national merit college sponsored?

calmom
Sun, 01 May 2005 05:27:26 +0000

This is probably a matter of semantics, but with the college-sponsored scholarships, the award money comes from NMS. I think it is only semantic, because I believe that the sponsoring college pays money to NM in advance (in order to fund X number of scholarships); then later on the school designates the scholars and when the student enrolls, NM sends back the scholarship amount.

This seems crazy, but my son had a college-sponsored scholarship, and that was the way it worked – we got a bill for the tuition money including amounts that were supposed to be covered by the scholarship, but then we subtracted out $1000 each semester, and the college got a check from NM sometime in September or October, and credited it to our account.

Also, each year to continue the scholarship, the student has to send a form back to NM reporting GPA and courses taken – so the scholarship needs to be approved and renewed by NM. So as far as I’m concerned, the kid is a National Merit Scholar because NM is the outfit that seems to be administering the money, whatever the source.

Also, my son learned about the scholarship in June. He did not designate a first choice college until after May 1, when he made his final decision.