@iahomeschoolmom I would wait. There is absolutely no need to put a school choice down now.
@iahomeschoolmom I think you already found your answer: “College choice is not considered in determining whether a Semifinalist qualifies as a Finalist or in the selection of National Merit $2500 Scholarships. However, NMSC requests your college choice because every National Merit Scholarship can be used only for attendance at a college or university in the United States that holds accredited status with a regional accrediting commission on higher education.”
@iahomeschoolmom Wow - they have clarified that wording from last year! The instructions my daughter received (page 3 under “College Choice”) don’t add the part about college choice not being necessary for the selection for the $2500 scholarships. That does seem to indicate that they don’t require you to list anything yet. I’d call them to make sure of that. The problem with those $2500 prizes is that - at least last year - the recipients were chosen in January. So obviously anyone who didn’t have a first choice by then would have been dinged if college-choice was required but nothing was listed. This did cause a lot of discussion last year!
NMSC most likely isn’t trying to confuse anyone, force a game-strategic method of selecting your first choice, or reward just the super-early birds who commit before Christmas. They want you to list your real first choice and they realize that Decision Day is May 1, not Feb. 1! Unfortunately, the combination of wording and weird rules make this portion of the competition a bit confusing. That’s why calling might be a good idea because they are always helpful and will clear up any questions. Be sure to post when you find out the answer!
@JBStillFlying It’s interesting that you mention the recipients being chosen in January last year. On the “Schedule and Deadlines for the 2018 Merit Scholarship Competition” it does state that the selection committees begin choosing Merit Scholarship award winners on January 21 (though the offers aren’t mailed until March 22 - as stated a bit further down the page). My thought is that a person who still has their first choice listed as “undecided” is NOT placed at a disadvantage over someone who has listed a qualified school (either a sponsor college or other accredited school).
I’m probably going to call sometime before March 1, but will definitely be waiting until after the holidays. We also need to find out from OKC how they choose who will be offered their National Merit awards and whether dd18 needs to select them as her first choice by March 1.
@iahomeschoolmom - good thinking on the phone calls and you are correct that nothing needs to be done during the holidays. For the colleges, it’s best to follow the directions on the website and/or call to get clarification (also helpful in putting your DC’s name on their radar . . ). Some schools giving out the big bucks require that you list them as first choice but, as you alluded to earlier those might specifically be NM sponsor colleges.
I would also check with certain colleges where applicable. I believe I remember reading for one college that the school needed to be listed by a date in March due to their own school’s rule for merit eligibility. I think this was a nonsponsoring college and may have been Boston College but don’t quote me on which school.
Never mind. D figured out the answer to my question. That’s why she’s the NMSF, right? :)>-
@iahomeschoolmom - you have done your homework & everything you’ve mentioned in your posts sounds correct. You did make me pull-out the NMF paperwork and look at that page 3 entry under “college choice.”
As @JBStillFlying mentioned, that last part of the quote (in green) wasn’t mentioned in prior-year instructions (I looked at my S15’s NMF paperwork & can confirm that it wasn’t there). So, it’s good that they better clarified that point.
My D is also waiting for RD results from a few schools and also has a national merit school identified as another option if she qualifies as a NMF. She won’t be ready to make an informed decision until she has those RD results toward the end of March or on April 1st.
We have her listed as “undecided” on the NMF paperwork & I agree that this designation should not affect whether or not she’s chosen for a $2,500 scholarship. Also, I have read previous-year posts from “undecided” students who have gotten a $2,500 scholarship.
Side Note: even though this seems like it’s spelled-out pretty clearly, we all still have our little superstitions & mine says that if we list her NM college as her first choice now, the NMSC folks might take note of this and not award her the $2,500 scholarship because it appears that she’d be getting a college sponsored scholarship - but hey, that’s just me!
@LMHS73 Regarding this: “Side Note: even though this seems like it’s spelled-out pretty clearly, we all still have our little superstitions & mine says that if we list her NM college as her first choice now, the NMSC folks might take note of this and not award her the $2,500 scholarship because it appears that she’d be getting a college sponsored scholarship - but hey, that’s just me!”
That’s what we’re worried about. I’ll feel better if we find out we can wait until the end of March to select OKC as her first choice school since we should know about the $2500 by then. If we can’t wait… I guess we’ll have to roll the dice and see what happens!
@iahomeschoolmom - Yes, good idea to check with the NM school to make sure there’s not some internal deadline to report them as a first-choice school earlier than the NMSC reporting deadline. I’ll do the same for my D’s NM school.
Then, if it’s not an issue to remain “undecided” and report the first-choice school at a later date (before the NMSC May 31st deadline to receive the reports), we’d have time to find out (in March) about the $2,500 NM scholarship results; get the RD results from the schools; visit any schools (if we need to); and report a first-choice school - either to take advantage of any NM perks, or to just to show NMSC that it’s a school located within the U.S. to satisfy that requirement.
One other thought is to perhaps check the housing situation at the national merit school & make sure that (by waiting) you’re not missing out on a preferred housing choice. An option is to go ahead and make the housing deposit at the NM school just to make sure you don’t potentially miss out if that turns-out to be the school she attends. It’s pretty easy to check on the school’s policy for housing deposit refunds and all of that. It might even be worth losing a few bucks (if deposit isn’t fully refundable) to make sure that housing is covered just in case. 
Also, unless NMSC has changed policy just this year, it is possible to be an NM Scholar even if the student can’t accept the monetary scholarship. Every year there are students who are recognized as Honorary NM Scholars who attend, for instance, a military academy or a university outside the US. Now, it’s possible that those students initially put an eligible school as their first choice, but the fact that NMSC has gone to the trouble of creating the Honorary category leads me to believe that some listed undecided too.
I’m also in the camp that suspects if students list an NM partner college as first choice they are less likely to be awarded one of the NMSC-sponsored $2500 awards. Even though I can see from the NMSC annual report that the big NMF schools enroll more NM Scholars than just their school-sponsored winners (for instance ASU enrolled 109 scholars but only 89 were school-sponsored), I can’t get over my suspicion.
https://www.nationalmerit.org/s/1758/images/gid2/editor_documents/annual_report.pdf
What is the benefit of being an Honorary NM Scholar? D won’t make a final decision until April, and her three top choices are USC and two Canadian colleges. We were planning to list USC as her top choice rather early, to cement the school-sponsored scholarship should she be accepted, knowing that if she went to college in Canada she would get nothing from her NMF status.
@ShrimpBurrito, I’d say the Honorary NM Scholar award is a very nice item to list on the resume. Perhaps it could be a bump for grad school applications or for internship applications.
Is there any benefit to listing National Merit Finalist on grad school or internship applications? I hadn’t considered that.
I’ll talk with D about it, but I still think it’s most advantageous in our circumstance to list USC as first choice early, like now. I’d like to know for certain that she has the USC half tuition scholarship in hand going into decision time (again, pending admission). If she lists USC as #1, then chooses to attend a Canadian school, and she’s been offered a NMSC sponsored scholarship, she will need to decline, and she will likely not be a NM honorary scholar.
Do I have it straight?
I found the info I had referenced upthread. This is the type of thing I would recommend all be aware of as a potential issue with their respective schools in case something similar applies:
“Boston College selects eligible students from the first National Merit Scholarship roster only, which is generally received in early March. Students whose names appear on subsequent rosters are not considered. Boston College-sponsored National Merit Scholarships are renewable.”
@ShrimpBurrito, I believe the honorary scholar designation applies to students who have been awarded an NMSC-sponsored award but cannot accept it. So in your D’s case, if she is awarded the USC-sponsored NM award but decides to attend a Canadian university she would NOT be listed as an Honorary NM Scholar. If she gets one of the NMSC-sponsored awards but goes to a Canadian university she WOULD be an Honorary NM Scholar.
Did anyone send their ACT scores to National Merit? I didn’t think that was even an option, but saw something on an older thread that made me think otherwise. If it is allowed, is there still time to send them?
SAT scores are the only thing they accept.