<p>Looking for some advice on the following situation:</p>
<p>My son is a finalist. He was admitted to Stanford early action and that’s probably where he’ll end up. Stanford does not sponsor national merit scholarships.</p>
<p>He was also admitted to the University of (the state we live in). And they have offered him almost a free ride if he designates them as his first choice.</p>
<p>(He’s also waiting to hear from a few other schools, but let’s keep this simple…)</p>
<p>So, if he leaves Stanford as his first choice, he’ll be eligible for the NM $2500 or corporate-sponsored scholarships.</p>
<p>If, on the other hand, he switches his first choice to U of __, in case he decides to go there at the last moment, is he hurting his chances of getting the other scholarships to use at Stanford? </p>
<p>In other words, if he’s 99% sure that he’s going to choose Stanford, should he leave that as his first choice?</p>
<p>Your question is hard to answer until your S makes his absolute final decision about where he will attend. If he chooses Stanford,unless you or your spouse work for a company that sponsors NM scholarships, he may not get the NM corporation scholarship at all. The odds are not great for any of our kids for NMSC scholarships.</p>
<p>Compared to the odds of getting into HPYSM, tough even for a NMF, the odds of getting one ot he NM grants are very good, about fifty fifty (8200/15000).</p>
<p>In terms of which school to list as first choice, I’d first call all of the schools which are on the list. If the schools don’t offer a free ride or scholarship or anything, then I’d put down another school as your s/d first choice. There’s no advantage/scholarship to putting down the other school. On the other hand, if your s/d is offered a free ride or scholarship at another school, why not have it as a possibility when making the final decision. Your s/d might find that school great when visiting it, change their mind, and save a whole ton of money. The money factor is more important than I originally thought now that I have two already in college. </p>
<p>Also, later in an interview for for getting into that Ivy league school a job or later a job interview the student could say I was offered a full scholarship at school “A” but decided to go to school “B.” It looks makes the s/d look really good at interviews for school “B” and looks impressive in a job interview too. </p>
<p>In terms of which school to list as first choice, I’d first call all of the schools which are on the list. If the schools don’t offer a free ride or scholarship or anything, then I’d put down another school as your s/d first choice. There’s no advantage/scholarship to putting down the other school. On the other hand, if your s/d is offered a free ride or scholarship at another school, why not have it as a possibility when making the final decision. Your s/d might find that school great when visiting it, change their mind, and save a whole ton of money. The money factor is more important than I originally thought now that I have two already in college. </p>
<p>Also, later in an interview for for getting into that Ivy league school a job or later a job interview the student could say I was offered a full scholarship at school “A” but decided to go to school “B.” It looks makes the s/d look really good at interviews for school “B” and looks impressive in a job interview too. </p>
<p>has anyone already gotten the letter but your school insists they never got the certificate? the secretaries are adamant that nothing ever showed up, but the letter says the school should have it by now, they had a week for a head start…</p>
<p>has anyone already gotten the letter but your school insists they never got the certificate? the secretaries are adamant that nothing ever showed up, but the letter says the school should have it by now, they had a week for a head start…</p>
<p>We didn’t get either the certificate or the letter. We called NM today. Turns out they didn’t have one of the required pieces of information, a transcript, in their files. We contacted the school (a college in this case), and they claimed it was sent in time, quite a long time ago. Bottom line, if you don’t have what you think you should by now, either certificate or letter, I’d call NM and check on it. We’re having the school resend out the transcript. They say the transcript will be in tomorrow’s mail to NM. NM said that this happens a lot, so it sounds like other folks might have theirs in limbo until they call.</p>
<p>If I’m understanding this pamphlet, then the latest date for a Finalist to name a first-choice school is May 31at. So a Finalist who has already been accepted Early Action at a favorite school (that does not sponsor a NM Scholarship) does not need to send in a school choice card. That student should just remain “undecided” for now and wait to see if he is awarded a one-time or corporate scholarship. Does that sound right?</p>
<p>There are some schools with generous NM scholarship awards that have earlier deadlines for naming them first-choice. Oklahoma is one with its own earlier deadline. So these dates are good from the point of view of NMSC but may not be accurate for individual colleges.</p>
<p>D got her finalist letter today. She is listed as “undecided” at the moment. Her letter says this: “Every Merit Scholarship award must be used for full-time attendance at a college or university in the United States that holds accredited status with a regional accrediting commission on higher education. Therefore, a Finalist <em>cannot be offered</em> an award until he or she has reported such a choice to NMSC.”</p>
<p>Does this mean, cannot be offered ANY award, or cannot be offered a college-sponsored award? It ought to mean the latter; but in the context of the letter, it actually seems to cover all awards …</p>
<p>Zetesis, the language is baffling. It does clearly say no award will be offered until a first choice is named. But the students have until the end of May to name a first choice, and the $2500 awards are made in March! I’ll try to call the NMSC this week, unless another parent beats me to it and reports back here about the conversation.</p>
<p>I too am confused but DH works for one of the corporate sponsors so I suspect she’ll get an award from them and it won’t matter anyway. Even that is confusing.</p>
<p>Today I called the NMSC office and got my question answered about whether a finalist needs to declare a school in order to be eligible for a $2500 one-time NM Scholarship in March. The answer is yes.</p>
<p>Short version: </p>
<p>To have any chance of receiving a $2500 award announcement in the letters that go out March 25th, send NMSC the name of a first-choice school, even if that school does not sponsor an NMS award of its own.</p>
<p>Otherwise, the letter will say that the finalist is being <em>considered</em> for an award and needs to name a school before the $2500 award can be granted. J., the person I talked to, said that in this situation, the one-time award is “not 100% guaranteed.”</p>
<p>The student can change the first-choice school later, but to be eligible to receive a one-time award in a March 25th letter, send in the card naming your school.</p>
<p>Was it a parent on this forum who commented that many of the NM Finalists are the science, math, technology students who tend to do well on the PSAT and SAT? Here’s a chart of 2008 NM Scholars’ “Tentative Majors:”</p>
<p>Engineering: 18%
Biology / Biomedical Sciences: 10%
Health and Clinical Science Professions: 9%
Social Sciences: 7%
Physical Sciences: 5%
Business/Finance: 5%
Mathematics/Statistics: 3%</p>
<p>Okay, I think I understand this. D has to submit a first choice now to be considered for any award.</p>
<p>NMSC’s web site says that on March 1, they will begin to send the names of students to schools designated as “first choice.” </p>
<p>On April 29, NMSC will begin mailing offers from the schools to the students. Once a student receives an offer from a school, they cannot then change the designation of their college to accept a different offer. So a student “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” provided that is before April 29. A finalist then needs to confirm his/her final first choice by May 31.</p>
<p>So what we have to do is submit a first choice now; then if she doesn’t get a $2500 award, or doesn’t get into her first choice college, we will need to submit to NMSC her new first choice or declare that she is undecided until she has made her decision.</p>
<p>And then, how much does it matter (strategically) what we put as her first choice now?</p>
<p>Zetesis, I would tweak your summary ever so slightly. When you say, " D has to submit a first choice now to be considered for any award," my understanding is that this is not quite right. She can be considered while she is “undecided”; she may receive a letter the last week in March saying she is being considered. She just will not be told flat out she’s a $2500 NMS scholar, unless and until NMS has a school choice on file.</p>
<p>As for the other question, “And then, how much does it matter (strategically) what we put as her first choice now?,” I don’t see that it matters very much. The school choice can be changed. It can be changed numerous times. As you say, it cannot be changed after a college makes an offer of their own college-sponsored award.</p>
<p>I’m a little confused. I called NM because my daughter’s safe school, UF says if you list it as 1st choice by March 1st, you will get a $2500 UF sponsored scholarship. So I thought there is no chance of her getting a sponsored scholarship from NM from her 1st choice Ivy, so she should probably list FL as 1st choice. They if she gets accepted to her first choice (Ivy), she can always change them as her first choice and maybe get one of the other NM scholarships (sponsored elsewhere). NM told me that if she puts FL down as 1st choice and then does not accept that $2500, she will be INELIGIBLE for anything else from NM. </p>
<p>Does this make sense considering what we are reading here and on their site?</p>
<p>RhineandRoses – As I read the web site you get one chance to accept a scholarship. But since school-sponsored merit awards aren’t mailed until April 29, your daughter would have a chance to change her first choice school before then, even if she elects UF by March 1. She would just need to change her first choice before April 29.</p>
<p>I’m not sure if this has been answered anywhere else on the forum, but should finalists notify the colleges they applied to that they have advanced to this round? I know many discourage updates but this is a national competition …</p>