<p>athenegoddess: </p>
<p>Call National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) and and USC and have them explain the deadlines for listing a first choice. My understanding is that NMSC sends out the rosters (lists of students who have chosen their college as 1st choice) to each college five times from March 1 until May 31. Each college is only informed of those students who have chosen them. Colleges don’t know if you are undecided or have chosen another school, you just won’t show up on their roster until you do select them. As far as the deadlines, March 1 is the date the first roster is sent to colleges. Some colleges may have a reason for requiring you to be on that one (or any other one), such as having a limited number of scholarships that are all given out to students on the first roster. Others allow you to chose them by May 31. You must check with each college for these details. NMSC can also tell you who their official contact is at each college so you’ll have a better chance of receiving the right information.</p>
<p>Another deadline is April 29, when NMSC sends out announcements of their college sponsored scholarship awards. If you have listed a college as first choice prior to this and receive an offer from them, and it gets announced by NMSC, you are not allowed to receive an offer from another college if you change your 1st choice after April 29. This is why they encourage undecided students to change their choice to back “undecided” before April 29.</p>
<p>These rules may or may not apply (although I think they usually do) to the larger scholarships that some colleges give to NMF’s that are not administered by NMSC. Again you must check with each college for details.</p>