mom2collegekids

Tomorrow morning, call NMCorp and ask them if your child make finalist. Tell them that you did not get a rejection letter and there's no reason for your child not to make finalist, but that your school seems confused.

If you get confirmation that your child did make NMF (they may want the GC to also call), then I'd contact the district (or whoever) who put out that press-release and tell them to issue a correction.


Do you know if your school has had more than one finalist each year?

TreeRiver

We homeschool and received the letter and certificate in yesterday's mail here in California.

Debbie7452

Thank you, I will do exactly that. Our school has had very few semi-finalists, so it's hard to answer your question. Last year there were none and the year before, there was only one semi-finalist. This year is a bonanza of sorts for our district. Hopefully, they handled everything correctly. I made sure everything was submitted on time. The other semi-finalist who hasn't been notified yet is our Valadictorian. I'm 99% certain they all got excellent principal recommendations.

mom2collegekids

I'm 99% certain they all got excellent principal recommendations.


If the school was confused between NMF and NAF, then that would explain the problem.


However, there is a small possibility that since your school doesn't get many NMSF, that the school was confused and thought that they could only recommend ONE student to become NMF. It's rare, but a few schools get confused. If this happened, I don't know if it's too late to fix this....it may not be too late. NMCorp is usually pretty good about allowing schools to fix misunderstandings.

BamaTn

Students are being notified today at my school on being NMF.

Debbie7452

Mom2Collegekids,

Called NMSC this morning. They will not reveal anything over the phone and were not interested in helping me. They did not say to have the GC call, just that I should "wait for my home letter" which will be sent 2/8. The lady sounded unsympathetic and annoyed with being bothered. Not really the response I expected! I was very polite in explaining our situation, but oh well....

Called the school and couldn't reach anyone. Left messages, but nothing so far. No one seems to realize that our hopes and dreams(and college scholarship plans) ride on this going smoothly.

perazziman

What is the exact wording of the press release?

mom2collegekids

Debbie,

Yikes! Usually, NMCorp is quite nice!

You do need to get a GC to call them. I would also want to get clarification from the school to make sure that they didn't misunderstand and think that they could only recommend one child for NMF.

sunshine02

There isn't any more work to do after being named Finalist, right?

How does NMSC determine who gets the scholarship and based on what criteria?

mom2collegekids

Sunshine...

No one seems to know how NMCorp decides which 2500 finalists get the ONE TIME $2500 awards.

The awards seem to be proportional by state, half male/female....likely those with tippy top stats.



Debbie...

I wonder if you called NMCorp back and instead of asking whether your child made it, you asked a question in regards to naming the #1 choice or something that would likely cause them to reveal whether your child didn't make it.

freein2012

I don't know what to think right now. I teach at the same school that my son attends. The principal tells me that they have not received notice as of yet. Meanwhile other schools are preparing press releases. I guess I will remain calm and wait and advise others that maybe it is too soon to panic.

Debbie7452

Press release (name removed)

**blank** was named as a National Merit Finalist by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation. As a finalist, *** will continue in the competition for 8,300 scholarships worth more than $34 million that will be offered to graduating seniors. To become a finalist, a semifinalist must have an outstanding academic record throughout high school, be recommended by the high school principal, and earn SAT scores that confirm the student’s earlier performance on the qualifying test.

Mom2Collegekids, I'm getting calmer about the whole thing. I think I will give it a few days to sort itself out. Maybe our school really hasn't gotten them yet as the PP said.

freein2012

It came late yesterday afternoon. Son is a finalist.

Debbie7452

We're still waiting. Maybe today will be the day. D talked to the boy in the press release and he said his came early because of NAF being in the mix. I volunteer at the school on Wednesday's so if we don't hear anything by then, I will speak to the appropriate folks in person. Phone messages never get returned. I hate voicemail with the fury of 10,000 suns!

lagunal

If you google it, there is a boy from Minnesota who is already named in the news. It doesn't say anything about NAF (isn't that for Hispanic and Black Americans?) This boy is clearly white.