<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American University no longer offers full-tuition scholarships for NMS, that part of the website is outdated.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>