<p>lousy – If your child has developed a tentative college list, I think there’s no harm in naming two of the schools on that list (provided they’re also among the schools that sponsor the NM program). If next year your child becomes a finalist, he or she will be able to revise. </p>
<p>toorich – I’m not sure what you searched. Before CLdad provided the link to the list of NM sponsors, I went to the websites of two schools my son is interested in and searched the phrase “national merit.” In both cases I came up with financial aid pages that confirmed that the colleges were participants in the NM program.</p>
<p>You can’t name two schools on the form to National Merit. You can name one of those on the list or put down undecided.</p>
<p>My daughter listed one and, when she decided to apply to several schools which offered national merit $, she changed it to undecided. After becoming a Finalist and getting her admissions decisions and financial aid packages (with money promised if she named the college first choice), she accepted one admissions offer and sent the form in with a first choice college.</p>
<p>One quirk is that some schools will not give $ for NMF unless they are picked as first choice by an earlier date than required by National Merit Corporation. I think (sorry, not sure!) that BU required that they were named first choice by Feb 1.</p>
<p>To be specific, these are the schools I googled so far:
University of Southern California
Scripps College
Harvey Mudd College
Claremont McKenna College
Pomona College.</p>
<p>Nothing that comes up associate NMS and merit aid. Was there something wrong with my search. Nothing from the college website.</p>
<p>You’re right. Those are just career codes on the back of the letter! Dang. I think I need glasses (that type is very tiny), sorry (smiles sheepishly).
I think the school mailing thing is a little silly, but she’ll do it anyway.</p>
<p>momfromme,
The form that my D is supposed to fill out now as a Junior says: Print names and locations of 2 college choices. Should I fill out one college choice or both?
Thanks.</p>
<p>The junior year form is not an official first choice designation. NMSC is merely asking your student to list two colleges they would like to be notified of their outstanding performance on the PSAT. Go ahead and list the two…it’s good PR for your child. During senior year Finalists are notified and those candidates will be required to make a first choice designation on another card. That’s when you get into some ‘strategery’ using the Undecided designation.</p>
<p>ldmom06 - Thanks for clarifying this for the poster. I forgot about the two colleges to be listed at this point. Yes, later you would pick your top choice or list undecided.</p>
<p>Juniors and parents of juniors–I wouldn’t worry too much about naming those two schools this spring. Of all the ways to show interest in a school, this one is minimal. And they’ll be hearing about you anyway–hope you all have big mailboxes.</p>
<p>Okay, I finally got the answer I was looking for when I started this thread. This morning, I called the National Merit Scholarship Corporation to find out if there was a deadline for changing the college designated on our son’s NM scholarship. (He’s currently wait-listed by the college he listed). The answer is that you can change that designated college right up until the time NMSC cuts the check in September.</p>
<p>Anyway, since I had them on the line ,I asked the question: What’s a National Merit Scholar? Just the 2500 recipients of NMSC’s $2500 scholarship or any NMF who get $2500 from a college they attend? The lady I spoke with said the answer is different beginning this year. Up until this year, only the 2500 were deemed National Merit Scholars. NMFs receiving $2500 from their colleges were “College-Sponsored Merit Scholars.” However, beginning this year, college sponsorships have been renamed “National Merit College-Sponsored Scholarships,” as part of the NMSC’s new policy of recognizing all NMFs who received $2500 scholarships as National Merit Scholars.</p>
<p>I will not worry too much about the designation itself. Many kids are in different situations that one type of scholarship might be financial better than the other. For example, a kid whose parent works for a company that will give out a $2500 scholarship per year renewable for four years to NMF will opt for that scholarship than the one time $2500 from NMFC.</p>
<p>In the past, even if you did not accept the National Merit Scholarship given out to the top 2500, you could still call yourself a “National Merit Scholar”. The award was separate from the money. </p>
<p>So if the National Merit Foundation picked you for the $2500 scholarship and you turned down the money, you were still a National Merit Scholar.
They might as well give the “national merit scholar” designation to all the finalists, because the main selector now is whether you decide to go to a college that gives such scholarships to national merit finalists. </p>
<p>It’s not something that’s worth putting on the resume’ anymore past mayber the first year of college. It’s sort of like saying you were in the National Honor Society.</p>