My S2 is a Trustee/Stamps scholar. He was also additionally awarded $1000/year NMF scholarship. This was all posted on his USConnect FA award page. But... He was chosen as a NM Scholarship winner of $2500 corporate award. When USC got notice of the award they changed his $1000/year award to a one-year $2500 award. So, feeling like he got "cheated" out of $1500, I called FA office. They said if you are awarded the $2500 scholy you have to take it and therefore forfeit the USC award of $4000. They said NMSC demands this via some sort of rule or contract. I asked if we could decline the award and they said if we did that it would be like forfeiting the entire Finalist status and thus USC wouldn't award anything. So just to be clear, I asked, " so you mean by winning the scholarship from NMSC we have to receive $1500 less award than if S2 was not a scholy winner?" FA office said,"yes." Doesn't seem like the right or fair way to me. (We are grateful for the full-tuition scholy, but that wasn't the point)
9help9--wait. So instead of getting $4000 over 4 years from USC, you are getting $2500 onetime from NMF & $2500 onetime from USC. Seems your S comes out $1000 ahead in this equation. Or am I missing something? Hope it turns out I'm right because it would reward your son further rather than ding him.
Are you positive 9help9? I'm surprised that corporate NMF would show up on USC's finAid page so quickly. But I could be wrong. Sorry if so.
Did your S get any other merit awards--like perhaps a University scholarship? Perhaps you could call FA again and make sure you are speaking to his FA counselor. Then inquire if there is any $$ still to be given in University scholarships...? You might sweetly mention that it has come as a sad surprise that S's winning the NMF corporate will actually cost him $1500 that the family really needs. Apologies if this has already been tried.
Lastly, there are departmental merit awards for continuing students that he will be eligible for.
We're happy. Son is ecstatic to be a Trojan and turned down admission to Stanford and some other great schools because he fell in love with USC on his Explore visit. We won't pursue the NM Scholy thing any further than the first phone call. Yes, in my post above I noted S2 received the Trustee Scholarship (full tuition). It was then converted to the new Stamps Scholarship , which is the same as Trustee with an additional $5k enrichment fund. So it would be hard to complain further about the change in NM Scholarship. His NMF scholarship showed up on his usconnect FA site first a few weeks ago. It was first posted as the USC $1,000/year award. I don't know if other students have received their FA notices or not, but it doesn't seem "so soon" to know about it by now, it being after May 1st. He was notified of admission to USC in January so maybe they had a head start on his file.
fight on.
I listed USC as my first choice, and NM received the form on Friday, May 4th. They told me that they will let USC know on June 1st. That said, I have also accepted the tradition Presidential Scholarship that USC offered me.
I received a letter today from NM Corp telling me that I not a NM Scholars--just a finalist. The letter makes it sound like the NM Scholarships, include the college-sponsored ones, are only for NM Scholars, not Finalists.
To clarify, does this mean that I will not receive the $1000/year scholarship from NM (or USC?) Is the letter from NM Corp misleading, or have I been misunderstanding the situation?
I may be forgetting this, but I think the Scholars are only the students who get the $2500 award (see discussion above). I'm almost certain my son was not a Scholar, and he did get the $1000 per year extra scholarship.
