Past National Merit Finalists

toneranger
Fri, 07 Sep 2007 19:14:47 +0000

Just like Opie said -many NMFs are strong enough students to attract other types of general merit aid. Our son was an NMF and got a small one time award at his flagship state U - but lots of other scholarship $ due to his strong overall record. He received strong merit aid offers from other schools - and we were happy to have a number of good choices. We found that you really need to do your research to uncover the different opportunities available at each school - lots of time online helps.
That said, I don’t understand why so many parents and students turn their noses up at schools that offer automatic NMF awards. Arizona State and others are solid schools with great opportunities for smart students. Even if a parent had 200K saved in an account for a child, it seems to me to still may make sense to at least consider merit awards. The money saved could be spent on study abroad, grad school, or as a cushion to getting started in the real world.
From what I’ve seen, the price tag doesn’t always equate to the quality of education received. I always look at “value added”. Yeah, Harvard’s great and might just be worth the $, but is Duke really that much better than Vanderbiilt? Wake Forest at full cost that much better than Lehigh with merit? I can’t help but make these comparisons - given that our family does not have unlimited $. That’s just me though…I think I’m in a distinct minority based on the posts I see on this board!