<p>Actually, although Pitt does not automatically award students scholarships based on their NMF status, it does offer a limited amount of national merit scholarship awards (3 scholarships, I believe) so it is part of the NMS program and there is still a small advantage to declaring your “top choice” as pitt if this school is definitely where you wish to attend. If you are familiar with the NMS program, then you know that their are 3 types of awards- corporate, the NM program, and university awards- so pitt’s scholarships fall under the latter, even though most of the NMS that attend Pitt are sponsored by the former two, does this make sense?</p>