<p>Can someone please explain how the school part of this application works? Does school get notified directly by NMSC to fill out their part after students submit their application? Or, do students go and request the school to complete their part after the student part of the application is submitted?</p>
<p>Either way, is their a list of items that the school has to do? Is there a way for the student to track if the school part of the application is completed. Thanks!</p>
<p>The schools that offer the huge awards, those are mostly “unofficial” – an official NMS award is at most 2500 one-time or 2000/year for 4 years (so max of 8K total). For the schools that offer the huge full tuition or full ride awards, only 2K per year of that at most is an official NM award, and the rest is a school-based award that they happen to award to NMFs under whatever circumstances they prescribe. So… usually with those schools, even if a student receives a small official scholarship (either the 2500 ones or a corporate one), the school will still give that student the unofficial part of their NM scholarship to top it up to whatever they usually offer. The thing they can’t do is give an official scholarship to a kid who already has one from one of the other sources. But they can give their own non-NMS-linked money to whomever they choose, including of course kids who have NM scholarships from other sources.</p>
<p>JasmineRose, at our school, students were given the deadline of Oct. 1st to have their application in, which then gives the counselors about a week to finish up everything that they need to do. My dd’s GC has already written a letter, which she did not let her read, but held it up quickly so that she could see that it was completed.
I am also interested to hear if there is a way to track materials that the school submits. It sounds like our school submits everything as a unit, but am not positive. They seem to be really competent and on top of things, as our school usually has a number of NMSFs.</p>
<p>You can always call NM Corp offices a few days before deadline and ask if all material was received on time. i’m sure they’ll love that I am giving this advice on the internet. But this is not something you leave to chance.</p>
<p>For the school sponsored scholarships, the student must designate that college as his/her First Choice with NM Corp. by the deadline. Then the student can only receive the school-sponsored scholarship from that particular college. (Check with school–different schools could have different deadlines.) My kid’s “official” portion of his scholarship is only $750/year. But the unofficial portion is nearly a full ride (covering most of tuition/fees/room/ board). Look at your college website or call the financial aid/scholarship office to find out exactly what they offer, the deadlines, if a separate application is required, etc.</p>
<p>I was wrong about the “official” college sponsored NM scholarship my son received from OU. It’s $5000 paid out over four years.</p>
<p>Do we have to select the college from the list only?</p>
<p>The best strategy, in my humble opinion, is to
1- pick your personally highest ranked schools (your personal #1 and #2 schools) that are NOT part of the National Merit Scholarship program. Why? Because, those schools will receive letters stating that you chose them as one of your top two and schools love to know that you are not ‘using them’ as a safety school.
2- THEN… next spring, change your school choice to your actual #1 ranked school. If you go with National Merit School, you will still get the scholarship. BUT YOU MUST NOT FORGET TO DO STEP #2 or you could lose it. </p>
<p>The only people who should reconsider this strategy are those who barely made the cut off, especially in the lower scoring states, especially if you are applying to USC or another highly ranked school. The reason is because it is never guaranteed that you will gain acceptance to those schools in the first place and without an acceptance, you cannot be given the scholarship. So, if USC is your actual #1 ranked school, then put them down as #!. And let them KNOW it.</p>
<p>Thank You for your advice. Lagunal!</p>
<p>What is the deadline for selecting your first choice school? Is it possible to hear back about acceptance decisions early enough to change your choice if you didn’t get accepted into your first choice school?</p>
<p>Georgia GA</p>
<p><a href=“http://media.cmgdigital.com/shared/news/documents/2013/09/14/14_GA_Semifinalists-NatlMeritProgram.pdf[/url]”>http://media.cmgdigital.com/shared/news/documents/2013/09/14/14_GA_Semifinalists-NatlMeritProgram.pdf</a></p>
<p>@lagunal–so, if I name a college as my first pick, then they will receive an email or letter stating that I have chosen them?</p>
<p>As it turns out, I am interested in two schools that do give NMF monies–and money plays a big part in my choice. I wonder if there is a strategy to get the best offers from either.</p>
<p>Thanks for everyone’s advice!</p>
<p>TiberiusShift…if one of those schools is OU, I can tell you that their NM offer is cut and dried. There is no negotiating to be done. I even mentioned that we could get more from OSU, which they were aware of, and they were completely unapologetic about the fact that their monetary offer was less. OU feels like their “extra perks” are worth the difference in cost between the two schools. For my son, that was true. I realize, though, that it sometimes does come down to money and a small amount can be the deciding factor.</p>
<p>That said, my son was awarded a couple of extra merit scholarships from OU well after he accepted the NM offer and the deadline to change first choice schools had passed. They are freshman only scholarships, but they helped a lot for that first year. Also, depending on need, OU has a program where they allow students to work in food service and their room and board is free. These are all things the NM office will be happy to tell you about. </p>
<p>Hope that helps some. :-)</p>
<p>Texaspg - Thank you for the Georgia list link!</p>
<p>"…so, if I name a college as my first pick, then they will receive an email or letter stating that I have chosen them?"</p>
<p>Yes. National Merit Corp notifies colleges if they are selected as top choices. There is no obligation from either side (the student is under no obligation to stick to those choices and the college is under no obligation to accept that student), though it will let the colleges know that they are highly ranked in the eyes of the student. That is important to admissions. If they are sure you are giving them high consideration as a school, they will give you a higher consideration as an applicant. Of course, if you are applying somewhere as an Early Decision candidate, then they will already know you have put them as your #1.</p>
<p>Hello all,
I have been reading these threads related to NMSQ for a year now. First, I wanted to thank you all for all the great information that has been posted here. My daughter made the qualifying cutoff in FL, but unfortunately missed the semi-finals with a 211. Unfortunately for her, without that, we will most likely not be able to send her to the college of her choice for financial reasons. Had we known about all those study guides and things that could have helped her boost her score, we certainly would have tried. Good luck to all the semi-finalists out there.</p>
<p>baygracemom - there are many giving scholarships also based on SAT and ACT scores. </p>
<p>What are her other scores?</p>
<p>I think it is incorrect that a non-sponsor college would receive notification from NMSC of an NMSF or NMF designating it as a first choice. No where in the instructions is there any reference to NMSC sending that information to non-sponsor colleges. And the timeline in the NMSF Requirements/Instructions has the following: “March 1 Finalists who have reported a sponsor college as first choice by this date will be included
in the first group referred to the institution for scholarship consideration.” I called NMSC, and the person I talked with confirmed that NMSC only notifies sponsor colleges, not non-sponsor colleges, when finalists designate them as first choice. And March 1 is the earliest that information is sent to the sponsor colleges. So, there seems to be not much reason to designate any school prior to March 1, and no reason at all to ever designate a non-sponsor college as first choice.</p>
<p>Has anyone made natl achievement in Texas?</p>
<p>srparent,
you are confusing two different things. </p>
<p>a FIRST CHOICE school is for any accredited university in the USA. If a student wins $2500 National Merit Scholarship or the Corporate Scholarship it goes to ANY SCHOOL of his choice in the USA. </p>
<p>you are talking about a college-sponsored National Merit Award. TOTALLY TWO DIFFERENT THINGS!!!</p>