National Merit Scholarships

mercymom
Wed, 07 Feb 2007 16:42:16 +0000

When they say you can only get one award, that means that if you get the $2500 from NM itself, then you can’t get another award from the college or from a company. However, as posted above, some schools will give you money down the line; that is up to the school.

As I recall from last year, you actually have until some time in May to designate a first choice school. You can even change your designation then if you did put someone down with your app and then changed your mind.

While it can certainly be a consideration as to school choice (the amount of a NM award), I wouldn’t let it totally rule the decision. If you really like a school and it has a big NM award, then that’s great, but I wouldn’t go to a school you don’t like just 'cause of NM. The mere fact that you are NMF (if that happens and it does for most NMSF) will mean a lot to most schools and you might just get a scholarship from a school that is not a “NM scholarship”, but you were given the scholarship in part because you were NM. ie, it is one of your (hopefully) many qualifications, and a significant one.

Some schools like to brag about how many NMFs are in their freshman class. They attract NMFs in many different ways and specifically named awards are just one way. It was our experience that the named “NM award” at the schools our D liked were usually the smallest ones they had.