National Merit Finalist vs National Merit Scholar

kjcphmom
Mon, 15 Feb 2016 17:24:59 +0000

The National Merit Corporation really doesn’t help anyone get the best offer… its up to the student/parent to figure it out. My son was offered the $2500 merit scholarship and I didn’t know what to do. The school he was attending offered tuition, 4 years room and $1,000 per year for the National Merit portion. There wasn’t a conflict with the room and tuition portion (that was a separate, awarded because he was a NMF) but there was a conflict with the $1,000 p/year award as now he would potentially be losing $1500. I contacted his school-to-be and they said in THEIR case there was no problem. My son should accept the $2500 award (I don’t know if you can NOT accept it) but they would still pay him except for the first semester. So in HIS CASE from HIS UNIVERSITY he got $2500 from NMF, and then $500 per semester for the next 6 semesters from the university (he graduated one semester early otherwise it would be for 7 semesters). This university is very generous. I am not sure how other universities handle this. I wouldn’t worry about the “unofficial portion” though as this really has nothing to do with the National Merit Corporation.