***Class Of 2015 NMSF Qualifying Scores***

Paying for College Financial Aid (Need-Based, Merit Aid, Loans)
3161

This is all getting so complicated.Oy.

The college sponsored scholarships are paid for by the college, but administered through the NMSC so the college gets ‘credit’ with the NMSC for sponsoring finalists.

If you receive a college sponsored award or NMSC $2500, or corporate scholarship you are considered a ‘NMScholar’

You can only receive one of these official awards, but for the big scholarship schools most of the money is not official and so you can get the unofficial part of the big scholarship plus a corporate official award, for example.

The numbers in the NMSC report vary a lot from year to year. At many of the schools that offer the big scholarships, they offer unlimited numbers of them, or anyway a fairly large number. Some do have limits, but it is usually more than 3, or 5(which is how many our cash strapped state school sponsors for the small award, but they don’t have ANY big awards, so it is a different situation than the big scholarship schools.)

The way it works at the schools that sponsor large numbers of NMFs is that the corporate and NMSC awards take precedence over the college sponsored money. The colleges normally sponsor any students that don’t get corporate or NMSC awards, so that all NMFs are ‘scholars’ at those schools.

I don’t know how your school specifically handles the official college sponsored part of the award, so I can’t be certain of anything. At some schools it is embedded and not listed separately in the offers you see on websites. At most sponsor schools, every NMF who doesn’t get sponsored by corporation or NMSC will get the college sponsor money. Sometimes colleges do list that official money separately, sometimes because they offer a range of $$ depending on need. Eg, UMN-TC gives $10,000/yr plus a college-sponsored award of $1,000-2,000/yr depending on need. Everyone gets at least $1,000, but you may get more if you have need. I think Kentucky is one that lists their $2,000 sponsored award separately. BTW, that $2,000 in UK’s offer is a total of $2,000, paid as $250/semester. NOT $2,000/yr. I corresponded with someone there to clarify that.

It may be at your school that the number you see sponsored in the NMSC guide is 3, because that is how many NMF freshmen enrolled who weren’t sponsored by corporation or NMSC. You can call and ask them if the policy is not clear.

If a school gives $2,000/yr official money and a student gets the NMSC $2500 one time award, they would be losing quite a bit of money by virtue of being good enough to win the NMSC money. Except that most schools try to make that up to these students by giving more unofficial money. So they would receive the $2500 the first year and in the following years the school may give them the $2,000/yr anyway, but unofficially. You can ask each school how they handle that.

3162

And just when I thought I had it all figured out!!! I guess there is no single “one size fits all” formula for all of this. I’ll get with our state school to find out more; at least I feel informed enough to ask the right questions now. Thanks again!

3163

lol, I don’t know if I’ll ever get it straight. Maybe it’s a riddle and only the NMS are smart enough to figure it out :expressionless: I will ask the college about it.

I doubt I would get the $2500 award because my scores are on the low side of things. I didn’t write a stunning essay on how to cure world hunger or about an eye-opening experience of multiculturalism; I wrote about what it is like stalling and spinning in a glider, so unless the readers are intrigued by aviation experiences, I probably won’t score huge brownie points there. It’s not that the essay is bad - I am pretty good at writing - but I don’t know that it will stand out as “cool.”

3164

Well, it’s Jan. 14 and I’m wondering if anyone has received a letter from NMSC that he/she did not progress to NMF. I’m assuming those letters will start arriving any day now. While I certainly wish for every NMSF to progress to NMF, I know that 1 out of 16 will not. Good Luck everyone, and may the mailbox be empty!

3165

I am glued to my mailbox. It’s the hardest walk of the day right now. I feel like each day I get a stay of execution. Ridiculous that I feel this way, it’s just a scholarship and my son will have other, but not so lucrative options, but it’s still a nail-biter. I am so tempted to call NMSC and ask when the letters went out, but they probably wouldn’t tell me. What’s really tough is that no one online is posting that anyone has received them yet, so theoretically, we all still could I guess. Last year it was the 14th of January, but with weekends and the holiday, I won’t feel comfortable until probably the 25th. He’s one of the ones with one C, but a high SAT, so it could really go either way. I’m making my biggest goal right now talking to him constantly about being OK if he doesn’t make it. That’s my top priority. Such a weird time. I’ll be glad when it’s over one way or the other. :slight_smile:

3166

We’re in the same situation @SparkleMom97; my son had a semester C in 11th grade AP Chemistry. He has about 60% As and 40% Bs for his other grades - mostly AP & Honors classes. He also got a good score on the SAT. Like you said, they’ll be fine either way, but a free-ride sounds pretty good too. Nothing in the mail today…

3167

Good luck, @SparkleMom97 and @LMHS73. I think we’re all a bit stressed! Our unknown is the weird counselor and what she might consider an appropriate recommendation. I actually got a copy of what she wrote for S1 a few years back and my brain hurts just thinking about it.

3168

Too many people were telling me the odds were so high, I didn’t think to stress…until now. My kid has almost all A’s, but many that ride the 90 mark, showing his true personality, and he is from a small school with limited options. We shall see!

3169

OK that perfectly, exactly describes my son. His C was also in AP Chem- one semester only, but all AP and Honors classes and an editor on his school paper. He’s about 60-40 on the A’s and B’s too and had a really high SAT. Getting the mail each day feels like the move Groundhog Day to me every day…

3170

Every time someone posts on this thread my heart drops because I think they got the letter. Luckily my S is oblivious.

3171

Too funny @Cshecmia - my son is oblivious as well. I don’t think he even knows that there may (or may not) be a letter any day in the mail. Guess it’s better that way - we can do the worrying for them!

3172

I agree with you both! Every time a post hits this board my heart sinks, and my son is totally clueless of the stress. I wish I didn’t know about the rejection letters at all. Think maybe they won’t send any this year? :wink:

3173

Wow! @SparkleMom97 - a semester C in the same, exact class; what a coincidence! And the same grade distribution as well. If one of them makes NMF and the other doesn’t - that would be crazy! We’ll have to compare notes when all is said and done.

3174

Will they even see semester/quarter grades? Our transcripts only show the final grade for each course.

3175

Our transcript shows semester grades for each course. S3 has all As, but the weird counselor checked for S1 that he did not take the hardest courses available. That really ticked me off. She had no explanation. Hope she didn’t do that for S3!

3176

@PAMom21 - from what I read, some schools (like yours) produce transcripts that show only a final grade (so NMSC would never even see a low quarter or semester grade); some schools (like my son’s) produce transcripts that show 2 grades per course taken (one for each semester or “term” as his school calls it); and other schools apparently produce transcripts that break it down even further and report quarter grades. The problem is that more grades on the transcript increase the chance of having one or more of the dreaded “C” grades that NMSC zeros in on. Whether it’s a C from a quarter, semester, or final grade seems to be irrelevant & depending on the weight they give to grades each year, a single C could be enough to disqualify a semifinalist. Other years, it’s 2 Cs, etc. It seems like nobody has been able to figure out the formula as to how many Cs (if any) are acceptable from year to year - those of us in this dilemma just have to wait for the results and hope for the best.

3177

Right there with you, @SparkleMom97 & @LMHS73, but DS’s semester C was in Soph Chem, an advanced yet unweighted class that his high school discontinued the following year. For our family, NMF is huge. We are checking the mail religiously, but our mail delivery is notoriously bad. So even if he does not get a letter, it could still be out there in LaLa Land. The 1 in 16 statistic really hit home. Shoot, I may have to back away from CC for a while. If he does get a letter, I will post here though. Best of luck to everyone. I’m rooting for all our DCs.

3178

Well, it’s the 15th now and no one has heard? I’m hoping that means everybody on here made it!

3179

Hopefully, but I’m waiting until tomorrow afternoon before I get excited…

3180

Gosh I hope so! I was thinking the same thing. If they went back to work at NMSC after the holidays last Monday, and theoreticaly got them in the mail even by Friday, you would think that the majority of them would have been delivered by now. Wonder what the odds are that no one on here would have received one? But then, how many would post if they had? I was looking at the boards for the last couple of years, and there aren’t many who posted that they got one. That’s a tough call, I’m sure. I will definitely post if we get one though. Knowing this feeling, if I could help put someone’s mind at ease, I will certainly do so!