@vistajay Great to have that confirmed. Thank you!
I am still looking for information about whether there are any NM Finalists who attend boarding school in a state other than their home state who is awarded a NM scholarship?
@dowzer I believe boarding school cutoffs are by region and corrisopond to the highest cutoff of any state in that region. Don’t quote me on that though.
We visited UTD last weekend for the NMF preview. It was very well organized and the tour guides and the program gave us a lot of good information. In the end, we parents also got a chance to ask a student panel a bunch of questions as did the prospective students of a different panel. My views so far:
- The money is REALLY good. An almost full ride and it deserves a lot of thought
- The University also gives a lot of opportunities for the NMF students
- Dallas is a really big cosmopolitan city with lots of opportunities for research and intership
- It looked and felt extremely safe
- The dorms are good(almost too good?)
However, the following thoughts linger and would be nice to get other opinions:
- A theme I picked up was that the students were introverted. I don’t know if that’s because this is not a party school with no big sports teams. This theme seemed to repeat whether it was the dorm warden who said they make an effort to make the kids get out the room and mingle. My initial thought was that single rooms are great, but wouldn’t that encourage the kids to again become introverted? The student panel also indirectly gave me that impression when the kids said they could use with more socializing(but that could apply to a lot of people too, in fairness). In addition, there are a lot of commuter students and the out of state students are likely to be left with an empty campus on the weekends.
The other thought is that kids who are extroverted will seek out the different organizations and be involved anyway. Also, we’re pondering if the financial aspect cancels out our perceived negatives. As a parent, I want the kids to be in an environment where they can pursue their career ambitions without too many distractions. So this should be a good setting, right? Then, again, it’s not just academics that are important anymore. The kids need to learn to mingle and perform well in group environments in real life. So, is this is the right place? All these thoughts are going through our minds. Look forward to comments from folks who have visited or planning to send their kids to UTD.
@snowfairy137 That is correct. What I am trying to figure out is if boarding school kids who do not live in the same state as their school actually get any of the National Merit scholarships? for example, a student who lives in Tennessee, goes to BS in CT, qualifying region is New England, highest scoring state in region is MA. So if student meets the qualifying threshold of MA, and are deemed semi finalist and then finalist, do they ever get to be a scholarship winner? The scholarships are supposedly allocated by state but which state would allocate to this kid? For the record, the student’s score was 224 so qualified in all the states, so that question is moot.
@xpd600090
My DS18 will be attending UTD as a National Merit Scholar. I’m not worried about socializing at UTD at all, DS is pretty active in EC’s and he says he plans to continue fencing and Model UN in college. He ran into some fencers from UTD at a local tournament and found out they have a lot of equipment, he usually fences epee and he’s excited to give saber a try. He likes that the club is a mix of recreational and competitive fencing. He’ll also likely join the Chinese Student Association (he’s not Chinese but plans to minor in it) and some kind of computer group (his major).
You might want to look here to see if they have any clubs that interest you kiddo:
@dowzerw You might try calling National Merit Scholarship Corporation. People there are very helpful. Also, qualified student would be eligible for college-sponsored National Merit Scholarships. There is a huge list on NMSC website. Your student would just need to apply to those colleges and specify what his/her first-choice college is. Many (or perhaps most) of school-sponsored scholarships are automatic.
Class of 2019 here. We have gotten scores for our PSAT, but have been anxiously waiting for NMSF cutoffs. Any tips or information you wish you knew before the process to share?
@potatoepotatoe Reading the National Merit Scholarships threads on CC will provide you with a wealth of information and opinions. Being a NMSF and then NMF provides some nice benefits . Some schools waive application fees for NMSF, and many offer guaranteed scholarships for NMF. But that NMF application means one more essay to write during a busy time of year, so do as much as you can over the summer (write that Common App essay, ask teachers to write letters of recommendation, etc.) to prevent essay/app fatigue during the school year. You can ask junior year teachers NOW about letters of recommendation. No guarantee they will do them immediately, but it’s nice to give them lots of time. Include some rolling application or early action schools in the mix because getting those first few acceptances, even if they are safety schools, can provide a nice boost in the process. There are also some very good schools that offer great merit scholarships that don’t require supplemental essays.
@potatoepotatoe if you are chasing merit, my recommendation is to make a list of schools known to offer automatic scholarships for National Merit and check their web pages periodically, schools do adjust their scholarships from year to year. Also ask if they will waive your application fee, UTD will waive the fee but won’t refund it you’ve already paid it.
@potatoepotatoe On that train of thought, UCF also has a waiver for the application fee. I would also highly suggest visiting before committing and perhaps emailing some of the current NMS students at the university for their perspective.
@potatoepotatoe My son had no idea where he wanted to go, and a few schools he had an eye on didn’t stack merit all that well, so he decided to put down where my husband/his dad works as they are a NM sponsor. He got $10k for over the 4 years at any school he choose. And as it happened, he did pick a school that doesn’t offer anything for NMF (but gave him several other scholarships) so that $2.5k a year is perfect for him. He was glad to have the corporate sponsorship and pick his school rather than following the NMF money and go somewhere he didn’t really want to go.
@xpd600090 I believe I had the same concerns as you. (to each his own) I believe it should be decided on an individual basis. My #1 concern was sending my son to a school with a traditional college experience. It was actually more important to me than the academics. I want him to experience football games, parties, various clubs and co-ed dorms. I wouldn’t describe him as an introvert but an extrovert he isn’t. All the social aspects of a traditional school will be part of his learning curve. UF is still our top choice. He loves UCF also. The new UA at Tuscaloosa NMF scholarship is hard to beat. Good-luck to all!
@xpd600090 My daughter chose UTD and we discussed the campus feel. It is a different feel for sure but not anti-social. Also there are a lot of social activities planned through the honors college and on our campus tour the kids in the honors lounges were very social with each other and friendly to my daughter. The main quad had a lot of activities and the students who want to find many extracurriculars. The Game room area appealed to her too. My daughter liked the dorm setup because it gives her some privacy in the single but the triple setup means she won’t be alone. My son is an extreme extrovert and he would hate UTD but my daughter loved it. The scholarship and opportunities are very generous. We felt like UTD was a hidden gem.
My D committed to Northeastern. She received $21k/year National Merit Scholarship, renewable per semester after the first year with a 3.0 GPA. She was initially offered $15k Dean’s scholarship.
Is the NMSC final scholarship announcement and letters are sent ? My D is NMSC 2018 finalist but we haven’t been notified if she is in final final 2% or not ? Where do we check the status of the NMSC awards ?
My D has received acceptance of Fordham. The cost of attendance is 75,000/yr. Fordham offered 51,000/yr in grants, aid and scholarships. Our net costs are coming out to be appx 24K/yr. Our family contribution came out to be 37K/yr. She is split between several acceptances and not able to decide.
On pure financial perspective, it this good enough to consider ? I wish we knew about NMSC award right now.
I believe all the NMS winners should know by now. You do realize that the most that NM corp gives is a one time $2.5k scholarship, right. It is no where near what you are talking about offsetting in your previous post.
Is there a website or letter notification sent ? How should we find out what my D is receiving ?
You can log on here to see if you got a scholarship from NMSC
https://osa.nationalmerit.org/loginOSA.html
if you don’t see a notification then there is no award, my son didn’t get one from NMSC but he did get a $3K NM award from his college as part of his full ride NM scholarship to UTD