@droppedit, does your D’s Bama financial aid portal show this $1k per year in a separate line item yet? My S’s UTD portal has shown his $375 per semester NM Scholar award for a while, as a line item separate from the other parts of his UTD NMF package (tuition, $1500 r & b stipend, $4000 non-accountable stipend). If it’s already in your D’s Bama portal then her total award shouldn’t change. If it hasn’t shown up in her Bama portal yet then she may have an extra $1k per year that will be added to her financial aid package later.
@traveler98 – I don’t see it as a separate item in her mybama account. Everything there appears to be the same. There’s a “National Merit Stipend” for $1750/semester listed but it’s part of the standard Bama NMF package.
I guess we’ll have to wait a couple of days to see what happens. I don’t know if she should accept the nationalmerit.org item or not.
You guys who got scholarship notifications on your portals: keep that login info. because you’ll need to update NMSC on status (grades, EC’s and so forth) if it’s a multi-year scholarship.
For college sponsored scolarships, I think the renewal requirements are determined by the college. So check with your college for what is required.
As an example, here’s the renewal criteria I was able to find for UCF. No guarantee that this is the latest and greatest,
"Renewal Requirements:
Academic progress is evaluated once per year, after spring grades have been posted.In order to meet renewal requirements for the National Merit Scholarship Program, students must meet the following each year:
Initially enroll full-time (a minimum of 12 UCF credit hours) each fall and spring term.
Successfully complete an average 24 UCF hours for the previous fall and spring period.
For Example: If a student was enrolled in 12 hours for the fall semester and earned 9 hours, the student would need to enroll in and successfully complete 15 hours in the spring semester to have earned an average of 24 hours by the end of the evaluation period.
Earned a UCF cumulative GPA of at least a 3.2 by the end of each spring term. Summer grades and hours earned after spring evaluation may not be used to meet the scholarship renewal requirements."
@kcheves - that may be, since my D’s requirements read differently and she has no set GPA threshhold. The full-time stipulation probably holds for all of them but will vary by how the specific institution determines that.
@droppedit, you may want to check with Bama but my thought is that your D definitely should accept the item in her NMSC portal.
My S checked his NMSC portal this morning and the UTD college-sponsored scholarship was in there, $750 per year. I know he already accepted that in his UTD portal but I would think it needs to be accepted both places (UTD and NMSC portals) to ensure he gets that money disbursed. Could be that Bama requires it to be accepted in NMSC before it shows up in the Bama portal, or possibly that Bama gives the money to NMSC to disburse. If you’re unsure I bet a quick call to either Bama or NMSC will get you on the right track.
@Traveler98 how do find the NMSC portal?
When I go to https://osa.nationalmerit.org/loginOSA.html
Type in user name and passwordand log on
I just get the application submitted page how do I get to the portal, DS already accept to National Merit Scholarship on his UTD portal.
@3scoutsmom, it doesn’t show up on the parent portal, just the student’s. S did it during a break at school so I don’t know what it looks like, sorry I can’t be more helpful. I was included on the email from NMSC that confirmed S had accepted his award, so he never needed my help.
@3scoutsmom After login to osa.nationalmerit.org it goes to the Main Menu page. On the Main Menu page I see four numbered items. Number 4) shows “We have received your reply to your scholarship offer. Click here to review the terms of your offer”. Before DD accepted the award in the osa page it showed something like “Congratulations on your scholarship…” she accepted it there, then shortly after it showed up on her financial account at her university.
How do you tell if you are on the parent portal or the students?
There’s a parent portal?
Ha ha, yes, the parent and student get separate login credentials. That was all set up when the student was first notified of semifinalist status back in the fall. Parents are asked to complete something for the finalist application and everything else goes through the student’s profile.
@dowzerw whichever login you used to complete the parent portion of the finalist application is the parent portal, and the one your student used to complete the full application is the student portal.
^^ Wow - don’t remember that from D17’s application in fall of 2016. Perhaps it’s like childbirth - you forget all about it till it’s time to repeat LOL.
Thanks for the heads up! Have kind of been in a happy coast mode on everything college related, and wasn’t looking out for this. I had DS log in to his NMSC portal this morning and received the good news he is receiving a college sponsored scholarship of $500 annually at U of L, which he gratefully accepted! I guess that is the end of the long NM process for him.
@LOUKYDAD - Not Quite. He’ll need to renew his scholarship annually. But I agree it is nice to be on the downhill slope.
Thanks for all the help! DS was able log on and accept the college award (even though he had already accepted through the college) and then I got an email notice that he had accepted it. I really don’t remember DD16 having to do this!
Had my DS go online into NMSC page to see if he had an award, and today he sent a text saying he had accepted a $1k annual award. We moved recently so it seems we are missing a chunk of mail despite forwarding (thanks USPS!) so very grateful for those sharing info on this site. Now to see if this comes in incrementally to his current scholarships at Univ of Minnesota.
Did you end up accepting the award at the national merit site?
Did it change what appeared at MyBama?
Was your daughter named a “Scholar” back in March?
DP Jr has no awards to accept on nationalmerit.org , but then this is not surprising since he was not named a scholar in March. His standard NMF award info appears on Mybama, and I assume that is the extent of it since he was not notified of receiving a sponsored scholar award.
If I haven’t heard anything about the $2500 scholarship yet, does that mean I didn’t get it?
@enm185 Probably. My D had to accept it by 4/5, so I would imagine that if any were refused, the second round has been notified.