Class of 2024 National Merit Discussion

Should thise that are NMS inform schools? Not even sure how with decisions all coming to an end in a week.

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For those that got the $2500 scholarship, can you post your stats? Just wondering what kind of student gets selected. Thanks

As far as I know, NMS carries no more weight or honor than NMF. I’ll be curious to hear if anyone knows otherwise.

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It seems like something more to put in a LOCI? It seems too late for RD? My son didn’t update when he became a finalist either since most sf reach that stage, so we’re not quite sure what to do now.

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My oldest kids received school sponsored National Merit Scholarships and both listed a first choice school. My youngest son who is a senior also listed a first choice school and did not receive a scholarship yesterday, but I am hopefully he will also get a school sponsored scholarship. As far as his stats, he had perfect PSAT and ACT scores, 4.0 unweighted, 13 AP classes, and dual enrollment,

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I also didn’t get one yesterday and the college I put down as my first choice, I’m not planning to attend because I’m leaning more towards UCLA. I was really hoping for the $2500. It looks like the $2500 is the only one I would qualify for if I attend UCLA since they don’t participate in the NMSC scholarship. My stats are 1500 psat 1580 sat 4.0 uw 4.9 weighted rank 1/600 took every AP I can get my hands on and scored 5s on all 12. Lots of ECs with leaderships. Maybe it was my essay that was weakšŸ¤·ā€ā™€ļø

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I was worried about this as my daughter also received the $2500 award yesterday. I spoke with the people at NM and they assured me I could still get a college supported one as well - but should verify with the college. We have a full tuition scholarship to Fordham so I spoke to the financial aid office to verify. They said this would not replace their scholarship in anyway - BUT we may not get to use this scholarship, unless the money states it can be used for room and board, tuition is already covered. I still need to speak with RIT as they have a 2k/yr award for NMF - so will verify if this will replace the one they offer (in which case we may decline). Daughter is unsure where she will go, she has great options that give no money for NMF - so might be nice to use the money towards that. If you want answer about how this award affects you - contact NM and the school to know for sure.

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Does anyone know if there will be a second batch of NMS notifications or is that it?

I think that’s it for the $2500 awards

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1500 PSAT, 1560 SAT, 3.97UW. School only offers 5 APs and a few DE/Honors courses, taking all of them avoiding overlap. Part time job, multiple ECs done for many years, represented school nationally for EC (think Speech & Debate, quiz bowls, Olympiads type EC). Adding for context since these are decided by state, goes to a very small rural public high school and is an ORM in a competitive state for cut-offs.

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I really don’t think the NMS designations are merit based. They have to do with whether your parent works for a company that participates, and if your first choice school isn’t known for doing their own NM scholarship. After that, I’m not sure what they look at. Zip code?

Only some are based on parent employment or regional - those are the corporate sponsored ones. Then there are the $2500 NMSC scholarships, which are based on the student’s application (merit). And there are college-sponsored scholarships. The website explains all of this thoroughly.

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I’m sure the ones that got the $2500 are all deserving! Congratulations to all.

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I’m a dinosaur by college admissions standards, but I’m a former National Merit Scholar. (My son: ā€œThey had those scholarships way back when you were a student?!?ā€ :roll_eyes:) Back in my day, there were no corporate-sponsored scholarships or, as far as I recall, school-sponsored scholarships, so I don’t know much about those. But the $2500 ($2000 back in the day) scholarships are definitely merit-based. I understand that each state gets a certain number of winners, but I have no idea how those are allocated. I believe they grant 2500 of them each year in total.

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When did you graduate? I was NM, graduated in 1991, and they had both college and corporate ones when I graduated.

Yeah, no, I graduated several years earlier. I’m on the older side to be parenting a high school senior. I wonder if I’m just forgetting, though? I really don’t remember any corporate or college sponsored national merit scholarships.

There maybe a few more as this batch accepts or refuses the $2500.

Why would someone refuse the scholarship?

I got invested in this question and asked my friend who also won my year (and has a better memory), and she also only remembers the $2k scholarship. It’s possible there were industry scholarships back then that were just not on our radar since we didn’t qualify? Anyway, we were both out of college by the time you won yours, so it’s possible the change happened in between.

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