<p>For what it’s worth, this will be the first year Northeastern has had an “early” notification deadline, so this trick won’t have been relevant in the past.</p>
<p>Most schools use their merit money to attract strong candidates who may be on the fence, not to reward students for being committed to the school. </p>
<p>I suspect the reduction of the NMF award reflects a desire to have more holistic award criteria, rather than the pretty one-dimensional NMF criteria, and has little to do with students qualifying for the award and not accepting it. (In the past, they said they wanted to give out at most 100 NMF awards, though they would guarantee the award to all who qualified. If every NMF who applied to Northeastern ultimately attended, they would have been way over their planned number.)</p>