What YOU MUST do is take the SAT, if you haven’t already done so, and go see your HS counselor next month. .
If your PSAT score is above the FLA cut off score, then he will receive a packet from National Merit in late Sept. / early Oct containing a recommendation form that he fills out and an essay for you to fill out.
BE SURE YOU GET IT FROM HIM.
Fill it out and make sure he sends his recommendation form too.
95% of the time- if you are a NMSF, and send in the essay, and dont have a big black mark on your school file or have very low SAT scores, you WILL be announced in March as a NMF.
So there is no need to wait to apply to colleges to see if you qualify.
Participating colleges only award NMF scholarships to students who they have accepted AND who have declared the college to be their first choice college- i.e. where they have decided to enroll.
You DONT have to send in the card stating what your first, second and third choice colleges are when applying to colleges, but it MUST be filled out and sent in by May 1, after you decide in April where you ARE actually going to college.
Here is a link to the national merit program- scroll down until you see page 35- that shows which colleges [ and corporations] participate in the program and offer NMF Merit scholarships.
http://www.nationalmerit.org/annual_report.pdf
by the way- IT WILL DO YOU NO GOOD TO LIST ANY COLLEGE THAT IS NOT A NATIONAL MERIT SPONSOR AS YOUR FIRST CHOICE COLLEGE- IF you want to be awarded college sponsored national merit scholarship $$
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this is a list compiled by CC parents, of the colleges that DO participate.
http://nmfscholarships.yolasite.com/