<p>FauxNom & mdcissp Thanks for the info. We do have a few schools left to visit in Feb, now that we’ve heard from all applied to. I don’t think it us unusual for students to be undecided at this point. Merit aid is factor in the decision for us.</p>
<p>I’m trying to understand the nuances of the National Merit scholarship process to keep our S’s options open until he does reach a decision.</p>
<p>As I said before one of the colleges S is accepted to gives their best scholarship to a limited number of NMF’s who list them as 1st choice with NMC by the first roster that is sent to colleges on March 1. They do offer smaller scholarships to NMFs who list them later. </p>
<p>NMC does list a schedule for “college-sponsored awards” with the final 1st choice deadline being May 31. There is also wording about an April 29 deadline for changing from one college to another. However, I think that the larger scholarships offered by some colleges may not be the “college-sponsored Merit Scholarship offers” that are described in NMC’s information, and therefore can have different rules and deadlines. That’s why I’m wondering if USC has their own deadline for listing them as 1st choice. </p>
<p>If a student is undecided I think it is important to try to understand all of details of the available offers. If USC doesn’t have it’s own earlier deadline, I don’t see any reason to list them as first choice right now. If USC saw another college listed as first choice in March, would that disqualify the student for USC’s scholarship (assuming that the choice was changed to undecided before April 29 and to USC before May 31?) Perhaps these details are addressed in a mailing we haven’t received yet. I’m only going by USC’s website. I’m not even sure if the NMF scholarship is an automatic for all NMF’s accepted. </p>
<p>Finally, the Explore dates available to us on USC’s website were all in April, so I’m still assuming no Trustee or Presidential interview.</p>