<p>@RobD: Thanks for writing such a clear response.</p>
<p>I do understand that NMSC is a private company. Moreover, I see why NMSC might want to distribute NMS designation geographically…rather than make it solely merit-based. For the record, I don’t blame regional NSF sponsors (large companies) one bit for wanting to fund students in their home states.</p>
<p>However, it’s downright misleading to include the words “national” and “merit” in the name of the scholarship…and then, in an opaque process, base cut-offs on the student’s state of residence (for the most part).</p>
<p>Why doesn’t NMSC post the state cut-offs on its website…out in the open?</p>
<p>Why doesn’t the company want people posting the annual state cut-offs on other Internet sites?
(I read that, at one point, NMSC pursued legal means to prevent websites, like College Confidential, from posting such information.)</p>
<p>It’s no wonder that the top-tier colleges discount NMS designation as a regional award based primarily on the results of one sitting of a watered-down version of the SAT. </p>
<p>When I was at college, we’d joke that it would be difficult to throw a rock on campus and not hit an NMF scholar. Attaining NMSF/NMF/NMS status is not a big deal at all – it’s merely a positive side effect of good standardized test-taking ability.</p>