send an update to colleges?

R124687
Tue, 09 Feb 2010 15:44:45 +0000

I got FLAMED over on the Yale board for saying I was goint to be advising my daughter to send in her finalist notification (God willing that she gets one). However…I’ll tell you something I learned today:

My D has applied for scholarships at her in state public safety. One of their bigger scholarships “gives preference to National Merit finalists”. This scholarship is announced long before their deadline to list them as first choice school (which is for ANOTHER, smaller scholarship).

So…I just called National Merit to ask if colleges bought finalist lists, or does the student need to notify the college? He said they ONLY names they give to colleges are those where the student lists them as first choice.

So…if you want a school to know you made it to finalists, in some way other than by selecting them as your first choice school, such as thinking it might help you in your acceptance/denial…then, yes - YOU must notify them. Most have a fax line to admissions where you could send something like that.

I think elite schools probably ASSUME finalist, since the numbers are so high of those who make finalist as compared to those who don’t. But, an example like this particular scholarship circumstance, I think is one reason why you WOULD want to notify them.

I’m going to MAKE my daughter send it to this one school because it’s her only academic and financial safety.