When are finalists announced
So no “Top Tier”
schools give anything to NM finalists.
Ivy League schools, U of Michigan, Duke, Northwestern, Vanderbilt etc. What a shame!
With all due respect, no thanks! There are better schools for my student’s major!
No word here in NH 
DH’s school is in Maine, so I don’t know if that’s holding things up. I know for SF, the school did not notify students until it became public, so maybe tomorrow? I think S18’s a sure thing, but it would be nice to know for sure… He’s not applying to any sponsored schools (well, there is one, but they only give $1K a year and he would’ve had to put it as first choice, which it isn’t), so mostly he just wants it to update AOs for the RD schools. Just out of curiosity, does being a US Presidential Scholar nominee carry more weight for admissions than NMF? I’m just curious bc they only choose 4500 USPS candidates, whereas even NMS is upwards of 7500. Seems USPS is more selective? Again, just curious, since S18 is not looking at sponsored colleges anyways and most likely won’t get a corporate scholarship, either.
School did not tell the NMFs before Mardi Gras break, so we will have to find out by letter at home, I guess.
“So no “Top Tier”
schools give anything to NM finalists.
Ivy League schools, U of Michigan, Duke, Northwestern, Vanderbilt etc. What a shame!”
More of them used to. Last we checked NU gave $2,000 and so does UChicago.
@deaconbluesdad my D16 and I visited UCF and really liked it. She wasn’t able to join honors due to the nature of her prospective major (character animation - they have a great program) but we toured, spent a day kicking around campus and left with a very favorable impression. She had a generous OOS scholarship, was eligible for the OOS LLC in a dorm which offers single-room housing (can’t remember which one) and the gym is to die for. Reasonable flights to/from MN are never a problem. UCF seemed to be a real presence in Orlando. The only thing that kept her from attending is that her #1 choice came through with enough scholarship money.
You could well be correct that undergrad. experience specifically may not be all that different (esp. if you are admitted to Burnett) for professional degrees like engineering. Faculty/student ratios are key, of course, as UCF is significantly larger than UMN. If you are at all interested in moving on to academic grad work, then UMN might have the edge, depending on the faculty in your field at UCF (as faculty recommendations are key to getting accepted to a top PhD program). However, that’s simply not applicable to most, who might go on to graduate business or law instead of a PhD program. Another thing to look at is average ACT/SAT scores. UMN is more selective* overall, so for the average course you will likely have smarter kids as your classmates. But again, this varies by program of study.
- UCF will defer weaker applications to winter admit which doesn't show up in the stats. It's actually less selective than it appears on paper.
^^ - sorry, make that $2,000 / year ($8,000 in toto). Meant to say that earlier.
@ xxyyzz00 I am the ASU plugger. I have my MBA from ASU. My son is in his senior year there as a Barrett student. He started pre-med, he is now Chemistry with a Business minor. Pre-med at any school is not a guarantee of getting into med school. ASU advisors are very clear with pre-med students. That said, Barrett is a great school and the NPC for me came in at EFC. The NMF scholarship is roughly 95% of OOS. Barrett will reimburse at least $200 of travel, but it depends on where you live (may be more if you live further away). I encourage you to make contact with a Barrett admissions advisor to discuss options. (Michelle is great!).
If anybody is interested, here are the NMS numbers for each university (2016)
USC 230
University of Florida 158
University of Alabama Tuscaloosa 155
UMN Twin Cities 150
TAMU College Station 122
UT Dallas 119
Arizona State University 109
University of Kentucky 99
Baylor University 80
University of Central Florida 77
As I research, UCF is becoming more and more clear winner for premeds. With the Burnett Medical Scholars, UCF is more enticing than UTD. MCAT score of 32 & GPA of 3.75 are not easy conditions, but without those, you can’t get into any medical school, even graduating from Ivys.
USC: Clear winner if you get full-tuition. With ½ tuition, COA is $46K/year. Way too much for me.
UF: It is high up there probably because a good portion of Florida NMFs went there. OOS portion of 158 is probably small. Floridians seems to prefer UF over UCF. For OOS, COA is $41K. I would rather go USC if I were to shell out that much money.
UMN, TAMU: These two universities are of same caliber academically. They both are nearly tuition free for NMFs. COA should be around $15K-$21K/year. It would be useful if we knew what percentage of those NMFs are OOS vs IS in these schools. ASU, OU, and U of Arizona are nearly tuition free, but TAMU and UMN may provide a better value for the COA quoted above.
UCF, UTD, UNM, Texas Tech: They are nearly full-ride. Similar value propositions. I think among them UCF has the edge because of the Burnett Medical Scholars for premeds.
I have no idea why so many NMFs in the past chose BAMA. I have to look into that.
If you are 100 percent sure you will go into med school and you can’t think of a different future for yourself, then UCF’s value proposition with BMS seems to be the best. If you plan to go on graduate study (other than MBA, Law, MD), then UMN and TAMU seem to provide the best value. Of course, these are my opinions. If you have a different take, I’d love to hear.
I’m curious - we’re looking at U of MN and contrary to what people are saying, it won’t be even close to tuition free for my son. His scholarships are $15K, plus $1K for finalist if he chooses MN, but OOS tuition/fees are $26K+. So, still $10K, plus room/board, etc - we calculated about $25k per year COA, without any increases. Did he just not get as many scholarships as some kids do? It’s still a great price, but wondering why others are getting a lower number.
@xxyyzz00
I do suppose we are all entitled to our own opinions.
I noticed you did not have OU on your 2016 list. “The Fall 2015 class of 285 National Merit Scholars includes students from 39 states.” I did not quickly find the 2016 numbers, but I do believe it was similarly high in 2016 and 2017. My opinion, that will see a SHARP drop this year.
regarding this:
It is because it is a decent school, with a broad base of study, and a visible profile that has very generous NMF money in an easy to digest format, along with several resources tailored toward high achieving students.
@xxyyzz00 Sound like you’re becoming more and more comfortable with UCF, and that Burnett Medical Scholars might be a good fit for you. Good on ya. 
If that’s where you end up, I hope it’s awesome.
For the record (for the sake of others who might be reading), UNM and Texas Tech aren’t near full rides; they’re true full rides. Both cover tuition & fees, room, board, books and some left over. Tech offers full COA, so it’s technically (see what I did there?) the better package. If I remember correctly, UNM has about a grand left over while Texas Tech has more like three or four grand left over. It depends a little on which dorm and meal plan you choose.
UNM has a BAMD program, but only for in-state students. Texas Tech has an early entry program for pre meds (TTU-HSC). OU has Medical Humanities Scholars (BAMD).
@DavidPuddy: Thanks for your comments. Different ideas are always better. My purpose was to solicit more and differing ideas. Thanks for that.
I did have the OU number:
University of Oklahoma 279
I did not write purposefully. Its NMF package changed considerably, making it difficult to compare.
@xxyyzz00 Also, just making sure you know, a lot of these BSMD programs have either closed their applications or are getting ready to. UCF’s bsmd app must be submitted by this Thursday.
@DiotimaDM: Thank you for excellent info. OU BAMD seems to be quite similar to the UCF BSMD.
@midwesternfan Vanderbilt seems to value NMF more than most of the privates. They guarantee $5000/year to NMFs, and if you get the one-time scholarship they add money to bring it up to $5000, and give the same for the additional years.
I am premed (at least, for now) and that, in my opinion, UCF seems to be a better option. But, while doing my research, I felt that UTD is a better option for those in CS-related majors, and even in engineering. UTD seems to be moving up the rankings fairly fast. I have to research more for the other NMF universities, but moving up the rankings over the years is a very good sign for UTD.
Fair. I would add then, that including USC on your list is not appropriate either, for several reasons.
My daughter will also be pre-med but a neuroscience major specifically and she was very impressed with UTD and the support for pre-med and track record for medical school. While they do not have a hospital right on site, they do have a bus that runs directly one stop between the campus and Southwest hospital in the Dallas area and the school has a great relationship with them. They also have a lot of funding and research opportunities in the medical field. We went in unsure and she left very impressed. However, UTD is not a traditional college feel. Their motto is Keep UTD Nerdy and they don’t have a football team. You have to visit and either connect or know you do not.
S18 and her 3 fellow NMSF were called down to the office! They are officially NMF! It was a long, stressful road. Now she’s excited for the announcement in front of the school and the marquee that everyone will drive by every night with their names.
Next stop UMiami…their merit package was generous and with Benacquisto money (works a little different at private than public) her price tag goes from 65,000 to about $500. I’ll take that any day.