<p>My daughter has had six colleges on her list for a while, but now that she is getting scholarship offers for NMSF, she is considering adding some. I am not worried about having too many from which to choose; because nobody can predict merit aid (except for guaranteed scholarships), I expect that any scholarship offers will vary in amount and make the decision easier!</p>
<p>Schokolade - Do you mind sharing some of the info about the NMSF scholarship offers?</p>
<p>fog-45 kids in one biology class! yikes. I have often thought of going into teaching, but haven’t for two reasons: as an engineer I make at least 2X the starting pay of teachers in my area and second I am not sure I can control a class of kids. I would teach math or science if I had a choice, btw. </p>
<p>We thought S was going to apply to one reach ED, til he told us it wasn’t his first choice. He did tell us that if he got accepted he would go there, but only because it is such a good school, not because he loves it. When he told me that I told him to just apply reg or early decision and let the chips fall where they may.</p>
<p>FlMathMom: I am not Schokolade, but I wanted to make sure you knew about the thread specifically about NMF scholarships under the Financial Aid thread. </p>
<p>When my older dd was applying two years ago she got lots and lots of mail and some excellent scholarship offers from University of Oklahoma, Alabama, Arizona, Texas A and M and University of Houston. USC gives half tuition for NMF. (There are many more listed on that thread, but these are what I remember.)</p>
<p>She, like many NMFinalists, ended up at a school which gives no merit aid, but has good financial aid.</p>
<p>Kiddo mentioned today that the applications are to be sent
“From the hs computer in the GC’s office”
That evidently when the app is ready–kiddo is supposed to set an appt and meet with the GC who will go over it and then kiddo can send it.</p>
<p>EXCUSE ME?!! What is THAT?!
This is the same hs that does NOT allow parents to have a Naviance password.
Exactly how is it they want the kids to send apps from the GCs computer…and WHY?</p>
<p>Fog, that is very weird. There’s no reason the students should not be “allowed” to submit their apps from home. It’s not the HIGH SCHOOL that is applying to college, it’s the STUDENT. I’m sure the GC just wants to make sure the applications have been correctly completed, but to me it screams micromanagement.</p>
<p>FlMathMom–I’m back, and happy to share whatever info I have. My daughter received a letter addressed to her at her school today from Auburn congratulating her on being named NMSF and describing their full ride scholarship for NMSFs. She received a similar postcard at home today from University of Oklahoma. </p>
<p>The thread linked below contains a very helpful list of scholarships for NMSFs. If you go back about three pages from the end, you can see Keilexandra’s latest list of good scholarships:</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/national-merit-scholarships/649276-nmf-scholarships-updated-compilation.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/national-merit-scholarships/649276-nmf-scholarships-updated-compilation.html</a></p>
<p>Oregonian - we are in the same boat, D is fixed on applying ED and reluctant to do other apps ‘just in case’. I am fairly confident re the school of choice given her scores, interview and no need for FA but I’d like a safety net I think!</p>
<p>I am looking for guidance on how many credits S can get for college credit and still be considered a freshman for scholarship purposes. I have heard this has been an issue with some people around town but I can’t get a handle on this-from what I can tell it seems like something each college decides. I need to figure this out this week since he needs to pay for whatever he wants to take for college credit by Friday.</p>
<p>The NMSF info is interesting. Most of the schools he likes don’t participate! He went down to the GC today to ask for a copy of the application and they already sent it last week-with no copy! Should I be concerned-answer is yes!</p>
<p>^ well that is a person who has never had anything lost in the mail before. Hopefully, it won’t take your S’s application getting lost to make the GC wise up and start making copies.</p>
<p>Pepper03 - For admissions purposes, I have never seen anything other than the freshman label given to a high school student who took college classes while still in high school. Whether or not the college will accept those credits is another issue and that of course varies from school to school. But to me, it would seem to defeat the purpose of dual enrollment for academic enrichment if the students then loss the benefit of being regarded as freshmen when they matriculate.</p>
<p>I don’t know what happens with scholarships, but it definitely is common for kids at our publics to go in as sophomores because of college/AP credits. It does have its downsides, besides the FA issues - some students are not allowed to take courses they are “past” even if they feel they need to learn something from them, and it pushes them to choose a major, things like that. It is definitely worth calling a couple of schools and finding out what their policies are.</p>
<p>I wish instead of bumping them up before they’re ready that a school would just shave off time at the end, to do with as they please. And let the kids decide what is educationally beneficial. My D1 placed out of 3 semesters of language, but her school let her take the 3rd one regardless - she wanted to start in the fall, and knew she had some deficits it could correct.</p>
<p>Of course on the flip side, many private schools will PLACE you higher but not give you CREDIT toward graduating - she has more time for other classes because she placed out with APs, etc., but we’re required to pay for 8 full semesters.</p>
<p>Yes I cannot believe she sent it without making a copy.</p>
<p>I guess I will call NMSC in a week or so and see if they received it and it is complete.</p>
<p>Fog – DS had a somewhat similar situation at his school. In Texas, we have a “Common App” sort of system called Apply Texas, which is the same scenario – do one app and then you can copy it to another school, etc. In addition to his grade-level GC, our school also has a “transistion counselor” whose job it is to get all the college reps to campus, help with tours, keep track of scholarships, etc. Back in August (before school started), she had two dates where kids could come to the computer lab at the school to get help with the Apply Texas app. There was a third one after school started. By the time I found out about them, it was down to the last one and DS couldn’t go that day. Plus, we had already started the Apply Texas app and had it ready to submit to the first school. </p>
<p>The kicker is that if you went to one of her lab sessions, you would get an excused absence for the morning of Oct. 13, which is when the juniors and sophomores will be taking the PSAT. If you didn’t do that, you had to come to school and sit in a classroom and probably watch a movie.</p>
<p>So, I emailed her and said “Look, we didn’t know about these dates, but we’ve already done the app and it’s ready to go, so can’t we print a copy of the submission or confirmation or something, so he can have the excused absence that morning?” She said for him to come by her office and show him what we’ve done and he’ll get the excused absence.</p>
<p>Perhaps your GC will accept something like this as well – the point is to get the kids to do it. If they’ve have done their apps at home, then they should still get “credit” with the GCs, etc.</p>
<p>^^re: entering as sophomores etc…apparently at UMich, if you come in with a certain # of credits, you are bumped up to a higher tuition level; not personally involved but friends have mentioned this…</p>
<p>Wow, this thread is moving fast. Trying to catch up with all that happened. </p>
<p>Congrats on the great ACT scores. And congrats to the newest acceptances. </p>
<p>On October 1st the CSS Profile will be available. It’s our time to get busy.</p>
<p>CSS Profile on October 1 is on my calendar. I’m kind of dreading it! The good news is that my D’s freshman year is the one year we should get some FA, since we also have an older son in college. He’ll be a senior next year (OMG!).</p>
<p>Pepper, did you check the National Merit list of schools that participate, or Keilexandra’s list here on CC? If the latter, make sure you check with the schools your son is interested in, to see if there’s any NM money. Sometimes it’s there but competitive, which isn’t on Keil’s list.</p>
<p>D1’s top choice doesn’t offer NM money, but many of the others on her list do. The parents are perhaps happier about that than she is.</p>
<p>Schokolade,50is - Thanks for the link to the NMF thread. I know about that. What sorta threw me was the comment from Schokolade about D getting scholarship offers from NMSF. S has been getting mail from colleges suggesting he apply but that is about it. His score was 14 pts higher than needed in FL to become NMSF.</p>
<p>Fogfog^, we’re having a similar situation here w/ the apps being micromanaged by my son’s college counselor. And we too don’t have naviance access, just the counselors have it. I guess i can see the micromanagement of apps if the kids are entirely on their own and don’t know exactly what they’re doing, but at this point i feel like i know as much as, if not more than, the college counselor. </p>
<p>and neither she nor the dept as a whole are concerning themselves w/ merit aid, all we would qualify for. i suggested adding UPitt to his list – an easy app – b/c it’s got a great dept in his intended major and he’ll probably qualify for a full ride. maybe b/c he’s at a private high school, they just assume that all the parents won’t mind shelling out full ticket price. Certainly his first choice school will require us to cut a check for the full amount, but we’ve told our son that while we saved for his college tuition (starting saving for it 3 yrs before his birth!), i can’t pay for med school. if he takes merit aid, he can have $ presently intended for college and graduate debt free for all 8 years.</p>
<p>we’re also having a tough time cutting down his list. i think i’m going to follow the course that EmmyBet described. he’ll get all the early schools out and then we’ll prioritize the list and do one supplement at a time. if he’s got energy to get them all done, terrific; if not, he will have gotten his top ranked choices done and we’ll leave it at that. his school requires all applications submitted to college counselor by end of november, long before he’ll hear back from his ED/EA schools.</p>