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

mh3353
Sun, 01 Feb 2015 17:46:15 +0000

Just read this sentence:

In addition to the Gold Scholar Award, Finalists may be eligible to receive the National Merit University of Minnesota Scholarship–worth $4,000-$8,000 over four years.

I think I should be receiving the Gold Scholar (if I become NMF and declare by May 1) regardless of whether I receive the smaller, NM official, college-sponsored scholarship. Also, I am pretty sure I would want to select UMN before May 1. May 1 is their deadline to confirm enrollment. The Gold Scholar Award has already been “offered” to me. As is my understanding, if I choose UMN by the National Merit deadline, I get that 10k scholarship regardless of whether or not I am awarded an “official” (whether it be the college-sponsored 1-2k or the one time 2.5k) national merit scholarship.

And in all honesty, at this point, I hope to be able to decide by the end of this month. I just need to have a good idea of total financial aid packages before I make my final decision.

BTW, I just kind of realized that SDSMT isn’t even an official college sponsor. Their whole scholarship (3k/year) is unofficial, just like UMN’s Gold Scholar Award. I really haven’t found any reason to think my scholarship eligibility at UMN could be compromised by selecting SDSMT now, as you have agreed with me.