For the 2015-2016 class there were 20 NMSF. It was the largest amount any school in Oklahoma has ever had in one year. Their principal is so giddy about it as well lol. He cracks me up when he bounces around talking about the SF.
Dang that is a lot of NMSFs! Hopefully they all make NMF. In my senior class of roughly 755, there were only 3 NMSFs.
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There’s about 700 in my DDs class and there were 3 as well.
@Zombicmom3 that’s amazing how they recognize those kids. Lucky duck!
Still waiting to hear, hopefully soon!
I’m the only one in my class of ~350 so no one to commiserate with.
I’m my D’s class, they had 6 out of 41. That’s a bit higher than usual. Other than getting mentioned in the school newsletter I’m not sure they do anything. Maybe they’ll mention it at graduation?
My daughter was the only one in the county schools so nobody here to check with either lol
We got brunch. It was nice. I also swiped some food left over from the brunch for the commended students, ha!
I’ve seen people run through selecting “first choice” schools with NMSC in the past, and it seemed simple enough to wait until the last possible moment to declare a first choice (April 30/May 1), however, I saw a post last night that referred to several cascading, earlier deadlines for schools that offer large, guaranteed scholarships. (Whomever wrote that, thank you!!!)
I know students can change multiple times, but how do you navigate this:
BU requires a student to make it “first choice” with NMSC by March 1 (before RD acceptances are even out). We have a letter stating this explicitly.
USC says a student will be “notified by April 1” about National Merit half-tuition scholarships in conjunction with being the “first choice.”
NEU requires the declaration by April 4 (just days after BU and USC RD acceptances should be out).
Many other schools wait until April 30 or May 1.
My D also has two other schools with large merit NMF awards that allow kids to wait until May 1, easy enough … but how in the world do you navigate the BU-USC deadlines? Or the need to declare for NEU just days after finding out RD decisions to two other schools? (She was accepted EA at NEU).
Am I to understand she should declare for BU now, that BU will pull the data on March 1, then she switches to USC? And then somehow, within days after getting other RD decisions, she’s ready to decide about NEU???
Do they really hold students to these exact deadlines?
She only applied to 8 and each school is truly in contention.
Thanks for any help!
@MidwestMomTo2
Wow. That’s a tough one
Is cost a factor? Could u do a spreadsheet to compare cost based on the likely scholarship amt at each school?
@MidwestMomTo2 Yes, I have the same dilemma for my son. (I brought up discussion in this thread: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/national-merit-scholarships/1856728-first-choice-college.html#latest .)
Best I can conclude is:
- now (before Mar.1) declare BU as First Choice
- around Mar 30 (after receive BU decision but before Apr. 4) change First Choice to NEU
- around mid April (but def. before May 1) change First Choice to
a) the school he will attend, if they give NM scholarships or
b) to undecided, IF he will attend a non-sponsoring college, AND he earned a one-time $2500 scholarship Mar 24.
If you see a flaw in this logic, please please tell me!
@pickpocket You have to declare a First Choice by May 31st if you get the one-time $2500 scholarship (or a corporate scholarship) whether or not you are attending a sponsoring school. This is so the NMSC knows what school to send the scholarship money to in the fall.
@pickpocket yes. That was your thread, thank you! I may end up calling schools to ask. The addition of USC in this mix is making it more complicated for us!
Thanks so much @STEMFamily . BTW, where do you see that you ust use the first choice process for indicating school for one time $2500 award? So I guess my situation simplifies to this:
- now (before Mar.1) declare BU as First Choice
- around Mar 30 (after receive BU decision but before Apr. 4) change First Choice to NEU
- around mid April (but def. before May 1) change First Choice to the school he will attend.
@MidwestMomTo2 Wow you do have a tough obstacle course to negotiate! It seems like you should
- declare BU before Mar. 1
- change to USC around mid March ?
- change to NEU April 1
- change to final choice after April 4 but before May 1.
Please let us know what BU and USC say (about date they must be First Choice and how long after that date it must be maintained). I’ll tell you I called BU and could not get a clear answer.
^My DS is facing a similar problem with his schools. My question is how/when does the NMSC notify a school that it is the First Choice? The above scenario is about 4 changes in about 6 weeks. Does the NMSC report to the newly chosen First Choice school in a timely fashion? Part of me thinks this is just a crazy game. I wish the schools should make the admission decision, send the award package and just make the award contingent on the chosen school being named First Choice. I feel at a loss about how exactly to proceed.
Agreed @txstella and @pickpocket … seems like needless pressuring of the kids who do not have all the information they need to make these decisions.
“I wish the schools should make the admission decision, send the award package and just make the award contingent on the chosen school being named First Choice.”
This is exactly how OU in Oklahoma has done with my daughter. She was presented with the scholarship package in Oct after the SF were named. She still hasn’t decided where she wants to go, but keeping all options open, she applied to OU. They accepted her a week after she applied, sent the scholarship info again. Then said the only thing she has to do is make finalist and declare first choice by May1st.
The same offer is valid for any finalist. It’s a cross the board offer of guarantee with finalist standing.
If anyone is interested in checking out what they offer, http://www.ou.edu/admissions/nationalmerit.html
Oh an another thing that’s kinda cool about OU’s offer,
they will let you combine other scholarships with theirs, and will extend their tuition free guarantee to cover even like the med school and law school. So like my daughter is in the standing to possibly receive the Gates millennium scholarship. If she gets both she can use the Gates one to cover all first 4 years, then the OU one to cover med school for an additional 5 years.
@txstella and @pickpocket I just had my DD log into her her NM account and found this info on the site:
"Every college-sponsored award is offered with the condition that the Finalist has been admitted and will attend the sponsor college. Because every college-sponsored award can be used only at the institution financing it, the scholar- ship is canceled if the winner changes college choice.
Also, if NMSC receives notice of a change in college choice from a Finalist to whom a college-sponsored Merit Scholarship offer has already been mailed, the student cannot be offered another college-sponsored award—even if the new choice of college is one that also sponsors Merit Scholarship awards. (See page 3 of the Requirements and Instructions document which is posted online in the “Competition Instructions” section of the OSA or at nationalmerit.org/resources.php.)
Early in March, NMSC will begin notifying each sponsor college about Finalists who have reported that in- stitution as their first choice. College officials will choose all winners of their Merit Scholarship awards from among these Finalists. A sponsor college may decide to offer a Merit Scholarship award to every Finalist who is admitted or choose to limit the number of awards it provides. After receiving the college’s report of its winner selections, NMSC will mail formal scholarship offers to the selected Finalists."
Note that there is a lot more to the document but that section seemed to be addressing your concern/question. Seems like it might be better to find out if you can stay undecided until you know which school is the actual first choice?
From the Finalist information mailed from NMSC:
No matter what the colleges do, NMSC does NOT start mailing out the offers of college-sponsored scholarships until May 1st. A Finalist can change their First Choice at will until that time with no danger of getting a prior offer from NMSC. Just make sure you have your true Final Choice marked at any point in May.
NMSC starts sending pools of First Choice names to schools March 1st but then says
Unfortunately they do not give specific dates for these releases.