<p>So, as I'm waiting to hear from schools, knowing that going anywhere besides UT Austin depends on how much aid I get for a National Merit Finalist, I'm starting to worry about this whole designating a college thing.</p>
<p>I put American University as my #1 college choice (because it is!), but what if they don't offer me a substantial merit aid package?</p>
<p>Is it acceptable to call other schools and see what they offer as a merit package and change my #1 for there?</p>
<p>Or do I simply have to cross my fingers and hope that AU pulls through for me?</p>
<p>You have up until…very late to change your number 1 school. I don’t remember the exact date, but it is significantly after you have been admitted at schools. I have no idea what kind of aid American offers for NM Scholars, but I’m sure you wouldn’t even have to call to find out. I’ve been able to find online information about NM Scholarships (or the lack thereof) at all of my schools.</p>
<p>superorange, from the American U website: " University‑sponsored National Merit Scholars: All finalists in the National Merit Scholarship Program competition who indicate that American University is their first choice college by the established deadline will be considered for a scholarship of up to full tuition." I don’t know what that means in terms of just how many NMFs get money from AU, and how much they get. Try calling the school, or asking on the AU forum. My junior D1 is interested in AU, so she’ll eventually need to track down this info. </p>
<p>Elsewhere the website mentions that students have to designate AU as their first choice by Feb 1. That seems odd compared to many other schools that allow you to wait to designate your #1 choice until after you’ve been accepted. Another question for the people at AU.</p>
<p>*Elsewhere the website mentions that students have to designate AU as their first choice by Feb 1. That seems odd compared to many other schools that allow you to wait to designate your #1 choice until after you’ve been accepted. Another question for the people at AU. *</p>
<p>Maybe AU has the Feb 1st deadline because their NM isn’t guaranteed full tuition for all NMF. They may want to know who is coming to AU by Feb 1st, so that they don’t award the full tuition scholarships to kids who aren’t coming to AU.</p>
<p>Most other schools give all NMFs the same scholarship, so not necessary to have the early deadline.</p>
<p>*Is it acceptable to call other schools and see what they offer as a merit package and change my #1 for there?
*</p>
<p>What other NM schools did you apply to?</p>
<p>Northeastern, George Washington, UT Austin, Brown, Brandeis, and UMass-Amherst is the full list.</p>
<p>*Is it acceptable to call other schools and see what they offer as a merit package and change my #1 for there?
*</p>
<p>If those other schools don’t offer NM scholarships, then there would be no need to change.</p>
<p>Which of your schools do? </p>
<p>UT doesn’t, I don’t think Brown does. Do the others? Do any of your schools give assured big scholarships for NMF?</p>
<p>AU is not guaranteed NM money. GW offers a guaranteed $15k, don’t know what the cutoff date is for the student to specify them as first choice. Northeastern is competitive full tuition, ditto about cutoff notification date. U Mass-Amherst is in-state full tuition competitive, Brandeis is capped at $2k. </p>
<p>superorange, I’d call the AU office directly and ask them for info on the stats of their past winners relative to the amount of money awarded. See if your GPA and SAT/ACT scores are comfortably in range.</p>
<p>^^^ Also ask how many top NM scholarships are offered. Your stats may be within range, but if only a few are awarded, you may still not get one. (altho, hopefully you will.)</p>
<p>My S has declared a first choice school that has a competitive full-tuition scholarship for 30 first-choice NMF. After that is just a token $500/year award to all NMF that list first-choice. His second “first-choice” has a guaranteed $3000/year award to all “first-choice” NMF, plus a chance at an additional $2000/year. </p>
<p>We will know by the end of March whether he gets the big award. If he misses out, will he still be able to change his first-choice to the second school and qualify for that award? </p>
<p>I know it depends on the school’s timing, but does anyone know of cases where this has worked? </p>
<p>It seems he has little to lose. His alternate school is already a bit less expensive, unless he wins the big scholarship to the first school.</p>
<p>If he misses out, will he still be able to change his first-choice to the second school and qualify for that award?
Yes. Students have until May 31 to notify NMSF of their first choice school.</p>
<p>Illini_Dad…</p>
<p>You’re not really gaming the system. Since the school has a competitive NMF scholarship, you pretty much have to name them #1 (especially if they have an early deadline - which those with competitive scholarships often do). I think the kids who are in the competition that haven’t named that school as #1 will likely be eliminated right away. </p>
<p>IF your son isn’t awarded the scholarship, then he’s free to change his #1 to another school if he wants. </p>
<p>When will he know if he got the competitive NMF scholarship?</p>
<p>He could know in the positive sense mid-March. In the negative sense - no response from school - the admissions office promised that all awards will be made by March 31.</p>
<p>Illini_dad</p>
<p>If your son does not receive the bigger award from his 1st choice school and you wish to change schools, NMSC must receive your 1st choice change by April 27. Otherwise, on April 28, they will send your son the scholarship offer from his original 1st choice school and he will no longer be able to receive other school NMF scholarships even if he changes his 1st choice.</p>
<p>Thanks - We plan to update NMSC on April 1, if we haven’t heard.</p>
<p>Although this thread is older, considering I’m going through the ringer for a couple of the schools mentioned, I figured I would throw my two-bits in:</p>
<p>American University no longer offers full-tuition scholarships for NMS, that part of the website is outdated. It does offer between $500 and $2000 a year renewable up to 4 years, however. I was told there is no “cutoff” date to name AU as your first choice, but doing so by February 1st significantly increases your chances of getting the maximum 2k per year. After that, you are more likely to get money on the lower end of that range. As it is mid-April right now and I am still “Undecided” with the NMSC, if I do name AU my first choice now, I’ll likely get a low dollar amount.</p>
<p>The catch with American is that they are very generous with their merit-based aid. Assuming your actual SAT scores match your PSAT scores and you got good grades (as is expected of Nat’l Merit Finalists), you will likely get a very good Presidential Scholarship–the one I was offered was the maximum, 27k per year, which is phenomenal. Also, you are far more likely to be admitted into Honors, as I was.</p>
<p>George Washington University does not offer anything if you specifically name GWU as your “first choice.” The website is slightly misleading. I was told that they do typically offer Presidential Scholarships to NMS, simply because it is assumed that they will have the test scores and grades to qualify for them (which is true in 99.9% of cases, and I was offered a 20k Scholarship myself). As for any NMS-specific scholarship, they have none, unlike AU, which can add their NMS scholarship on top of other merit aid.</p>
<p>Hope this helped!</p>
<p>I know of 3 NMF kids who recently contacted Bama about quickly applying and getting their NMF scholarship. Bama accepted their apps and quickly got their acceptances in, so they got the NMF packages. </p>
<p>I guess these kids weren’t happy with their other FA/merit packages and needed more money.</p>
<p>Two of these kids are majoring in engineering or comp science, so they each were given an additional $2500 per year on top of the big NMF scholarship…not bad.</p>