Big merit NMF/NMSF schools and their specialties

Paying for College National Merit Aid
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@brokemom23 has a kid starting at Tulsa this fall. @nmnewbie had a nice write up of Tulsa in the NMSF thread this year. One or both other might have more info on Tulsa?

My info is pretty old. I can tell you that, 25 years ago, the University of Tulsa was considered a really solid, midsize, regional university with a very impressive and unique petroleum engineering degree. (And solid in other degrees also.)

As someone from Oklahoma, the kids I knew who were going there were the really smart kids who wanted a different experience than the big state university provided (and who could afford the higher private tuition costs). That meant I didnā€™t know too many people who actually went there, but it had a really good reputation. A couple of kids from my state magnet boarding school attended TU in the late 90s and all of them have gone on to be very successful in their careers. (All three of the people I remember going there ended up in medicine.)

I took a dual enrollment class at TU when I was in high school (it was a very unusual circumstance), and really liked the campus (and the class). I also did a weeklong leadership camp there in high school. The campus had what I thought of at the time as a ā€œclassical collegeā€ feel, with green spaces, impressive looking buildings, happy students walking around, etc.

Most people I know who have gone to the University of Tulsa have attended the law school. My dad & a family friend both got law degrees from TU when I was in high school and my nieceā€™s boyfriend is currently in law school there.

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Adding to the tags for UTulsaā€¦ @PresCarsonTulsa

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I can speak to USC and FSU. Iā€™ve had 3 NMF children (I married up in the brains dept, lol). The first attended USC on the half-tuition NMF scholarship and graduated about 4 years ago. The second attended FSU on the Benacquisto full ride+ scholarship then offered to both in state and OOS NMFs (we were OOS), graduating in 2022. The third currently attends USC on the NMF half-tuition scholarship.

USC is the complete package. It has big time sports and a thriving Greek scene, if thatā€™s your thing. It also has an incredibly diverse, well-balanced student body that is as smart and hard-working as any top 20 school. The NMF scholarship is automatic, as long as you are admitted. It pays half the tuition, and increases as the tuition rises (usually 3% a year tuition increase). Many other NMFs also receive a University Scholarship worth about another $4000 a year. We ended up paying about $46,000 in tuition, room, board and fees last year. A big benefit of the NMF scholarship is living in the honors dorm, McCarthy, freshman year; and the option of living in the adjoining dorm (Ilium) soph year. Both are only 5 years old or so and are suite style. They are located in University Village, which has quickly become the heart of campus and includes many restaurants as well as a Target and Trader Joeā€™s. McCarthy also has its own dining hall. Both my kids made most of their friends in the honors dorm. My son there currently was not a big L.A. fan to start; but quickly has grown to appreciate the lively restaurant scene, the clubs and nearby beaches. Iā€™ve been very pleased with the quality of education my kids have received there.

FSU is very different. It has a more relaxed academic vibe, and is in a more conservative area though the student body itself is diverse. Itā€™s an up and coming state public though, with lots of smart kids. It is also one of the best college values right now. Many qualify for in state tuition, which is less than $6000 a year for a top 20 public university. Dorm and food costs are reasonable. The current NMF package for OOS students brings the tuition, fees, housing and board to less than $14,000 a year; and other scholarships can stack. NMFs are automatically admitted to the honors program and can live in the centrally located honors dorm. The dorm is quite nice, and the campus is leafy and beautiful. I donā€™t think the honors courses themselves are that advantageous, but one does get to register early. My son was a music student, which is so credit-heavy that his non-music courses were generally limited to the intro courses in other disciplines, which were just OK. The music education he received was excellent. My son loved his time there, made great friends, and graduated with no debt. Heā€™d choose FSU again, even though he got into USC and its top music school with more scholarship money than my other two.

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I think @OceanAir has a child at U Maine and might be able to speak about it?

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Hey there, Yes my daughter is at UMaineā€¦ I do not have much info on NMF/NMSF, but I can answer general questions about UMaine! :slight_smile:

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Thank you! We would love to know everything and anything about University of Maine because it plays an important role among the big merit NMSF/NMF schools because it is one of the very few located in the NE.

In particular, what is the general vibe like? The campus and the town? What majors is it especially strong in? Any other features it is especially known for? How has your studentā€™s experience been? Thanks in advance!

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My NM student is at USC, not Tulsa.

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Didnā€™t land there but D23 seriously considered both USF and UMaine.

Really liked our USF visit and were impressed with the resources they were putting into the honors program (auto admit for NMF) including an amazing building opening this fall. Campus was not pretty in the traditional ways but was very welcoming and laid out very well.

For us, UMaine was high on the list due to their significant focus on research and lots of opportunities for undergrads. We were planning a visit when she was awarded a full COA merit that bumped them down on the list.

Ultimately it wasnā€™t that either NMF school was lacking, just that the other school gave her more of what she was looking for. Having NMF options really took the pressure off quite a bit and i think she could have been happy at either.

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Sure! Orono, ME is a cute college town about 10 minutes north of Bangorā€¦ which is a perfect little city with everything you could need as far as stores/dining options, etc ā€“ including a legit airport. (Daily non-stop flights to major cities, which I cannot overstate how HUGE that is when you need it- not every college town has that!)
Orono has fairly small downtown with a few shops, bars, pizzerias, restaurants, lots of pretty homes, newer apartment complexes, and a riverfrontā€¦a pretty typical New England college town dominated by the campus.
UMaine has an outdoorsy, friendly and peaceful vibe. Mainers are kind, plain and simple. It is a kind place, ā€œthe way life is supposed to beā€ I believe the state motto. You kinda feel it there.
D1 Athletics are important and always fun, plenty of club sports as well. Great gym. Greek life exists, but not required to join to have a social life. Most students move off campus as sophomores. Dorms are neither great nor horrible. Food is OK.
The UMaine campus is beautiful, very green, pretty brick buildings. Very walkable. Care was taken in its design, which is obvious. Millions of $$ currently being invested in the campus, including the athletic facilities. There is a brand new engineering building- quite a showplace.
My D22 is a Nursing major- itā€™s an excellent program. So far so good! Everyone has been supportive- from classmates to professors. Advising -super importantly- has been very accessible, unlike the experiences some of her friends are having at other large schools. I understand that engineering and environmental/marine studies are strong programs.
Her experience so far has been great. She is challenged by her classes and program, has made friends in and outside of her program, in her club sport (lax) and other campus activities, in her dorm, and has friends in Greek organizations although she has not gone Greek. Winters- not really a big deal. No different from winter anywhere else in NE. Itā€™s MAINE & itā€™s BEAUTIFUL!!
I have noticed some people unfairly diminish Orono as too isolated. In truth, it is no more isolated or off-the-beaten-track than many other fantastic colleges in northern NH or VT, parts of upstate NY, etcā€¦
All in all, UMaine has TONS to offer in a great setting! Hope that helps!

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Thank you so much for this detailed review! UMaine sounds like a happy, outdoorsy university in the NE where students receive a lot of personalized attention.

I notice that it has pre-med programs that pair with Tufts University School of Medicine and that there are multiple ABET accredited engineering majors (Bioengineering, Chem E, Civil, Computer, EE, ME) as well as an outstanding paper science program. The environmental and natural resource departments seem outstanding ā€“ Marine Biology, Forest Ecology etc. Lots of research and hands-on learning experiences in the outdoors.

I agree that having a nearby airport with direct flights is a big bonus ā€“ I think it is one of the factors that has allowed University of Vermont to become such a ā€œhotā€ school for students from the Midwest and West coast lately. It seems to me that UMaine shares a lot of the same features that have made UVM so appealing.

In terms of the National Merit package, it gives the full package to both NMFs and NMSFs.

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Stats that Iā€™ve seen show 5% from out of state. Being from Ohio we took this off our list. Is your experience/ info different?

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I do think there are more than 5% out of state kids in the honors college. I really donā€™t think an out of state student would feel out of place. Texas is a huge and very diverse state, Corpus Christi and Lubbuck might as well be in different states. The only thing I think an out of state kid would find odd (and this applies to all Texas state schools), is the requirement to take Texas state government.

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From what we have heard from the student we know who is attending UT-Dallas as a NMF, that rings true. The NMFs and other honors students have more geographical diversity. UTD does not have a ā€œprovincialā€ feel. (And as a point of comparison, UT-Austin is 90% in-state, and yet students from all over still apply.)

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Would it be difficult for an OOS NMF student to get accepted into UTD?

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No, for NMFs (even those OOS) UTD is a likely/safety.

Of note, UTD has a fairly high acceptance rate, but this should NOT be taken to be an indication of it having a low-performing student body. UTD actually has SAT/ACT scores on par with UT-Austin. The reason that the acceptance rate is higher is that applicants to UTD are self-selecting. It is known as a brainy school with challenging majors, so the students who apply are intelligent.

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Talking about UTD and its strengths, have a look at this yearā€™s ICPC results. ICPC is an international programming competition, and UTD placed among the top North American teams and will advance to the 2023 World finals.

https://scoreboard.nac.icpc.global/

One will certainly find very smart students at UTD.

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UTD really likes NMFs contact the honors college about admissions and you shouldnā€™t have a problem

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I know a lot has already been written about Univ Alabama all over this site. But Iā€™m going to put in our thoughts here. My son graduated high school 2021. He had 5 things on his list he did NOT want in a school. 1) Large 2) Lots of Greek life 3) Big Sports 4) large physical campus 5) hot. Well, UA checked off EVERY SINGLE thing he DID NOT WANT. Heā€™s our first. We were mostly clueless about NMF. Christmas of his senior year I discovered the great UA scholarship oppty. Had him apply and added to his list of visits. His dad and I both really liked it and could see him there. He wasnā€™t so sure. Although he couldnā€™t see himself any place, really. End of April (you all know that nervous parent end of April feelingā€¦) we were surprised when he chose UA.

Heā€™s loved it sinceā€¦ All of his DONā€™T WANTS have had fantastic workaroundsā€¦

  1. The school is very large. But there are so many activities and things to get involved in that allows it to have a much smaller and more intimate feel. Weā€™d looked at smaller schools. The ones we looked at were so lacking in clubs/ teams/ opportunities. My son was in Blount - a Living Learning Community/ Liberal Arts minor that made UA feel much smaller. Also helped to come in with credits and not go into all the large freshman classes. No doubt, itā€™s a large school, but there are ways to make it feel smaller.
  2. There is lots of greek life. SEC Greek life is fascinating. The Greek houses are on one part of the campus. A part heā€™s not on much. And heā€™s never felt like ā€œnothingā€ for not being a part of it. I feel like there are different circles and heā€™s just not in that circle and itā€™s not a big deal at all.
  3. Before going to UA he said ā€œI might go to a football game before I graduate.ā€ He made it to some freshman year. Heā€™ll look up scores. Follow along. Enjoy some games. And then move on with his life.
  4. The campus is large, but easy to navigate.
  5. Itā€™s hot for sure. But every building is air conditioned to artic temps.

Heā€™s also not a partier. He has friends that donā€™t party much. So it works wellā€¦ I will add that my son in a nerd, is OK doing his own thing, doesnā€™t feel like he needs to do everything that the crowd is doing, is OK being by himself sometimes, and is flexible. I think all those things have helped him at UA, and would have helped him anywhere he went.

Iā€™ve also seen some people say that NMF kids have had difficulties with housing. We havenā€™t seen that at all. Couple years ago they moved some of the students during the summer just before school started. That was awful. But we didnā€™t see that last year and this year seems to be good too. They are guaranteed housing. NMF chose housing before incoming freshman. And most of the housing is fantastic.

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Whew, the last month with two graduating high school seniors has had me step away from CCā€¦so Iā€™m just catching up on this! Thanks for the tags and sorry I replied so late!
One of my twins is a NMS now :exploding_head:, starting Tulsa NEXT MONTH! It was a weird journey compounded by the fact that our HS gives almost no support to the college search/app process, so we got zero help with the process, and anything we ended up knowing about NMF scholarships was because my kid and I spend too much time on the internet. :rofl:

When NMSF news came through, he applied to UMaine, Tulsa, Alabama in addition to all the other schools we had visited. My kid is VERY chill and not picky, so he liked literally every school we had already visited (schools in CO, WI, MI, and a couple of schools here in MN). :woman_shrugging:t3: He ultimately chose not to even visit Alabama, which was fine with me - I donā€™t see him at a large school, even at one with so many wonderful opportunities as Alabama.

So last winter we visited Maine and Tulsa over the course of two weeks. Maine - liked it a lot. CS prof we talked to was nice and the campus is lovely. They have the worldā€™s largest 3D printer, and a very lovely new Engineering building. Very outdoorsy and has a big barn with a climbing wall (my kid is an Eagle Scout and has been a year round competitive climber for 10 years, so these were big pluses). People were nice enough, but the tour was a huge group so it was hard to get a vibe from it. Luckily we met up with a kid we knew from home who attends and she showed us a few more things, so that helped. It has a party reputation, but like all schools, it can be avoided if you want. I liked Orono a lot, and Bangor is just a hop skip and a jump from campus, too, so we hit a bunch of Stephen King-related sites on our trip, too. Weather was a lot like home.

Then we visited Tulsa. Going from Maine, a small flagship but definitely a public school vibe, to a small, pristine private school campus that was mostly green IN FEBRUARY didnā€™t help Maineā€™s case any. Campus is gorgeous - a lot of older stately-looking buildings that match (it very much reminded me of UST in St. Paul where all the buildings use the same light-colored stone). Our tour guide was great - casual, had lots of great answers to questions, etc., and he was a good match for my son and helped him see himself there, I think. Vibe seemed kind of homey - lots of people buzzing about, but not as many as usual because it was ā€œso coldā€ (we werenā€™t wearing jackets because it was 50 degrees! Felt like a heat wave to us!). Dorms seemed quite a bit nicer than any we had seen (not all tours showed them) so that was a plus. I think my kid was thinking, ā€œsure, I like this school like all the othersā€ but thenā€¦admissions set us up with a meeting with a professor in the CS department and truly we came out of that meeting dumbfounded. What they do there, in CompSci in general and CyberSecurity in specific, is on another level. And thatā€™s after talking to folks on visits at CO Mines, MI Tech, Milwaukee SO Engineering, U MN TC, Maine etc. That sealed the deal for my kid. They have no climbing wall on campus, but I told him he should use some of his stipend money on a membership to the local Tulsa climbing gym and some Ubers. :wink:

Other things to know about Tulsa is that they are big on sportsball so there are a lot of athletes (or something like that? :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:I donā€™t know anything about sports, and my kid does not follow sports that arenā€™t climbing), there is Greek life but it is fairly small and doesnā€™t dominate campus. I asked about political climate (I always do). The tour guide laughed and said, ā€œItā€™s always the northerners who ask about that, we have a good mix of people here, and Tulsa is liberalā€¦for Oklahoma!ā€ :rofl: We shall see. My kid will roll with whoever he ends up interacting with. :wink: I generally got the feeling that there is genuine variation of kids on this campus and that people seem to find their place. I also am a fan of their president, who appears to not only be an impressive guy with a super interesting background, but one who also seems to be an engaged leader (shoutout to @PresCarsonTulsa!).

I loved Tulsa. Campus isnā€™t in a particularly nice part of town or anything, but it felt safe enough, and within a couple of miles are lots of fun restaurants. People were friendly wherever we went. I wonā€™t have a problem visiting such a fun town!

Oh, and my son leaves this week for an optional freshman trip to Panama with UTulsa. I feel so lucky he has these opportunities!

Iā€™ll update when I know more as an actual Tulsa parent! :scream:

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Thank you so much for this detailed review! Iā€™m really looking forward to the updates. Best wishes to both of your Class of '23 sons!

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