Congrats and Excellent choice!
DD got her certificate from CC today! Do colleges get notified of the list of finalists? Information on whether NMSC does this is not apparently obvious from reading their website (only that they share the semifinalists to the media).
Still no news for me and my school is on break
@TexanIndian ,
My son has received a few communications from schools asking him to send proof or confirmation directly to them once he is informed. So, at lease some do “expect” you to notify them.
“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.”
@jeh3924 Not sure about this year. Last year on CC it seemed that the OOS NMF’s got the Gold ($10,000/yr) plus the National ($10,000/yr) plus a $5,000/yr. presidential - all before the $1,000 - $2,000 college sponsored yearly merit award (which comes later on). Did your son not get a notice for National? That might be the difference.
For my older child’s undergrad graduation, I made announcements with a photo, ceremony info, and I included the summa cum laude distinction and a sentence about grad school plans (will attend xxx to study xxx). I recently found out some family members felt this was boastful. I was planning to put NMF on announcements for current 2018 high school graduate, especially since all of our family is OOS and most don’t know about it, but now I’m having second thoughts. I never felt like I was bragging with the older child but rather sharing an accomplishment. What do you guys think?
@JBFlying I agree, parents and students need to be assertive and make sure they ask the question “Are there any other scholarships you think I might qualify for?” Every year I attended UMN I got extra money/scholarships by asking that question. People walk away from money they don’t even know is there !
Hi all. Received finalist notification today by school. One of the college advisors at my school said that I should email all of my colleges and inform them of this. Should I? I feel like that would be a little bit annoying to the admissions offices. Anyone out there who has/will contact the colleges they applied to about finalist standing?
“If you done it, it ain’t bragging.” IMHO You should be very proud! Your friends and family should be happy. If they “ain’t”, well jealousy is a terrible thing. Your child deserves it and you deserve it! Congrats!!!
@JBStillFlying - my son received the $10K National and $5K for Gold Scholar. He is extremely competitive, but doens’t have any exciting hooks, so maybe he got the lower ones. Still a nice package, but I was just curious. He will only get $1k for the NMF award because it is based on need after the first $1K. Thank you!
@chercheur - I think it just depends on what you and your child are comfortable with. My kids didn’t even want announcements and we only send them to very close family (grandparents, aunts, uncles) as it is - HS kid said fine to a select few, but not his first choice. Older child #2 is graduating from very prestigious law school this year and she didn’t want any announcements at all. I also think it might depend on other family members - we have a number of other cousins, etc graduating around the same time who didn’t get these honors, so it’s more awkward to bring it up. Personally, I love seeing announcements and I would really enjoy hearing about accomplishments. It’s fun to cheer them on!
Does anyone know if you need to notify the schools that have the NMF package that you are officially a finalist to get updated offers? If so who would you notify?
@Mnacttutor I checked back with the admissions office at both schools DS is considering, and both told me I don’t need to send anything to them. They want list from NMSC after we designate first choice school, and then they revise the offer. Both schools make the scholarship contingent upon the NMF designating them as the first choice school, so technically no increase in scholarship until he does. YMMV, you should check with each school.
@chercheur Sounds like something my DH family would say…and I don’t care. My D18 worked her tail off for everything she has accomplished. I will definitely be putting all of it on her announcement and if they don’t like it Tough Monkey Tails! She deserves the acknowledgement. If she didn’t want me to share that’s one thing but that’s not the case. I’ll even put confetti in it…dare me 
@JBStillFlying @jeh3924 - My S applied to UMN too and got the same $10K National and $5K Gold. I called and talked to an admission person on 1/5 and he told me that the Gold used to be up to $10K but this year was reduced to $5K (althought the website still says it’s up to $10K https://admissions.tc.umn.edu/nationalmerit/). He said it’s still possible to receive other scholarships through end of March. He also said that the $15K your sons and mine received was “the most competitive he’d seen” and that the College of Science and Engineering scholarships hadn’t gone out yet - but that was 5 weeks ago. We haven’t heard anything since.
@flsoccermom22 @FSUdad93 @jeh3924 - Thanks for the replies & kind words! I may borrow the confetti idea! <:-P
My DD23 age 12, took a practice ACT test recently and scored a 27. Then her official score was 29. Since then she has taken another practice test and scored a 30. (superscore of 31) So why am I telling you? I’m telling everybody!!! “Family” should be happy with her success. :))
Homeschooled NMF here in South Florida…finally!
@Kathy V @jeh3924 - wow. UMN cut the Gold in half? Wondering if they have a ton of NMF’s applying this year.
Yay! Homeschooled NMF in northeast Kansas!