<p>^Oops!! To be clear, that was my CC friend, Debbie, who answered you! My son had a little different experience than her D’s. </p>
<p>Hi, summerrain2014,</p>
<p>My son, also an NMF, simply applied to A&M like everybody else, filled out the scholarship Essay C on Apply Texas, and attended an Honors event on campus the summer prior to his senior year in high school. He didn’t apply for Engineering Honors until he was already in his freshman year (but that was when there weren’t freshman Eng Honors seminars–some things have changed since then, and that might be one of them), and he didn’t apply for University Honors until much later either (maybe the spring or summer prior to entering college?). I really don’t think applying for honors of any sort had any affect on scholarship decisions at the time, and my guess is that applying for honors still doesn’t affect admissions scholarships, but I could be wrong. </p>
<p>My son also delayed his decision to declare his NMF first choice school until the last possible week. (Is May 1 the deadline? He turned his postcard in one week prior to that.)</p>
<p>He was torn, frankly, between MIT, another top private school, and A&M. He went back and forth between those 3 that last month. In fact, every now and then, he strongly considered another OOS public, too. He was weighing the engineering programs, honors programs, opportunities in his favorite extracurricular, finances, campus “ambiance,” distance from home, and hiring potential (in no particular order except to say that finances weighed heavily). And so, he put off naming his first choice school for NMF. </p>
<p>Honestly, unless your son is 100% certain that A&M is his first choice, I would recommend the same. What’s the rush?</p>
<p>Like Debbie’s D, my son received his first scholarship notice in the fall semester of his senior year. Then, like her D, more scholarship offers trickled in throughout the spring. </p>
<p>And yes, all there is to do is wait! 
My son did make one more scholarship-interview visit and one more really amazing, really thorough campus visit in the spring, in which he visited everybody under the sun in order to be as informed as possible. The scholarship interview was by invitation and not precipitated by any post-application effort on his part, and the thorough campus visit happened because the scholarship interviewers got him totally fired up for A&M!! That campus visit, in retrospect, pretty much sealed the deal. He loved everything he saw and everyone he met. But he was having a hard time letting go of the great things about the other schools, too. It was a stressful time for him (and me), as he weighed those final choices. </p>
<p>The good news is, he is absolutely thrilled with his decision! He loves A&M and takes enormous pride in the school and in his peers. I can highly recommend it! :)</p>