Yes, have the student sign into the NMSC portal. The information is in the individual’s account if they are offered a $2500 award!
There’s a letter coming to the home too.
@PAO2008 and @momofzag are your kids doing overnights at Rochester? When we looked at the accepted student day schedule, it didn’t look like that was an option. I was going to call but I can ask here first!
In other news, DS is at an accepted student day at another school and absolutely loving it. DH says the school is really doing a great job.
S got rejected from one of his schools yesterday. Didn’t faze him - he had applied for a scholarship they offered and he knew a few weeks ago that he wasn’t in the running for that scholarship. So he wasn’t as keen on that school. It’s interesting to note that he’s really happy with the choices he has now - so he isn’t too bothered by any rejections. That being said, he still has a few more expected this week and the next!
I’ve been pleading with him to send out some applications for a summer job - he said he would, but I haven’t seen any action yet! Too busy catching up on sleep and his games/tv binge watching! Can’t really complain too much - he does need this down time.
Thank you that is helpful!! DS won a NMS ($2500) too!!! 
So much exciting news! I’ve been reading along with all of the ups and downs but felt compelled to login today. So congratulations to everyone and for those who did not get the news they were hoping for, we will all be past this part soon. There are better days on the horizon!
@aacvj103 - Don’t give up! I saw your post over on the Vanderbilt thread. What some don’t realize is that Vanderbilt is just as competitive-or more so-as some of the Ivy Leagues schools re:admission. For one thing, it is one of only a dozen or so need-blind schools that meet need without loans. Several of the Ivies do not. Also, there are those, especially outside of the NE, who prefer places like Vandy, UVA, Northwestern etc. to the Ivies. Some of it is location. Sometimes there are other reasons. There are tons of applicants to Vanderbilt from the midwest, southeast and elsewhere that make Vanderbilt’s acceptance rate one of the lowest, again, lower than some Ivies.
This is not intended to be an Ivy bashing session. Yale was our S '13’s #2 choice. He loved the residential system and I believe he would have had a wonderful four years in New Haven. But by the same token, I have noticed by following the process very closely over the years (S '16 is our youngest of five) that if you are competitive for Vandy (which your daughter certainly is-just too many qualified applicants there-she may still get off of that waitlist) she is certainly competitive for Cornell, Columbia, Brown, and Dartmouth at the very least. One thing we have been told by the upper-end (stats-wise) admissions offices over and over is that strong numbers will get you looked at, but then it’s a matter of what else one has to offer. Where will she match up with what the college is looking for beyond those high numbers? That is going to vary from place to place. She still has more reasonable chances left to make that match, especially if she applied to more than just HYP.
Will Northeastern not work now that she is a NMF? Also, if she needs merit aid to make it affordable, will the Ivies be do-able since they are need-based only?
Anyway, hang in there and best of luck next week! She only needs one good option!
Great job to the ones who won the NMS!
I’m not sure S remembers his username or password to the NMPortal, and we’re heading out in just a few minutes. I guess we’ll figure that out later. He’s got one school that will give him full tuition because of NMF, and another that will give him $2K/year. Pretty sure the one he’s leaning most toward will be $0. We visit all three in the next 3 weeks, so we’ll see how things shake out then, I suppose.
Congratulations to everyone who’s received the scholarships, and for all of the admissions news, too! One more week, y’all…
Thanks for the insight @critter. We had a bit of an eye opener with Northeastern - they offered D a $20K merit scholarship $13k in need-based aid. When she was named a NMF, we were so excited because we knew they did $30k in merit. But what they did was up her merit to $30k and lower the need-based aid to $3k - in effect, there is NO benefit to being a NMF! Even with the $33k it would still cost us $32k which is still well above our EFC.
@Almondjoy1 My S is not doing an overnight. We did not ask about one so I am not sure if they are available.
@aacvj103 - that is annoying about NEU!! I thought some of these schools that do merit, would stack the NMS.
The one my son got is a National Merit Corporation scholarship, which I believe is added on to aid if it’s exclusively need-based. At least it would be at M and P without reducing our aid. I think it was @Dragonflygarden who told me that merit aid earned separately from the school at P can first go to the student work/contribution or even to a computer. Maybe she can weigh in to confirm!
@aacvj103 - This seems to be the situation with all schools that meet need. They will not decrease your EFC, they will only lower your need based award. My son was looking at a bunch of scholarships yesterday when we suddenly both realized, that unless he went to a UC, where hs is not getting school based grants, these scholarships are not worth the work. They don’t change a thing.
@LKnomad - well, rats. At least at M, though, since the employee discount reduces to lower than our hilarious EFC, I think the NMS would still stack with that discount.
@EastGrad: “Maybe take a day or two to enjoy before sweating the decisions, everyone.”
This is a prescription, right?
@aacvj103 - Wow. Sorry to hear that about Northeastern. Crossing my fingers for good things for you and your D next week!
@Waiting2exhale- Haha. Good one! ^^^^^
@carolinamom2boys , @readingclaygirl : Both your points on mental illness, what it looks like to those who care and yet are not the caregivers, and what it looks and feels like to those helping to steady the wheel, are most salient.
At most schools you cannot get need aid that stacks and takes your out of pocket expenses below the family EFC. I would say the only exception would be the Ivy league. When Princeton and Dartmouth offered my oldest FA packages both broke the EFC up into student contribution (summer savings) and parent contribution. Both allow outside scholarships to cover up to all of self help (work study & summer savings) before reducing need based aid. So if the student can bring in about $5000 in outside scholarships it is possible to bring down the out of pocket cost by a couple thousand dollars. Princeton has an extra program that allows up to an additional $1000 in outside scholarships to be used toward the purchase of a computer (freshman year only).
I checked how every school on my son’s list handled outside scholarships (google). Since most of the schools he applied to handle outside scholarships the same way only about $5000 per year is useful to him.
Now we need to decide. S loves UCLA and already has someone he would like to room with and friends there. For his major, (economics) Cal Berkeley is far superior. UCLA is beautiful, and Cal isn’t. So does he tolerate a campus that has great education and connections for his major, or does he go to a place that doesn’t have the reputation, but has a great location and his friends are there? Tough decisions coming in the next few weeks. If he chooses Cal or UCLA he will most likely graduate with little debt. USC is just too expensive.
@mysonsdad- I thought Cal was beautiful except for panhandlers.
There is at least one Houston kid I know who is doing Economics at Cal and paying OOS tuition.
@mysonsdad. UCLA I think just fell off when CAL showed up. I loved the old buildings at CAL.
Haas is beautiful, but I thought the rest of the campus was old and dirty.