@clemsongrad, no resume or other attachments…the application really is that simple! 
Thank you and we did the needful. He is still working on cleaning up the essay :). Appreciate all your gudiance.
Sorry, I think this has been asked before but I can’t find it. Does anyone know the word limit for the essay?
No word limit but definitely a space limit. Be sure to print out a preview before submitting to ensure that nothing gets cut-off.
So I was going through the letter from NMSC to NMSF in preparation of NMF application. Our S18’s first choice (Michigan) is not in the list of schools and also he is undecided with his major. Does that mean that his chances of going beyond the finalist stage to win any awards is almost null?
@ak200008 I think he could win the $2500 award directly from national merit. About half the finalists get one.
Half the finalists receive one of the three types of scholarships - college sponsored, corporate sponsored, or one-time NMSC $2,500. The instructions should list the specific percentage breakdown but it might be 1/3 for each (give or take).
Don’t worry about specifying a major if he’s unsure. IIRC that information is there to assist corporate sponsors in selecting recipients (some might be looking to support specific majors).
Your son has plenty of time to put down his first choice college so it’s ok to remain undecided on that till he finds out that his NMF status is confirmed. @snowfairy137 is correct that if by the notification date he has specified a school that is not a sponsor, he will not be eligible for a college sponsored award, but may be eligible for one of the other two.
Good luck to him!
The word limit we found in OSA is 600 words. The tool formats it little weird so he had trouble fitting it in and had to trim it further down to 590 i believe so it looks good in breaks in paragraphs etc.
Once your kid pastes the essay in the OSA , there is a preview (i think) that showed if anything will be truncated in red. It was very helpful.
Anybody know if NMC requires senior mid-year grades/transcripts? Or is NMF based on grades through the end of junior year (among the other credentials)?
On the lists of all the semifinalists in a state, there are numbers written next to each name (ex. 725 Bob Smith). What do those numbers mean? They sometimes differ between students at the same school, but some schools have all students with the same number.
@h0kulani the number corresponds to the potential major the student selected when taking the PSAT.
Where exactly do we find the list of all the semifinalists in a state?
@CTMorris1999, I am assuming your inquiry is regarding Alabama… The full list for Alabama is here:
https://www.google.com/amp/s/articles.al.com/news/index.ssf/2017/09/221_alabama_students_named_nat.amp
Note that there is no single location or format that all results for all states are published in the public domain, most of what you see in this thread is crowd sourced.
@Kayak24 at #2128: Grades through Junior year.
any sign of a SC list?