<p>I had a 1st choice college listed and received the one-time $2500, but it’s not among the ones that offers college-sponsored scholarships.</p>
<p>@BobWallace:
I do not believe that the 2k per year my college is giving (to all NMS finalists) is from one of three NMS scholarships (I could be wrong though!!). The college also says that if a student wins NMS’s 2.5k then they will match the amount next three years of college. Does this mean that there is still possibility of getting one of the three NMS scholarships?</p>
<p>Just wanted to update that my son received the hard copy of the letter in the mail today in case anyone was wondering about the timing (we’re in the midwest).</p>
<p>D has not received the snail mail yet, but she logged on to <a href=“https://osa.nationalmerit.org/[/url]”>https://osa.nationalmerit.org/</a>. It says “Congratulations! You have been offered a scholarship. Please complete Step 4 below.”. She received the $2500 National Merit Scholarship Program.</p>
<p>My D got the $2500 NM scholarship today as well (midwest). I’m assuming this means she did not get the corporate sponsored one from my company, or it was less than the $2500. My company is cheap so that might be the case… She too was undecided. If she chooses Rice, is there a possibility she’ll be able to change to the school sponsored award which is more? (We’ll see what the financial aid looks like at her first choice which doesn’t offer a school sponsored award).</p>
<p>My son got the snail mail letter about the $2500 scholarship/award on Sat., 2 days after we read it online on the OSA portal (on Thursday 3/28). He had listed his college as 1st choice, but Amherst is not on the list of colleges that link up w/ NM. by the way, when I spoke w/ the NM lady on the phone, she said that in January a committee of teachers looked at all 15,000 finalists’ portfolios–everything each student submitted EXCEPT the cover sheet which has the 1st choice college on it. In other words, there is no way that the committee knew which college the kid had chosen for “1st choice” (whether on the NM list or not). So if I understand it correctly, if kid chose a college that IS on the list, say Carleton, and the kid passed the committee review in January (which chooses the top 2500 of the 15,000 for the "one-time $2500 NM Award), then the kid would theoretically be up for two. However, the lady told me (as BobWallace said) that no one can get more than ONE NM scholarship. So how do they do this? I’m not sure. Does the kid in my scenario learn that he/she passed the committee decision to get the one-time NM Award, but then when the NM college awards come out in May, the kid would get that one INSTEAD since it is higher in monetary value? The lady did tell me that: 1) NM chosses the one, not the kid; 2) NM chooses the one that gives the kid more money. If I’m right on this, that would be nice for the kid in that scenario: she gets to learn that she did make the cut for the one-time award, but she gets the higher award, which is usually the college (or corporate) award. They are quite often 1-2k/year, which comes to more money than the one-time $2500 award.</p>
<p>My daughter was notified yesterday that she will receive the NM 2500 Scholarship. She will attend Carleton next year, and Carleton is already listed as her first choice school. So it’s exactly the scenario that jennieling mentioned. The Carleton website clearly states that students like my daughter will receive the 2500 national award in their first year, and then receive Carleton’s standard 2000 per year in their remaining three years of college.</p>
<p>comom2013-- Don’t quote me on this, but the info from the NM finalist hasn’t been on Rice’s merit aid site this school year. Are they still offering it?</p>
<p>Rice is still on the NMSC list of sponsoring schools (see page 18):</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.nationalmerit.org/student_guide.pdf[/url]”>http://www.nationalmerit.org/student_guide.pdf</a></p>
<p>If it helps anyone, I got the snail mail letter yesterday with a $2500 Colgate-Palmolive Scholarship. Neither of my parents works for this company, so slightly baffled, but I’ll take it! Also, my college choice is University of Georgia, which is on the list. I think in the past National Merit kids have gotten $500 per academic year from UGA. So somehow I sidestepped that offer and ended up getting a bonus $500…?</p>
<p>hellocello44 - That may be one of the special scholarships mentioned earlier in this thread that are sponsored by various companies.</p>
<p>For those of you looking for corporate scholarships, they are still working on some of them. I called NMSC today and the letters for my husband’s company are just going out in the next couple of weeks.</p>
<p>@hellocello44 & @Bethorama33 </p>
<p>Check post #24 in this thread… Looks like even though a corporation “sponsors” the award, it is indeed 1 of 2500 one time $2,500 NM Scholarship. Congratulations @hellocello44!</p>
<p>I do not see how the NMSC gives the award that gives the student more money, especially if the student has not yet listed a first choice school. Once you are selected for the $2500 scholarship (which have already been decided) you are ineligible for any other award, including NMSC administered school sponsored awards. The one time $2500 is usually less than the 4 year school sponsored awards.</p>
<p>Carleton’s policy is generous.</p>
<p>So if my corporation offered more than the $2500, but doesn’t decide until May, then how could NMSC decide for us which is the better offer? The offer letter says she has to accept or reject by Apr 10 (i think; not sure of the exact date). This is very confusing that they couldn’t have figured everything except the elite school awards out at the same time.</p>
<p>We had a similar situation. Son was offered an Achievement scholarship with an acceptance deadline. We called the Merit people (who were extremely helpful, as reported elsewhere on this site) and told them we were hoping my son would also be offered a corporate Merit scholarship. They told us that the scholarships are done separately and that accepting the Achievement scholarship would not affect whether or not he was offered the corporate one. He accepted the Achievement scholarship, and a few weeks later was offered the corporate Merit scholarship, with a notification that he could only receive one of the scholarships. He accepted the corporate scholarship. The system did indeed work and he received the better offer.</p>
<p>NewSoonerMom: That is good information - different from what I was told. I wonder if it works the same for NMSC administered school sponsored scholarships as for the corporate scholarships. Was your son then not recognized as an Achievement award winner?</p>
<p>Just received my letter for the 2.5k scholarship. I put my first choice as Stanford and applied there RD. Didn’t think I would get in, but I did. Didn’t think I would win any money either considering the quality and BS of the essay I wrote, lol. Do you think NMSC helped me get in? I feel like it would definitely had an impact on schools like U of Arizona, but how do higher tier schools treat it?</p>
<p>Also just received the letter (even though it says to keep it confidential until a certain date, weird rule) congrats to everyone!</p>
<p>Momfourboys: The letter said my son would be recognized as an Achievement Scholarship winner, but would be listed as ‘Honorary Scholarship’ which recognizes his achievements but has no monetary award.</p>
<p>It appears that Achievement and corporate scholarships are handled differently than the $2500 and NMSC-administered school sponsored ones.</p>