@green26knight
I just spoke with the scholarship office. I was put on hold while they double-checked, and then a supervisor came on the line and said that if you accept the $2500 from NMSC, you will lose the TAMU sponorship award of $2000 ($500 per year). I did send an email as well just to make sure.
Since your son was told in an email that they will stack, I wonder if they will honor that?
I wouldn’t bet on it @chercheur, but it’s worth a shot. It still makes financial sense to accept the NMSC $2500. I was a history major, but I’m fairly certain of that. Might need to check with my DS to confirm. :))
Best case, we get the $2500 plus the additional $500 per year. Worst case, we lose the $500 per year.
It’s a good problem to have! Congrats on the $2500 award!
Congratulations to you as well! Perhaps our kids will meet at A&M.
@green26knight
National Merit wont let your DS receive 2 National Merit based awards -one coming directly from them and one coming from A&M. . So yes, it makes more sense to take the $2500 award.
Does NMSC send paper notifications if you have not received a scholarship? My DS is on a plane now and won’t be home for another 12 hours. Meanwhile, an envelope from NMSC (obviously consists of just one page) arrived yesterday and is staring. Right. At. Me.
Brain: Open it! He won’t care!
Heart: Don’t open it! He deserves this moment
Sigh…Heart is winning out big time.
@hafamama Can you log into his portal? If it’s a scholarship, it will be in his portal. If there’s nothing in the portal, it’s not a scholarship.
@DiotimaDM I don’t have portal access for NMSC, any college, or his special just-for-college email account. Only the money stuff like FAFSA and CSS.
So, I’m trying to be good. It may be just me, but if that letter had eyes, it would follow me around the room. (hiding it under mail from random college) I think I have 11 hours left?
Well, over in the Parents of 2018 thread, consensus is that holding it up to the light is fair game, but steaming it open and resealing it is a bit much. 
@hafamama - I don’t think there is anything else it could be! Congrats!!!
@CADREAMIN Thank you for all your helpful posts about USC and NMFs. My daughter is a NMF who interviewed for and received a presidential scholarship from USC, so I was wondering about advantages of naming USC first with National Merit Corporation. Her USC portal also lists a $2,000 University scholarship. I haven’t investigated this much, but I am wondering if that is merit-based as well and therefore not subject to change if financial circumstances change? In two more years, an older daughter will graduate from a private college so our EFC should go up for final two years of younger daughter’s education.
@Isoinfo
“so I was wondering about advantages of naming USC first with National Merit Corporation.”
she will receive BOTH the 1/2 tuition scholarship. + 1000/ year IF she designates USC as her first choice by the NM deadline early may.
she WILL recieve more $$ through NM than from USC alone.
“Her USC portal also lists a $2,000 University scholarship”
that is separate from NMS and she will receve that as well.
Just remember- the National Merit scholarship will NOT show up on the portal, or on your USC bursors statement until mid July, when USC receives notification from NMSF that USC is her first choice and processes her scholarship.
@Isoinfo @menloparkmom For my DD, the financial portal already list “Presidential Scholarship - National Merit” $27,660, plus the $2000 University scholarship. She already put USC as first choice in the beginning of March. Sounds like there is another $1000 on the way. Well, that sure will help a little bit on the 45K estimated net cost.
@DiotimaDM @chercheur So happy to report DS did receive the $2,500 award after all. I handed the envelope to him and he said, “Well, it’s thin. Can’t be good news.” He opened it, smiled, and handed it back to me. While in the big picture of college costs, the award won’t make a big dent, but it’s a nice honor and every little bit helps!
"Sounds like there is another $1000 on the way. "
that $1000 probably wont show up until right before school starts, btw. If past history is any guide that is.
@hafamama - That’s fantastic! Congrats!
H and P, rejected and rejected and parent relieved. :))
My D. was WL at Cornell – but that very day she was finishing an overnight and falling in love with a top LAC so all is well!. Duke today and then it’s a wrap!
@FSUdad93 – So now, what’s the verdict? UCF, with its institutional scholarship guarantee and intense support for NMS students, or UF with its superior reputation and ranking, with a hope and a prayer that when Benaquisto is inevitably scaled back in the future they don’t hang current recipients out to dry? I admit, it’s a good first-world problem to have, especially given all the disappointment throughout the forum this particularly brutal admission season, but still, my head is spinning and my DS is relatively disengaged! 
I’m in the same boat with this new development (even if some saw it coming, the actual passing of the law was never guaranteed).
I was looking at USF and UCF for the NMF merit, and now I’ll soon be calling UF for their information on the OOS Benacquisto scholarship.
When I talked with the UCF representative, they made it sound like one failed course or one “NC” (in lieu of a D or F) would lose the scholarship forever. Can anyone confirm this? That’s terrifying for engineering regardless of the GPA renewal requirements.