Could someone please help me clear up this "First Choice School" issue?

mh3353
Sun, 01 Feb 2015 19:59:12 +0000

'It sounds like you have a solid plan but the SDSMT website implies that the $3000 per year is an official NMSC scholarship, at least in part. Otherwise there would be no reason to involve NMSC regarding First Choice at all."

On this point, UMN’s Gold Scholar Award, officially, has nothing to do with National Merit Scholarship Corporation. Minnesota decided to award this scholarship to some students, giving preference to NMFs. SDSMT’s scholarship, from my understanding, is in the same category. It seems schools make their own rules about when you have to declare first choice, since these are their own scholarships, not official national merit college-sponsored scholarships.

http://www.nationalmerit.org/Merit_Sponsor_Leaflet.pdf

If SDSMT had an official college-sponsored NM scholarship (1-2k year for four years), wouldn’t they appear on this list?