Remember don’t feed the trols…
On this thread nearly every one is happy and encouraging and supportive of each other. Let’s get back to that and
Don’t feed the trols…
nor should anyone feel bad if they paid for prep for their kid regardless of how smart or not their kid is. none of us created this mad unfair and sometimes senseless game that is college admissions. hate the game not the player. some choose to play and some don’t. don’t bash others for if they play or not or how they play. just do what you feel is right for you and your family, and respect others for making their own decisions, which will often be different than yours. peace out. namaste
Does your dream school (not sponsoring NM scholarship) get notified by NM that you list it as college of choice? Will it help the admission decision, or is it really irrelevant?
Right now we have undecided as the College Choice on osa.nationalmerit.org. We won’t qualify for corporate-sponsored scholarship, and I believe we don’t have to care too much for getting college-sponsored NM scholarship as now, since OU, UMN, USC all stated that you just need put its school as the college of choice by 4/30 in order to get its NMF scholarship.
Would like to see if we can get NM $2500 scholarship and can be used for dream school if accepted. If things goes the other way, I read somewhere you can refuse the NM $2500 offer if there’s a conflict between NM $2500 and college-sponsored NM scholarship.
I see there’s an old thread about the strategy but not sure how true it is
http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/national-merit-scholarships/1103731-how-to-choose-your-first-choice-college-for-national-merit-purposes.html
Hey I’m a senior in the class of 2018, hoping to become a NMF (from NH and still haven’t gotten anything). I’ve applied to UA because of their scholarships, but I’m also thinking about UT Dallas, which seems to have a slightly more generous offer. I’m thinking about majoring in Computer Science, Statistics, or Economics. Any advice on which school might be a better choice?
@JBStillFlying not even close to the edge. I read your post and the “check your privilege” comment and felt it necessary to comment. Yup, all the kids are bright, so why imply its anything other than talent and intelligence? That was my point in posting.
@cjleggs19 if you are just looking at a financial standpoint UTD wins hands down. That said, UTD is not your typical college with football and frats and parties, UTD is more nerdy, lots of new modern buildings and many of the students would rather play video games than drink on the weekends. The vibe is more serious, many international students or US citizens that are ethincally diverse. My DS18 is one of those high stats kids that needs big merit and UTD is his #1 pick, even though we could make UT Austin work and he’s be an auto admit there, he plans to major in Comp Sci and feels UTD will be a better place for him.
My nephew got letter in mail today
“@JBStillFlying not even close to the edge. I read your post and the “check your privilege” comment and felt it necessary to comment. Yup, all the kids are bright, so why imply its anything other than talent and intelligence? That was my point in posting.”
@usma87 - No problem. But it’s not just talent and intelligence for a whole bunch of kids (other than on this site, apparently LOL). It’s being prepared as well: ie, access to tutoring/prep materials and so forth. Prepping is fine and encouraged - CB even makes the materials available for free! The new version of the test is a lot more “preppable” than the old one and was even designed that way. So what, exactly, is the issue with prepping? There are going to be lots of kids who were smart enough or had the privilege to know someone who could encourage them to make use of those materials, who then did so and made SF as a result. Is that a problem, in your view?
@JBStillFlying I’m sure I read too much into the “access to tutoring” phrase. As I mentioned, it was the intersection of your post and the “privilege” comment that lead me to that conclusion. Nothing wrong with preparation.
Son and all students from his high school that were NMF got notification at school on 2/14/18. Texas. Exciting times. Congrats to everyone on all their hard work!
I have two kids in grad school and one a senior and the first time any will do a paid test prep course is this summer for the bar (paid for by big law). That said, I am well aware that being upper middle class has brought them tons and tons of privilege. They have a SAHM (me :)) who has spent countless hours helping them (not necessarily academic help, but just everything that surrounds it). They go to a great public school. None of them worked during the school year in high school, so they had lots of time to spend on academics and extra-curriculars. We will pay for 8 AP tests this year between our two in HS, at a cool $752. We’ve also paid for summer courses and in fact, have one enrolled in an online course right now. Another is taking Calc 3 through our state flagship, which cost $350 (hmmm… beginning to see why our kitchen will forever be 40 years old, lol!!). One who struggled in writing spent hours and hours with me patiently helping them, and the one who didn’t love math had dh, who used to teach differential equations. They were also blessed to be born with a lot of innate potential, but yeah, privilege matters a whole heck of a lot. The one who is currently at a top (HYS) law school has been amazed at what percentage of the kids got there with a lot of help from privilege (taking a year off to study for the LSAT, private tutors, lots of connections, etc). We fall somewhat in the upper end of the middle - two kids in HS will have to take loans if they go to a top school, but probably not if they go to a (good) state school, paid for by us or NM. Our kids are all hardworking (mine and everyone’s on this forum I am guessing) but we can appreciate all their hard work and still be very grateful for the incredible privilege many of them have.
Well said! @kevbostic “none of us created this mad unfair and sometimes senseless game that is college admissions. hate the game not the player.”
No news in Missouri
Informed mail delivery says a letter arriving in MN from nmf for those waiting
Hurray, the NMF letter to the student arrived today in Northern Virginia. (Nada from the high school, but it’s official now, anyway.)
Looks like most students should expect their letter from NMSC in the mail today as seen on multiple posts on this thread despite many not hearing anything from their school. That is the case here in SE Nebraska.
Are the schools supposed/allowed to tell the students ?
@lovingasiandad Yes! why wouldn’t they? They send a certificate to the school to give to the student.
Yeah. I get that. That will probably be some sort of ceremony later but i don’t know if they inform the students immediately. That will be great if they do but since most of the students are not hearing from them i was wondering if there was some sort of protocol schools have to follow.
@lovingasiandad The high school principals receive a letter listing their finalists, and certificates to give them. This allows the principal to be the bearer of good news. Oddly, at some high schools they choose to save the certificates for presentation at Senior Awards Night or similar, later in the year. The actual letters from National Merit Corporation to the student finalists are beginning to arrive at their homes.