The school’s housing app opens in October, so he also wants to be accepted ASAP to be first in line for his choice of housing.
@contdes at #1634: Clearly it can help with admissions at most schools (except perhaps with the tippy top because they get so many . . .). If your S isn’t looking at sponsor schools then it’s possible to get the one-time $2,500 scholarship or a corporate sponsored one (not sure whether that last category is a one time or renewable). So then it becomes a question of whether the extra work necessary to put him in the running for those is worth the money. Given how easy it is to complete the NMSC application, and assuming that his grades and recs from the school are sufficient to make NMF, the answer is usually that it is. Thinking logically, $2,500 tax free is the equivalent of about 208 hours of part-time work ($12 hourly wage). YMMV in terms of wages and taxes owed.
The $2500 isn’t guaranteed, of course, so uncertainty will discount the expected value. However, I suspect that first in line for consideration will be those NMF’s whose first choice is not a college sponsor (you can only get - at most - one scholarship from NMSC). Also, even if you discount heavily - say, 50% - and apply another small discount for the time value of money, he’d still need to work a lot of hours to come up with a comparable amount.
@JBStillFlying whoops tagged the wrong person!
My son received his NHRP Award in the mail today. Still waiting on MS NMSF 221 SI.
@JBStillFlying Thanks. He’s going to do the application for NMF and I think will get big support for that from his school. Hopefully he’ll make the cut. I’ll look more at the $2500 awards. I was mainly wondering if it had any weight in terms of getting in a school. But I think you answered my question. His reaches are tippy top, but he’s got a slew of others, too, that are matches or safeties. Maybe will help in those scenarios.
Can anyone tell me if 220 and above is the cutoff for Colorado?? I am biting my nails right now cause I have a 220. RIght on the border. 
@fadingblue101 , CO’s cutoff is 220 (220 and above) so you are a Semifinalist! Congratulations! Google Compass Prep for more detailed info. 
So for those who have been through the NMSF process in the past, does the mail change at all? Do any schools send fee waivers based on NMSF status?
I’ve wondered about fee waivers too.
More fee waivers would be nice. S18 may apply to 10 schools. But my D15 was NMF, and I do not recall fee waivers tied to NM or near that time.
^^Same.
DS meets with UTD college rep on Wedensday the 6th, he’ll ask about a NM fee wavier
@DiotimaDM , I read your NM visit reports to the various colleges some time ago (thank you, by the way–they were very informative!). So you were able to get National Merit visits even though semifinalists hadn’t been announced at that time? Did you just let them know your S’s PSAT score? I had assumed that you had to be a finalist or semifinalist to get the specialized visits you described, but it sounds like that was not the case. It would be great to be able to do those visits in the spring like you did, rather than having to cram them in in the fall.
My kid got a fee waiver from Rice this week via email.
@bctnln1059 I told them that s was a likely National Merit finalist, and that even though we didn’t know for sure, his score was several points above the historical cutoff for our state. They were happy to oblige us. 
I know that Art’s website has one report from NY with a 221, but are there any others any of you heard of? I’m still hoping it will be a 220 at the least.
I scheduled S’s prospective NM visit to UTD before he even had his junior year PSAT score, or any SAT score. We wanted to visit over S’s junior year Thanksgiving break, so I emailed the UTD NM contact and asked. His sophomore PSAT score would have made NMSF if he’d been in the competition that year, and his grades and class rank were great. It was not a problem at all to have the honors tour, and during our visit nobody even asked about his scores.
@prodesse: DS18 got a fee waiver from Rice also. Something about high scores on SAT Subject Test scores…
I’m getting a little concerned about the NMF half-tuition scholarship at USC (D18’s top choice). People mentioned earlier that it is no longer automatic, that it’s competitive. I wonder if USC factors in EFC in that competition? If so, the school becomes much less attractive to me because we’re full pay.
@TexasMommy90, @prodesse Rice fee waiver couldnt be tied to NMSF as it has not been publicized yet, am I correct? Did you send them the SAT scores before submittting the Common/Apply Texas App?