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

@sardarji: Did your daughter get any notification that she was accepted to the final round and had to write an essay and had to have her school send a letter?

My son got a paper letter well over a month ago that listed the corporation that was giving him the $10k scholarship. Colleges are only helpful if you are attending that college and the rest of the package is affordable to you. Next level is corporate scholarships which vary widely and are usually awarded over 4 years and can be used at any college. Lastly are the ones from National Merit themselves which are a one time award only $2.5k.

The Corporate Press Release was sent out yesterday (no names): https://www.nationalmerit.org/s/1758/images/gid2/editor_documents/18_meritcorpscholar.pdf?gid=2&pgid=61

@Sardarji
, Fordham offers Full Tuition National Merit Scholarships.

Last year they awarded 40.

https://www.fordham.edu/info/20531/apply/3752/scholarships_and_grants

Does she qualify?

“Semifinalist Scholarship: Full-tuition award renewable for four years. Recipients are finalists or semifinalists in the National Merit or National Hispanic Recognition Scholarship Programs who possess a solid A average and are in the top 2–3% of all admitted students. Notification is made at the time of admission.”

I would contact the admissions office and ask IF your DD notifies NMSF that Fordham is her first choice by the mid May deadline,[ If Fordham was not already her “first Choice” and enrolls at Fordham, will she receive a full tuition scholarship.
It cant hurt.
I think it is too late to for her to receive one of the $2500 Scholarships.

My son is narrowed his choices to the final two and leaning towards UMD. He went ahead and changed the college choice on NMSC profile from undecided to UMD. Is that all he has to do?Does anyone know if UMD gives money for NMSF …i saw in one of the threads that they give 2000 to 2500?Any ideas on this?

@priya2015
on this website, scroll down the the middle box For Sponsors. Click on the 2016-17 Annual Report.
https://www.nationalmerit.org/s/1758/start.aspx?gid=2&pgid=61

It will automatically down load a Pdf report.
Scroll down to page 36. UMD does offer NM Scholarships. 51 received them last year.

What happens next is UMD will get an updated report from NM [ usually they send out a couple a month to colleges]
UMD then matches the names of Enrolled students to the names on that list.
UMD then generates the NM award.

On March 29th when all the results were out, I looked at the list of the colleges which offer money and where we applied, I logged in and updated my son’s profile to the college where he was admitted and offered money, in our case it was U of Rochester, then he called the financial office over spring break and told them about the change. The phone was transferred back and forth between admission office and financial aid . The Financial aid lady sent us an email and informed all the colleagues in admission dept and fin department about my son’s NMF status. Finally yesterday we received an update that he awarded $25K scholarship.

The following link has the company sponsors and college sponsors

https://osa.nationalmerit.org/application/competitionInstructionPDF.html?fileName=Sponsors of National Merit Scholarships.pdf&programId=10001

Miami-Fla confirmed in writing to my son today that it will stack the state NMF Benacquisto scholarship
(for Miami should be $21,000-$23,000) on top of my son’s other scholarships up to the full cost of attendance, and that Miami will guarantee the scholarship even if the Fla Legislature revokes/reduces the OOS Benacquisto while my son is there.

@menloparkmom

My DD is NMSC finalist. I have not seen the final final list of NMSC ( 2%) awards or notification. Fordham already offered her 51K of grants and scholarships for full tuition but still NC comes to 24K ( housing, meals, books, transportation, misc exp)

Does she have chance with full ride with other outside scholarships ( ie NMSC). Should she change the first choice school to Fordham if that changes anything ?

Published: 4/18/2018 8:28 AM
2018 Corporate-Sponsored Merit Scholarship Winners
NMSC is excited to announce the names of the first group of scholarship winners in the 63rd annual National Merit Scholarship Program. Approximately 1,000 distinguished high school seniors have won corporate-sponsored National Merit Scholarship awards financed by about 200 corporations, company foundations, and other business organizations. The release is made available here to provide information about the National Merit Scholarship Program and these awards. The names of the scholarship winners are provided to news media for publication and are not posted on this website.

@Sardarji , you need to call Fordham FA office or admissions. They probably factored your DD’s NMF status into theor award, and yes you need to list Forham 1st choice to get that award. There are no other NMSC awards to receive at this point. If Fordham did not factor NMF full tuition into your DD’s award, let them know and maybe they will stack some of the other scholarships on top of the NMF full tuititon they award, to help you with room and board? Does not hurt to ask.

@Sardarji Do you need a full ride? Did your child apply to schools that offer full rides to NMF? Pretty sure UTD will take applications up to May 1st.

@Sardarji

“2018 Corporate-Sponsored Merit Scholarship Winners”

This ONLY applies to YOU IF you or your Hubby work for one of the firms that sponsor National Merit.
Bit be aware- NO student can receive BOTH a NM Corporate sponsor scholarship AND a NM college sponsored scholarship. And obvious the full tuition scholarship adds up tp a LOT more $ . So IF you work for a company that sponsors NMSF, you need to refuse that one in order to receive the college sponsored one that pays more.

"Does she have chance with full ride with other outside scholarships ( ie NMSC).

I dont know, but I doubt it . Kinda late now.
“Should she change the first choice school to Fordham if that changes anything ?”

YES , she should but ONLY if she is eligible.Does she have a “solid” A average? Only fordham will know if she is among the top 2-3% of all admitted students.

so contact Fordham and ask them if she is asap.
Most colleges need to see that they ARE a students first choice, and that information comes only from NNMSF.
go back and read what I posted on #1261.
that was pasted from the Fordham website.

@menloparkmom, I’m not sure that’s 100% correct. The large school scholarships (full tuition in this case) are not “official” NM scholarships, and can be stacked with another NM award. In our case, my D has a 1/2 tuition scholarship to USC that she was awarded for being a NM finalist, and a smaller $1K/year scholarship from the school that is the official NM award. If she had been awarded a corporate NM scholarships or a $2500 NMSC scholarship (she was not), she would have had to choose between accepting it or the $1K/year USC NM scholarship. But her 1/2 tuition scholarship would never have been in jeopardy. Somebody please chime in if this incorrect.

@kcheves -
that is NOT correct.
One can receive a large College NM scholarship [ like what USC offers] AND a smaller " official" $1K NM awards.
OR a corporate scholarship AND a smaller “official” NM award. ’
IF she had been offered the one time $2500 scholarship she could have still gotten USC’s large scholarship OR the corporate scholarship. But NOT the $1K per year one too.

“If she had been awarded a corporate NM scholarships or a $2500 NMSC scholarship (she was not), she would have had to choose between accepting it or the $1K/year USC NM scholarship.” i
incorrect

BOTH the $2500 and the smaller scholarships come directly from NMSF.
A student would have to choose between THOSE 2 small scholarship.
Most go for the 1K / year, cause ,duh, its more $ overall.

“But her 1/2 tuition scholarship would never have been in jeopardy.”
Incorrect.

A student CAN’T receive BOTH a Corporate scholarship AND a large college provided NM scholarship.
Trust me. I know .
Her 1/2 tuition scholarship, IF it was for being a NMF, would have been in grave danger. Lucky for you she made the right choice!

Here is my understanding…

There are 3 types of “sponsored” National Merit scholarship awards: corporate-sponsored, college-sponsored, and the National Merit $2500 award.

You can only have 1 of the above sponsored awards. For example, if you are offered the NM $2500 award but your college offers a $2000 sponsorship, then you have to choose which award to accept as you can only receive one.

Page 8 of the 2017 National Merit Student Guides states, “Different types of scholarships will be offered, but no student can receive more than one monetary award from NMSC.”
https://nationalmerit.imodules.com/s/1758/images/gid2/editor_documents/student_guide.pdf?sessionid=ee8e56cc-a790-42da-a710-e1b59ef433f6&cc=1

If your college offers a large National Merit package, it should state if any portion of the package is a sponsorship (college-sponsored awards range from $500 - $2000 per year). If the package does not include a sponsored award, then none of those funds are affected. If the package does include a sponsored award, then you will have to compare the amount of the college-sponsored award vs. the other award offered (corporate award or NM award) and select the one that is larger.

"A student CAN’T receive BOTH a Corporate scholarship AND a large college provided NM scholarship.
Trust me. I know "

@menloparkmom, I will admit that I don’t have any experience with corporate scholarships. With respect to the “you can only have one National Merit Scholarship rule”, I have not seen any distinction between the corporate, NMSC, and school-sponsored NM scholarships.

@menloparkmom said

A corporate scholarship is one of the three types of sponsored NM scholarships mentioned above. You can have the large National Merit scholarship package from a college plus one sponsored award (corporate, college, or NM $2500). The NM sponsored award does not preclude you from receiving other awards from the college.

@menloparkmom, the large college scholarships (such as the UTD full ride, which my son has accepted) contain a small “official” NM scholarship. In the case of UTD, the total scholarship value is over $100k in-state and about $180k out of state. The “official” school-sponsored NM Scholar portion of the scholarship is $3k total. If S had received the NMSC-sponsored $2500 award, he could choose to have that replace his $3k UTD-sponsored award but it would not have affected the remaining ~$97k of the in-state UTD scholarship.

He could NOT get both the $3k UTD scholarship and the NMSC $2500 award, however. That is what NMSC means when they say that each student will only get one award letter from NMSC. It DOES NOT mean that if a student gets the $2500 NMSC award that they become ineligible for the large NMF packages. I have yet to read about an official NM award that is worth more than $5k.

At least in the case of UTD I know for certain, because I have seen the specific line items of the scholarship award and I have read how UTD handles the official portion, that the lion’s share of the NMF package is completely unaffected by the type of NM award that is offered. Whether a student gets an official award sponsored by NMSC, a corporation, or UTD, as long as the student has UTD listed as first choice then they’re getting a full ride to UTD.

@traveler98 ,
“Whether a student gets an official award sponsored by NMSC, a corporation, or UTD, as long as the student has UTD listed as first choice then they’re getting a full ride to UTD.”
Incorrect.

please read this.
A student can only have ONE SPONSORED NM award. So if a student has a parent who works for a corporation that SPONSORS NM, AND is accepted at a College that SPONSORS NM, He would have to CHOOSE between those 2 SPONSORED scholarships.
the list of sponsors is on the NM Pdf posted above.

Students can also receive the small- 1K awards or $2500 direct awards in addition to A larger corporate or college provided scholarships

I know its confusing. NM doesnt’ make it any easier to understand.
Each year there are parents who, through no fault of their own, have a hard time understanding how NM awards work.

@chercheur
"You can have the large National Merit scholarship package from a college plus one sponsored award (corporate, college, or NM $2500). The NM sponsored award does not preclude you from receiving other awards from the college.
Incorrect.

A student can only have ONE sponsored NM award. So if a student has a parent who works for a corporation that SPONSORS NM, AND is accepted at a College that SPONSORS NM, He would have to CHOOSE between those 2 SPONSORED scholarships.
the list of sponsors is on the NM Pdf posted above.

Students can also receive the small- 1K awards or $2500 direct awards in addition to A larger corporate or college provided scholarships

I know its confusing. NM doesnt’ make it any easier to understand.
Each year there are parents who, through no fault of their own, have a hard time understanding how NM awards work.

UTD NMF office confirmed the 2500 scholarship from NMSC is in addition to their scholarships