I hope this will be helpful as each year there is a lot of confusion regarding which awards / scholarships NMF’s CAN receive.
there are 2 BUCKETS of awards that MOST NMF’s can choose from.
they get to choose ONLY 1 [ONE] from EACH bucket
…
Bucket # 1-
a colleges’ OFFICIAL NM award-these are relatively small awards and are not designated for any particular use- such as UTDs $3000 Official award or USCs Official $4000 [ 1K pre year award] etc, etc,
Official awards are ONLY awarded to NMF’s who enroll at a NM sponsoring college , AND who notify NMC that the college is their first choice by the mid May deadline*.
OR
NMC’s one time direct $2500 award [ offered to about 2400 tippy top NMSF’s. ]
[Those Students can use the $2500 at ANY college.
The notification of the $2500 award comes in a letter from NMC and is usually sent in late March.
Most of the student receiving these awards seem to go to students who often end up at HYPS, etc, etc.- colleges that dont sponsor NMC]
Both of the awards in Bucket #1 above $$ awards are paid THROUGH , or by NMC.
…
Bucket #2
A CORPORATE NM scholarship - offered to students whose parents work at NM sponsoring corporation .
OR
a COLLEGE’s NMF scholarship [such as UTD’s full tuition scholarship or USC’s 1/2 tuition scholarship] - that are given to NMF’s who notify NMC that the college is their first choice and enroll there*].
The above award $$/ scholarships comes directly from the corporation or the college.
…
In summary-ONE from EACH bucket.
so , for instance, a student CAN’T receive both the $2500 NM direct award AND the USC OFFICIAL $1K per year award.
and a student CAN’T receive BOTH a Corporate funded scholarship AND a LARGE College funded scholarship - like UTD’s or USC’s tuition scholarship.
@menloparkmom what is the difference between a NMF (National Merit Finalist) and then a National Merit Scholar (NMS). I seem to recall at my child’s school there were 3 semi finalists and then at the end 2 National merit scholars, and one that was a national merit finalist only. Can you explain? Thanks
@LvMyKids2
"what is the difference between a NMF (National Merit Finalist) and then a National Merit Scholar (NMS). "
A National Merit Finalist refers to the 15000 or so kids who advance from National Merit Semi Finalist position.
A National Merit Scholar is ANYONE of the 8000 or so kids who end up receiving NM financial $$ awards , either because they enroll at colleges that sponsor National Merit Corp, OR they have a parent who works for a Corporation that sponsors National Merit Corporation OR they are one of the 2400 or so tippy top NMF’s who chosen to receive a $2500 scholarship directly from NMC.
NMF’s who end up enrolling at Ivys, or other colleges that dont sponsor NMC, or who don’t receive one of the $2500 awards don’t advance to NM Scholar.
They are the reason that the # of NMF#s end up dropping from 15000 to 8000 NM Scholars.
" I seem to recall at my child’s school there were 3 semi finalists and then at the end 2 National merit scholars, and one that was a national merit finalist only. Can you explain? Thanks "
All a student needs to do to advance from NMSF to NMF position is to fill out the essay that is sent to them in the packet from NMC[ handed out by the HS] , and have SAT scores that “confirm” their PSAT scores.
That is the reason your schools total dropped from 3 to 2. One of the kids enrolled at a NON NMC sponsoring college- like HYP.
" I seem to recall at my child’s school there were 3 semi finalists and then at the end 2 National merit scholars, and one that was a national merit finalist only. Can you explain?"
edited for clarification-
All a student needs to do to advance from NMSF to NMF position is to fill out the essay that is sent to them in the packet from NMC[ handed out by the HS] , and have SAT scores that “confirm” their PSAT scores"
AND enroll at a college sponsors NMC
That is the reason your schools NM total dropped from 3 to 2. One of the kids- the national merit Finalist- enrolled at a NON NMC sponsoring college- like HYP.
Per my discussion with NMSC today, there are not two “buckets”. You will only be offered and can only accept one award from NM - the $2500 NMSC-sponsored scholarship, a corporate-sponsored NM scholarship, or a school-sponsored NM award. The larger scholarships (full or half tuition) that students are offered by virtue of their NMF standing are completely independent, and can be accepted along with any one of the NMSC-sanctioned scholarships described above.
The most likely reason that NMFs do not become scholars if that they didn’t receive one of the smaller NM scholarship awards. There is no requirement that a scholar attend a NM-sponsoring school, only that the school they attend is accredited and in the United States.
@menloparkmom thank you. Still a bit confused. So out of the 3, 2 were honored as a National Merit Scholar (went to a UC school) and the other not. But what you are saying is that the other was because of the school he chose? Maybe he was just not the tippy top student that got the $2500 and the other 2 did? I didn’t think UCs (in California) were part of the NM colleges (like I know USC is, etc). So I am thinking the other 2 were tippy top and got the $2500 award and the 3rd maybe didn’t enroll in a participating school BUT even so, didn’t get the $2500?
@LvMyKids2 - Like fully half of all finalists, the one student that wasn’t names a scholar was not awarded one of the small official NM scholarships, chose not to go to college, or went to a college that wasn’t in the US or wasn’t accredited. Most likely, they just didn’t get one of the small, official NM scholarships. Net result is the same, they had the option of attending college at a reduced rate based on their NMF status.
As an example, my D was NMF and will be going to USC on a 1/2 tuition Preidential scholarship. She was not awarded a scholarship directly from NMSC, and so (I think) is not technically a National Merit Scholar. It’s confusing though, because she was given an extra $1K/year from USC as a National Merit Scholarship, which may or may not make her a scholar. Bottom line is that being scholar is not the point. Being a finalist (and at some schools a semi-finalist or hispanic scholar) is what opens the doors to the big scholarships.
@LvMyKids2
“But what you are saying is that the other was because of the school he chose.”
That is the most frequent reason NMSF’s do not become NM Scholars. They enroll at a non sponsoring college.
*The other 2 reasons are either
*his parents do NOT work for a NM Sponsoring Corporation
OR
*he was NOT among the 2400 or so tippy top students in the country chosen to receive one of the $2500 NM awards directly .
Many NMF’s are accepted and enroll at colleges that dont’ sponsor NMC. In that case they have to receive one of the OTHER 2 awards listed above in order to be a NM Scholar at say Harvard, for instance.
@kcheves
" It’s confusing though, because she was given an extra $1K/year from USC as a National Merit Scholarship, which may or may not make her a scholar."
She WILL be a Scholar, [ as long as she notifies NMC that she has chosen USC as her final first choice college before mid- May that is ], as the additional 1K IS one of the 3 types of qualifying "small "awards.
The 1K$ comes from the pot of $ that USC gives to NMC each year in order to be designated a "Sponsoring "college.The money will show up in her burser’s acct in early Aug. It is sent from NMSC.
Any student who receives one of the 3 small awards- from either a sponsoring corporations[ thank you for the clarification], OR from a sponsoring college OR from NMC directly [ a student who receives one of the $2500 awards] WILL be a NM Scholar.
Congratulations!
I hope she loves her time at USC.
MY DS did!
fight on!
@menloparkmom, Thanks for that clarification. She has selected USC as her first choice schools and has been given the $1k award by the School. She’s really excited about USC, as are we.
@kcheves All 7500 Merit Scholars will be notified of their standing by July 2018. There are 3 published lists of Merit Scholars to the media: 2500 NMSC $2500 winners (March 2018), 1000 Corporate sponsored winners (March 2018), and 4000 college sponsored winners (May-June 2018). The 7500 awards are shown in the students OSA portal and are accepted there. You will only be offered one of the three awards in the students OSA portal. All other awards are not part of the 7500 Merit Scholar awards (not that it matters) since $$ is what matters. You can google last years lists as they are all published.