Only issue is not many top schools offer any merit scholarships. National Merit Foundation Scholarship, though small, can be cashed at every school, even at Ivies.
D was NMS from PA last year. We had 5 semifinalist/finalist from our school and she was the only winner of $2,500. Her friend who was also finalist had the same PSAT score (1500 740/760 math) as her. She used her common app essay for her NMF essay, which she drafted reclining on a giant teddy bear while waiting for me at Costco.
She took SAT one time. 1550 (750/800M). Seems to her that the PTA or local scholarship is even more elusive…
Had to add this… Vanderbilt gives NMF additional scholarship ANNUALLY, so Vandy is very dandy for NMF!
^^True, and a good number of those $2500 recipients are planning to attend top national uni’s. Still, perhaps some of those sponsors can serve as backup. And top LAC’s seem well-represented.
@CupCakeMuffins at #120.
@CupCakeMuffins - NM Scholar status is not that elusive. My DS is a NM Scholar because of the $500/yr his school kicks in as their “NMSC sponsored” scholarship. The other $26,500/yr he will receive is the school’s internal scholarship for NMF’s. Two separate items that often get confused in discussions here. A school will call the scholarship a “NMF Scholarship” but it is not through NMSC. If your child wants to go to a school like a HYPSM, the bigger challenge is acceptance. Many of those schools offer financial aid for families with up to the $200k per year income range. If the money is important, look at the thread on schools that offer NMF $$$ on CC. In my opinion, the $2500 is not a big deal. NMF status can be vary valuable if “need-based” aid is unlikely for your family.
All of that is true about real material value is in national merit finalist status making you eligible for full rides or huge scholarship amounts at certain colleges but as only a teeny tiny number of finalists are selected as free standing scholars, its an exclusive group. Most finalists who pick non participating colleges and don’t have a college or company giving money, get $0 dollars from national merit corporation and aren’t considered scholars, just finalists.
Hey guys, I’m filling out my NM application right now. Are my chances of getting finalist hurt if I don’t declare a first-choice college right now? Also just making sure, I can go “undeclared” for now as long as I declare before March 1st right?
You can go undeclared or change later. It shouldn’t be a deciding factor for your finalist standing.
Please remind me how the timing all works out on the selection of first choice school, and how that interacts with corporate and one-time scholarship opportunities.
The two schools my s19 has applied to that offer NM scholarships are Northeastern and RPI. Northeastern says “List as first choice by April 5 to receive updated scholarship by May 1; first group will be awarded in early March to EA applicants.” RPI doesn’t specify a date. My company also offers a small number of awards of 2K/year for 4 years. I believe that my son already listed Northeastern as his first choice, and he applied EA. I don’t want him to be awarded a Northeastern NMS before the one-time NM awards and the corporate awards are awarded, since those are more flexible, and my S is applying to many schools that don’t offer NM awards themselves, and the schools that give out larger awards will almost always still give the non-official part of their award, subtracting out what the student has been awarded from NMS another source (so they don’t lose out by getting awarded a different NM Scholarship first). Does he need to un-select Northeastern until those (corporate and one-time $2500) awards are given out, or are they awarded before that “early March” timeline so that it won’t matter?
Does second wave of first choice college notification go out today?