<p>I’m not entirely convinced that the issue here is all about timing (although I do agree that it is almost certainly too late for this student to receive the $2500 direct grant from NMSC because most of that money has already been distributed.) </p>
<p>Putting the timing issue aside, there could easily be other reasons why this student did not receive the NMSC-sponsored scholarship:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Only 55% of all NM Finalists are even selected for NM scholarships - of any kind (NMSC, school, or corporate-sponsored). That means that 45% of all NM Finalists do not get any NM Scholarship at all.</p></li>
<li><p>Nearly all Finalists have high PSAT/SAT scores, high GPAs, long list of awards, volunteer and leadership activities, etc. so those factors do not automatically put a candidate at the top of the list for a NM scholarship.</p></li>
<li><p>NM Scholarships sponsored by schools are selected by the schools themselves, not NMSC, from the list of “eligible” Finalists (i.e., those who have designated the school as their “first choice.”). The fact that a particular school has offered a student a NM Scholarship does not mean he would automatically be selected for one of the NMSC-sponsored (or corporate-sponsored NM Scholarships, if eligible for any) if he turns down the school’s offer – or that he would have been chosen for these other scholarships if the school had not chosen him. (Although if he does accept the school’s NM Scholarship, he would automatically be disqualified from getting one of the other NM Scholarships, since you can’t get more than one.)</p></li>
<li><p>Out of the roughly 8,300 NM Scholarships (total of all kinds), there are just 2,500 actually sponsored by NMSC itself. (There are about 4,800 school-sponsored and 1,000 corporate-sponsored.) So just looking at the numbers alone, there is no reason at all to think that “received school-sponsored NM scholarship” necessarily means “would have received NMSC-sponsored scholarship.”</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I’m not, in any way, belittling this particular student’s accomplishments. (I have no knowledge of his specific qualifications, or how they compare to those of other finalists.) I am simply pointing out that NM Finalists should never assume they will get any money from the NM program, unless they are applying to one of the schools that give automatic NM Scholarships to every NM Finalist who is admitted there. Remember that there are 15,000 NM Finalists, and only for the 2,500 NM direct grants, and the NMSC is notoriously vague about the specific selection criteria it uses – or even the exact details about what the selection process is.</p>