If there is only one school that your DC applied to that offers a National Merit Scholarship, is there any reason not to go ahead and name them as the first choice school by the March 1st deadline? Would it prevent possibly receiving a NMSC scholarship if DC ultimately chooses to go to another school (which does not offer any National Merit Scholarships)?
@woodsmom…In your scenario, I’d recommend having your DC name the first choice school now as they will not lose out on any opportunities for NM scholarships. According to NMSC, the decisions on which Finalists will receive the one-time $2500 scholarships have already been made…although they won’t begin mailing out those decisions until March 26th according to their website.
http://www.nationalmerit.org/Merit_R&I_Leaflet.pdf
Since your DC is only considering one school that offers NM money, if that school is named as the first-choice and your DC eventually gets notified of receipt of a one-time $2500 award that will supersede the “official” portion of the school’s award but they’d still be eligible for any “unofficial” portion (i.e. the bigger $$ amounts 
). If your DC chooses to attend a different school, you’d still be able to change the first choice school up until May 31 and use the $2500 scholarship at that school. If your DC receives a school-sponsored award at the NM participating school and chooses to attend there…they’re all set. If they receive a school-sponsored award (mailing for these start May 1) and subsequently decides to attend a different school with no NM participation they’d forfeit the school-sponsored award but wouldn’t be in a position to use it anyway.
Thanks @Wolverine86! I find the whole process confusing, and it helps to get confirmation that there is little risk to going ahead and naming our 1st Choice. One less worry…
Thanks @Wolverine86, your insight here, and in other posts, is appreciated. I’ve read the NMSC info and a lot of comments on CC, and want to be sure I understand how this works. DD is down to 3 schools - Notre Dame, Georgetown, and Northwestern. I believe only Northwestern has a national merit scholarship (school-sponsored). It seems then that she should make Northwestern her first choice at this point, and change it only if she receives a one-time NMSC scholarship (transferable), and she decides to attend ND or Gtown? If she doesn’t get an NMSC (which seems to be the case, as I guess they were mailed last week), does it matter if she never changes it to ND or Gtown?
@pmagoo…You are correct. I guess there’s still an outside possibility that she might receive belated notification of a one-time $2500 award, but chances are she would’ve been notified either through her NM OSA portal or snail mail by now. To be safe you could try calling NMSC and see if they’ll confirm for you whether or not she was offered a $2500 award, but I would recommend she change her first-choice school to Northwestern in case that’s where she chooses to attend. If it turns out that she doesn’t receive a one-time $2500 and chooses either ND or G’town her school of choice won’t matter. If she happens to find out later on that she was awarded a one-time $2500, she has until May 31 to change her first-choice to whichever school she chooses to attend and can apply the scholarship there.
Congrats to your D on having such great schools to choose between!!