<p>Vanderbilt is still committed to helping students avoid loans so does it really matter if part of your aid is merit based? It can help you with actually getting admitted in the first place if you end up being a NMF and since that merit money is pretty much guaranteed even if you don’t get any money from the NMSC, it could help you in the admissions game since they won’t have to dig as deep out of the need based funds to admit you compared to someone else who has identical need but no NM status. It can only help you,not hurt you. Good luck and get all of that paperwork submitted on time to NMSC!</p>