Son got his Finalist letter today in San Francisco Bay Area. Yay. Nothing from the school.
There is no reason not to declare this school as First Choice now if that is where she has decided to attend. I don’t see why she doesn’t just do it and then there is no reason to worry whether it would be necessary. Declaring this college as first choice will have no affect on the $2500 one-time scholarship eligibility. Everyone is eligible for those, regardless of college and those are selected (although not announced) before any First Choice is even declared.
I meant to also mention two posts above that Son got a semester C in freshman French and quite a few Bs freshman and sophomore year. Nice to know he was still able to make Finalist. PSAT 234, SAT 2200. GPA 3.685 UW.
My son received his Finalist notification today (yay!). There were two strange things about how it happened. First, the mail wasn’t delivered until sometime after 7:00pm. (No, we don’t live in the sticks…) Secondly–and far more troubling–is that my son received two identical letters, both addressed to him. Inside one of the letters was an entire OTHER letter to somebody named N----- in Fullerton, CA. I am horrified thinking of somebody’s angst at still not finding this long-anticipated letter in the mail. I will call NM first thing tomorrow!
We got the letter in the mail today in SoCal. Yet to hear anything from school.
My daughter was told by her counselor on 2/9 she had been ‘upgraded’ (funny word to use to me) to finalist and she finally got her letter yesterday. No clue as to when the school will get the certificate of merit or what the school will do with/about it.
@TexasMomE - We just went to a presentation/recruitment at UT and they are adding in a degree choice starting next year called Computational Engineering. I don’t know exactly what it entails, just that it is related to the computer science part of engineering.
Their presentation beat the one from A&M by far and they do start you immediately in your choice of major and begin with hands on stuff. Just wanted to pass it on in case your son might be interested.
My girl is Aerospace Engineering, so it didn’t interest her. She thought her dream school was Embry Riddle, however UT may have just won her over with what they had to offer. She also thought A&M would be her second choice and has now pretty much ruled it out.
@hypocore Sent you a PM.
Daughter’s school got the Cert and letter today apparently - so if your in AZ area be on the lookout 
Okay, forgive me for this question if it is a “dumb question,” but some of the recent posts have me concerned. My son is a finalist. He is going to attend UAB. They offer a national merit scholarship that covers tuition and fees, housing for the freshman year, a technology stipend, and a travel abroad stipend. If he were to win one of the official National Merit scholarships would that disqualify him for this? If that’s the case, it would be insane to win the scholarship from National Merit. People keep posting questions that make me concerned about this. If that is the case, I wonder if you can just notify NM that you really only want the college sponsored scholarship. Please forgive my lack of knowledge, but any wisdom would be appreciated!
At last, we came to know the status of my son from the school. he is a finalist . Woo Hoo.
we have not received the mail yet.
@1Tcollegemom. Perhaps @mom2collegekids might be able to answer your question. Her sons went to UA and I believe the process is probably the same for both schools.
Thank you @momofsmartdancer ! @mom2collegekids I am reposting my post because someone suggested you might be able to answer my question! I’d appreciate any wisdom you can give!
Okay, forgive me for this question if it is a “dumb question,” but some of the recent posts have me concerned. My son is a finalist. He is going to attend UAB. They offer a national merit scholarship that covers tuition and fees, housing for the freshman year, a technology stipend, and a travel abroad stipend. If he were to win one of the official National Merit scholarships would that disqualify him for this? If that’s the case, it would be insane to win the scholarship from National Merit. People keep posting questions that make me concerned about this. If that is the case, I wonder if you can just notify NM that you really only want the college sponsored scholarship. Please forgive my lack of knowledge, but any wisdom would be appreciated!
@1Tcollegemom My daughter attended UAB, and received the National Merit scholarship that you mentioned. She also received a $2000 college sponsored scholarship from NM. So, yes, you can receive both. I had also been concerned about her being able to receive both, and called the UAB scholarship office to confirm.
@Dune216 Thank you for the clarification. I guess if he receives one from NM, I will just call the scholarship office for guidance. It would be nice to get the additional 2000 to help towards housing the other years!
“@1Tcollegemom. Perhaps @mom2collegekids might be able to answer your question. Her sons went to UA and I believe the process is probably the same for both schools.”
I haven’t looked at the UAB website, but I do have a student at UA who is NMF and also received the $2,500 scholarship from NMCorp. UA will reduce the amount of the $3,500 stipend by the amount awarded by NMCorp. In our case it was the $2,500 award, so UA awarded $1,000 for the first year. The NMCorp award is a one time award, so the portion UA pays will return to $3,500 for the remaining years. The award does NOT stack at the UA. The UA website discloses this on the website, so I’d recommend checking the UAB site to see if it does as well. If not, I’d contact the scholarship office by email.
http://scholarships.ua.edu/nationalscholars/
Value of tuition for up to five years or 10 semesters for degree-seeking undergraduate and graduate (or law) studies
One year of on-campus housing at regular room rate* (based on assignment by Housing and Residential Communities)
A $3,500 per year Merit Scholarship stipend for four years. A student must maintain at least a 3.3 GPA to continue receiving this scholarship stipend. If a corporate-sponsored scholarship from the National Merit Corporation is received, the total value cannot exceed $3,500. (For example, if you receive a corporate-sponsored scholarship of $2,000 per year, UA will contribute $1,500 per year to reach the total stipend amount of $3,500.)
One-time allowance of $2,000 for use in summer research or international study (after completing one year of study at UA)
Technology enrichment
Not sure if that helps since you’re talking about UAB, but I was responding to the comment above.
From looking at the UAB website, I don’t see anything stating the NMCorp scholarship won’t stack, so it appears you may get to keep it if it is awarded.
https://www.uab.edu/students/component/k2/item/280-national-scholarships
Best wishes and congratulations!
I posted that DS is a Finalist - successful appeal after correcting freshman transcript from England (see #226). His first choice college is New College of Florida, and he’s already been accepted there. We confirmed today that he will receive a college-sponsored scholarship, triggering the the full-ride Florida Incentive Scholarship for National Merit scholars. SO so so happy!!
@Susieknits thank you so much!!
@Susieknits congrats! Great news
I inadvertently thanked the wrong poster lol. I’m sorry. Thank you so much for your information, @Loosabelle
As best I can tell, NMSC starts sending out the first Scholarship awards on the 23rd. Is that how all of you see it? The whole process seems somewhat confusing as the corporate awards may come out separately, and additional NMSC awards may be given later if the first winners turn them down for more lucrative official college awards. Am I missing something?