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

For those still looking for full ride options…New College of Florida has rolling admissions until Apr 1st. They are the honors college in the Florida university system. They are VERY small, very rigorous, and fairly unique. If you want huge campus and huge class variety, Greek life etc…not for you. Their focus is grad school prep. My DD fell in love with it…small classes, personal relationship with professors, sailing lessons, location right on Sarasota Bay.

http://www.tampabay.com/news/education/college/Bill-to-sweeten-Bright-Futures-scholarship-sails-through-Senate_164420818 It has already passed the Senate. It has a ways to go yet though. This is why I thought Benacquisto expanded to include OOS…this bill includes that expansion.

Received my letter in Idaho!

That is so true!

They break for summer March 9th. I expect we will hear before then.

UCF is not Benacquisto as of yet. It is Cost of attendance.

The Benacquisto is Full cost Of Attendance to instate NMF. We are waiting for it to apply to OOS. For Miami, the amount would be equal to the Full Cost of attendance to the other State schools, FSU or UF as it is private.

@FSUdad93 : Thank you for the update.

Finally. Recieved the home letter today in Louisiana. Kids are on break this week so no word yet from the school. Our DD will take the full ride at UCF. Go Knights!

Is there any reason for DS to let the colleges to which he’s already been accepted know that he is a NMF? (They already knew at the time that they accepted him that he was a NMSF.) And if so, what are the reasons for doing so? (In the meantime, he has informed of his NMF status the colleges from whom he’s still waiting to hear.) (Background: DS applied to good, small colleges, almost all without grad schools (e.g, St. Olaf, Lawrence, Allegheny, Oberlin, Macalester, Beloit); many which are part of the “40 Colleges that Changes Lives” cohort of schools.)

@Nancy13, if there’s a chance that any of the schools where he’s already been accepted will bump up his merit aid due to NMF it doesn’t hurt to notify them. For schools that only provide need-based aid or where you know your son won’t get any more merit aid I would say it’s not necessary to update the school.

HappyDad2, did UCF offer the “full ride”, or are you counting on the Benaquisto Scholarship? While the Benaquisto was available to OOS last year, it’s not in the budget yet for future years.

@oldandwise , when we visited in December UCF offered Full COA. When we talked to some of the NM students there they said they actually made money last year since UCF pays tuition, fees and room and board and then deposits the rest in the student’s account. We are OOS so we were thrilled.

If anybody is interested in the ACT scores for NMF schools, here they are (2016):

Name; ACT Composite 25th percentile score; ACT Composite 75th percentile score; Average
University of Miami 28 32 30
University of Florida 27 31 29
University of Minnesota-Twin Cities 26 31 28.5
The University of Texas at Dallas 25 31 28
Texas A & M University-College Station 24 30 27
The University of Alabama 23 31 27
University of Central Florida 24 28 26
Arizona State University-Tempe 22 28 25
Texas Tech University 22 27 24.5
University of Idaho 21 27 24
University of New Mexico-Main Campus 19 25 22

Of course, the first two are only viable with SB4.

I forgot:
University of Oklahoma-Norman Campus 23 29 26

Here are a few inferences that I’d like to run by you:

  1. UCF student quality seems to be better than Arizona State University’s (see above)
  2. Burnett HC student quality seems to be better than the Barrett HC student quality
  3. UCF is free-ride vs ASU free-tuition

Based on 1,2, and 3, ASU does not seem to be a good value proposition, though its ranking/name recognition is better (115 vs 171). Of course, everybody’s situation is different, but here I am talking about basic parameters.

More data:

Name; Percent admitted; Admissions yield; Student-to-faculty ratio; Average ACT; Average Math SAT
University of Minnesota-Twin Cities 44 27 17 28.5 685
University of Miami 38 17 12 30 660
The University of Texas at Dallas 68 37 24 28 650
University of Florida 46 49 20 29 645
Texas A & M University-College Station 67 43 21 27 610
University of Oklahoma-Norman Campus 71 41 18 26 610
University of Central Florida 50 37 30 26 590
Arizona State University-Tempe 83 40 23 25 585
Texas Tech University 63 33 21 24.5 565
University of Kentucky 91 28 17 25.5 565
The University of Alabama 53 38 23 27 555
University of New Mexico-Main Campus 58 38 20 22 540
University of Idaho 76 37 16 24 520

S18 had his NMF letter waiting after we returned from a trip yesterday, with Miami and FSU squarely in his sights, esp if SB4 passes and is signed. I wonder why Miami has such a low yield of the above. I am guessing because it is the sole private, and most expensive, school in that grouping.

DP Jr. received the mail yesterday. No school notification.

@oldandwise I Agree with @Phlipper. UCF did a go job at the national merit event we attended to lay out the pieces but the sum of the scholarship is full cost of attendence. The only hiccup I understood is that it only covers 14 credit hours. I understood that credits above that might result in aome amount of university bill but even with that it appeared there was space to budget of full cost of attendence to cover in other areas. I would highly recommend Luke van Blaricom at UCF if you have questions.