you to choose a first choice college by March 1, and most colleges notify you of your admission status on April 1. If this seems absolutely stupid to you...I agree. Here is some information I have found out that I hope will help. The actual deadline for NM is not actually March 1. March 1 is merely the date that NM first sends out the information to colleges so that each college may offer scholarships. IT IS STILL POSSIBLE TO CHANGE YOUR MIND AFTER MARCH 1. Unfortunately, at highly selective schools there is a large advantage to being on the March 1 list they receive for that is what they look at first. It may then be advantageous to put a more-selective school as first choice and then if you decide to attend another school change your mind then. This information didn't solve all of my problems, but it helped.

mrego

"March 1 is merely the date that NM first sends out the information to colleges so that each college may offer scholarships." Is the word "first" correct? How then do people get application fee waivers earlier than March 1 in November/December based on choice of school ?

Shazz12

Thanks, Georgemil. That helps. Sounds like there's no downside to designating Dartmouth as her first choice. And if she doesn't get in, she can always change it after April 1 to the school she'll be attending.

Georgemil

I hope this helps matters even further. The following is taken from the official National Merit Requirments booklet

Schedule specific to college-sponsored awards:
March 1 through May 31, 2008: A Finalist who has reported a sponsor college as first choice by March 1 will be included in the first group referred to that institution for scholarship consideration. Periodically NMSC will notify sponsors of additional Finalists who have reported (by May 31) the college
or university as their first choice.

April 30, 2008: NMSC will begin mailing college-sponsored Merit Scholarship offers.
NOTE: If NMSC receives notification of a change in college choice from a Finalist after mailing a college-sponsored Merit Scholarship offer to that student, the Finalist cannot be offered another college-sponsored Merit Scholarship award. This applies even if the new choice of college is one that also sponsors Merit Scholarship awards. Therefore, a Finalist who has previously reported a sponsor college as first choice but is uncertain about it may choose to notify NMSC that he/she is now “undecided”; such notification must be received at NMSC, via mail or fax (847-866-5113), before April 30. The Finalist can subsequently report a firm college choice that NMSC receives by May 31.

May 31, 2008: Deadline date for NMSC to receive reports of a sponsor college as first choice. Because it is necessary to end the competition in a timely manner, only college choice reports that NMSC receives by May 31 will be used to identify the final group of candidates to a college or university that sponsors awards.

snoopypadre

Is February 9 the official release of the National Merit FINALIST? Thought I read that in literature sent by one of the schools months ago. A virtual certainty but mid-year reports are due soon and it might be something to add for the RA school decisions lingering.