<p>My principal notified me today that I am a finalist. I’m in Oregon for whatever use you can make of it.</p>
<p>Sun25, my son briefly consider Texas A&M, but chose the U. of Alabama. The offer was just too good – tuition, room, board, a stipend for study abroad/research, cash and a laptop.</p>
<p>momreads,
Did you visit Texas A & M?
Do you live in Alabama?</p>
<p>Since I was the one who started this thread, D was told yesterday that she is a finalist by her college counselor. She is very excited, as am I. It is nice to get some positive news while waiting for other college decisions to arrive.
For those of you who are also named finalists, are you going to notify the colleges where you applied, and is it better to call or send your admissions counselor an email?
To those who were wondering about great merit aid for finalists, D was offered a full ride at Alabama,plus cash and laptop;Auburn,Oklahoma,Texas A&M and ASU offered full tuition.
All of those schools are just way too big for her and when we visited Alabama, even though the campus is gorgeous and has lots to offer, she was too overwhelmed by the size. She is interested in Greek life and has heard from alums how competitive rush is,especially not being a legacy. She described the sorority and frat houses as “being on steroids” they were so big compared to all of the other schools we have visited. She was pretty comical about it.
I still think the academic opportunities at Alabama appear to be excellent in their Honors College and it is too bad that it isn’t a good emotional or social fit for her.</p>
<p>Are there other semi-finalists who have NOT heard anything yet?</p>
<p>This is the second go round for us, so I know my S will not hear from the principal. We will wait for the mail to him. Three years ago with S1, not only did the principal not tell him he was a finalist, she and the others in the administration, insisted that there were no finalist certificates and never had been. Of course the literature from NM tells the students that they will receive a certificate through their principals. I guess the idea is that this is a great honor and the principal should mark it as such by some sort of ceremonial awarding of the certificate. Well three years ago, I called NM and asked them to resend the certificates to the 8 finalists at S1’s school. They arrived and a student intern dropped them off in their classes. Real nice! This year there are only two at the high school, and the administration cares even less. It is a shame. It is a wonderful honor and should be recognized by the student’s high school. Congratulations to all the finalists. And if you haven’t heard through your school, do not worry, you will receive a letter from NM.</p>
<p>I’m a SF, and I haven’t been notified by anyone. But then again I live in Florida, so I expect a bit of a time lag on snail-mail.</p>
<p>We haven’t been notified one way or the other yet. But I believe that letters to those who did not advance were sent out several weeks ago.</p>
<p>My daughter got notified by the principal on Friday only because she had to find him to get him to complete paperwork for the presidential scholarship. He got the information too late to notify the three semifinalists that they had all made it but I’m sure he’ll get around to calling them in next week (and hopefully he will have certificates).</p>
<p>DD isn’t a fan of the large schools with the NMF free rides so looks like it will make only a minor difference. Also, DH works for one of the companies that provides awards. My understanding is that if his company gives her a small one time corporate award she will no longer be able to take advantage of a college recurring scholarship. Can anyone correct me on this?</p>
<p>Sharonohio – It’s my understanding that one cannot accept two different NM scholarships; but she can refuse the one time corporate award in order to accept a (more generous) recurring scholarship. </p>
<p>We are in California; D is a semi-finalist, but we have not yet heard anything. But we knew from CC that she’d be a semi-finalist before we ever heard from the school…</p>
<p>S has not heard either. Principal gives the certificates out at the end of the year at Senior Honors evening. Like others, don’t anticipate knowing anything unless/until the letter from NM arrives at the house next week.</p>
<p>Quick question from a student who is utterly confused: Given that 94% of SFs become Fs, I’m assuming I’m a F (our principal hadn’t gotten any info yet).</p>
<p>What then? My father’s company is one of the corporate sponsors. For some reason, I remember reading that it gives every Finalist money. But the info in the packet said that EVERY finalist is considered for the $2500 NMS. Are those selected first, then the corporate winners, or are the corporate college people drawn out through triage and anyone who wasn’t eligible for either of those is then considered for the NMS? </p>
<p>Thanks for any info.</p>
<p>^^^
It is confusing. I know for my d, who is commended (bad testing day), she obviously didn’t make SF (or finalist). Yet, she received info from NM and my h’s corporation that she’s eligible for the same money as finalists – but only through his corporation. </p>
<p>zebes</p>
<p>^ zebes, the “Special Scholarships” are awards given by corporations to commended students who still did well (children of employees, people going into fields that the company likes, etc.). It’s on the website: [National</a> Merit Scholarship Corporation - NMSP](<a href=“http://www.nationalmerit.org/nmsp.php]National”>http://www.nationalmerit.org/nmsp.php)</p>
<p>It is just so unclear. I hope someone can help us out here. =/</p>
<p>Just have to say that the certificate son received from his principal wasn’t too impressive. I don’t know; guess I was just expected something a little fancier…</p>
<p>The NMFs at son’s school got called to the principal’s office at the end of the day and were given their certificates. Maybe they’ll recognize them later on, who knows. Mostly the scholarship money son will be getting will really be appreciated.</p>
<p>My DS did not hear this week either. And we live in Iowa, so it’s not just geography. I’m not worried (much), thanks to previous posts on CC.</p>
<p>As far as I know you can only get one award. If you get the corporate one, then you don’t get the NM one. I think you can take the one that offers the most money if you are offered more than one… Bottom line is that the NM corporation doesn’t have enough money to give every finalist $2.5k so they are counting on the corporate and university sponsors to fill in. S didn’t get the $2.5k from NM but he got $1k per year from his university (NM actually send us a letter to sign and send back to them that he was accepting that award and nothing else from them). The way I see it, the $4k from his school freed $2.5k for NM to give to somebody else. Also S’s school, large public with 3 finalists, didn’t make much of a deal out of it. Too busy solving other things to honor the top students.</p>
<p>Thanks J’adoube. So what I’m understanding is that the NMS award (2.5k) is open to everyone, and is presumably for the “winners,” although they are free to choose a corporate/college award instead?</p>
<p>i haven’t heard yet, but i’m waiting for the letter that they mail to my house because my principal hates me and probably wouldn’t give me the letter out of spite:)</p>
<p>from my understanding, you can win the 2500 one and have a college match it if they offer more, so if they would give you 10000 a year, now they would give you 7500 for the first year, but it depends on the college</p>
<p>no idea about corps. they make their own rules</p>