***2018 National Merit Finalist Thread****

A note about USC’s NMF award selection. I think it helps to show interest. My D15 is there on the NMF Presidential scholarship. After submitting her application she received a call one evening from someone on her intended major department, kind of interviewing her but mostly asking her questions to determine her interest in both USC and her intended major. She had good stats but not great compared to the average NMF. I am convinced her enthusiastic responses in that phone call got her admitted.

USC is a very, very wealthy school. I am surprised they have that kind of limit. I suppose it’s as much yield protection as anything else.

Based on this wording and what my D was told at a USC roadshow, I do not believe the NMF scholarship is automatic now:

“Students may also be selected for the Presidential Scholarship through the National Merit Scholarship Corporation on the basis of their PSAT performance. Entering first-year students are considered if they have been designated National Merit Finalists and name USC as their first-choice college. (Number of awards varies)”

USC switching to a competitive NMF award seems better than rejecting NMF students who otherwise would have gotten in, just to meet their NMF cap. Of course I’m sure there are plenty of NMF applicants who wouldn’t make the cut for such a competitive school, I just think it’s a shame if USC rejects candidates just because they are NMF and they’ve hit their limit.

That is distressing to imagine. Maybe they could accept with no NMF scholarship rather than just reject…

UCF has great computer and aeronautical engineering. They offer a complete full ride to in or out of state national merit scholars. Plus the honors college makes attending very attractive, with it’s small number of students in the freshman honors (and above) classes vs. giant sections. My daughter just started as National Merit Scholar and loves it. We encouraged her to go here after considering a lot of other in and out of state schools. They definitely offer National Merit Scholars a wonderful support system versus Florida or FSU. And I’m a gator.

For those who quickly sent a confirming SAT score to NMSC from Collegeboard, how long did that take to completion?

Is it normal to be Awaiting Fulfillment for a week after requesting and paying for the submission?

We haven’t been notified yet, but my D17 is likely a NMSF (225 in CA), and presumably will be a NMF. Her top choice for schools is UCLA, but she recently interviewed at the USC school of engineering and liked it a lot. Even if she were to get the 1/2 tuition NMF scholarship at USC, it would be substantially more expensive than UCLA and IMO is not as prestigious of a school. She wants to stay in the West, so if she doesn’t get into UCLA we’ll also look at schools with NMF scholarships in Arizona and Texas

@kcheves: Here’s a link to the CA list: http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/09/13/national-merit-scholarships-2018-semifinalists-named/

If anyone finds the Florida list, please share! Thanks!

If anyone finds the ohio list, please share! Thanks!

chucktaylor1: Thank you so much! She’s on the list.

Texas 2018 NMSF list is here:
http://matchbin-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/public/sites/374/assets/JZS4_18_TX_Semifinalists_NatlMeritProgram__1_.pdf

Plano West HS had 77 NMSF! and 124 in the district. well done. my kids school had less than 10 for ~650 students

Looking at that Texas list, just what are they putting in the water in Plano, TX? Wow!

Louisiana’s list: http://www.theadvocate.com/article_42a6255c-97dd-11e7-ac77-479ce13f02aa.html

@vistajay Yes those are public schools as well! big jump

@mominwestlake, you can find the Ohio list here: http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2017/09/see_the_national_merit_semifin.html

@DavidPuddy, did you ever find the answer to your question in post #46? In my case I sent NMSC a free score report when S took the subject tests in June. Because NMSC has no mechanism to accept the subject tests, that part of his score send report still says “awaiting fulfillment” on the CB site. Over on the regular SAT score send page it did show that it had been fulfilled. I called NMSC in August, really just to confirm that he was in their system but with a cover story that I wanted to check that they’d matched up his SAT score. It was a quick call and the rep was very nice about looking it up for me. If in doubt it probably won’t be too painful to call NMSC.

So, I hear we are supposed to receive a letter concerning the NMF portal from the principal? I have yet to hear from my principal about this letter even though they confirmed my status as a NMSF. Would someone please describe the contents of this letter and how the principal gets this letter (I believe they have to print it themselves) so I can ask my principal? Also, just making sure, this must be obtained through the school and can not be obtained from a phone call to NMSC, right?