My kid may disagree with me, but it seems like the biggest bit of work is the essay. Since it can be repurposed from the Common App essay, it seems like an unexpected gift to be forced to write a pretty good draft by October 9 of something that is due on November 1.
Just looked at this in more detail. Our school doesn’t rank and the rank box is empty. There are three additional numbers at the end after “type”. Maj = major, car=career. What is Col#? Is that your first college choice?
@eastvillage. Wow, that letter was … decidedly lacking in enthusiasm. I guess this is a population for whom the NMF scholarships are not a big draw, but still. And it’s a very short application assuming you co-opt the essay from something else. Well, Congratulations anyway!
@eastvillage that is a horrible apathetic email. I wonder who developed the wording (counselor, admin or district) but it is a disturbing message to be sending to students. The application isn’t very difficult - 6 activities, something like 100 characters of awards/work experience and an essay.
What does the school have to do? Letter of rec, transcript and are there specific questions that they have to fill out that are difficult or time consuming?
We got an email from USF to visit with travel and hotel for student and one parent.
@eastvillage I’d be so pissed at that letter! Having walked this road with my two oldest, the NM application is one of the easiest forms to fill out compared to other scholarships and college apps. Sounds like the GC is very lazy! We had well over 40 NMSF at my kids school this year I can tell you that there’d be parental revolt if a letter of that tone went out! Seriously, if she thinks that application might be too “lengthy” combined with their other work she must have very low standards for her students!
I would forward that email to the highest administrator over that counselor.
We have a friend at USF and she was allowed to stay on campus with great resources this year and Hurricane Maria. Some of the building are actually used as a voluntary shelter so they seem safe.
Wow – the application is not lengthy at all. My dd just re-used her essay from the Common App, and the rest took very little time. They don’t give much space for the extra curricular/honors portion, so those portions are limited. From that email, it sounds like the counseling office may not want to do the work on their end. But perhaps the discouraging tone was not intended.
@lkg4answers Yes, Col# is first choice college.
The student application is pretty short; that’s if the essay is already written. The number of characters for activities and awards is really low. I thought 150 characters on common app was bad, but this was much worse.
Make sure the essay doesn’t overflow. The application fits 650 word essay but probably not much above that. DS tried inserting empty lines between paragraphs to make his essay more readable, and the last paragraph didn’t fit.
I am a homeschooling parent, so I got to do the counselor part of the job. The school guidance counselor has to enter the entire transcript, school profile, and designate the highest level classes in all subject areas. It’s definitely a few hour job though most of the info is entered per school not per student.
Homeschoolers require an additional step - an outside academical endorser who recommends the candidate (not really sure what’s involved but sounded like a recommendation letter and a form or two). The endorser cannot start working on the application till both student and the parent finalize their sections.
So today I was wondering why the Florida Dept of Education had not done a press release when in the past, they have done it the same day as NM does theirs. I called their Newsroom. The lady was not sure at first what I was talking about and then decided to check her emails for something from NM…”ah, there it is, in my junk mail!”. Really???
For those of you who know your kid is an NMSF, if your child has not been given the letter with the login info so they can begin working on their application, you may want to plan a trip to the school office. That is what I had to do a several years ago. It was very odd because the same counselor handled National Merit Finalist applications year after year and yet she failed to call the kids in for their letters even though the public notification date had passed. (By the way, there is no need to wait for the public notification day. The letters can be distributed as soon as they are available at the school.) So after verifying with the NM office that the letters had been available at my kid’s school for weeks, I then contacted the counselor in charge of NM. When that didn’t work I went to the assistant principal, who obtained my son’s letter from the counselor within about 15 minutes of my asking and made sure that the other more than 20 kids got theirs soon afterwards.
Thank you so much for the list.
Our school finally gave my D an official letter today congratulating her. They are having a presentation next week to congratulate the kids and go over the process. ?
@eastvillage
wow. that’s even worse than my kids’ GC response (which was basically “i’m busy…i’ll get to it when i get to it.”). the NMF application is not in the least bit lengthy. that’s just wrong (a lie?). it takes like 10 minutes to do all of it, except the essay. and, the essay is one that your kid probably needs to do anyway for other applications, so in a way, it’s no additional work for the kid.
i wish you luck in restraining yourself and not punching this person in the face.
@mathKids
our school just uploads transcripts to different colleges etc. from this system our school has called naviance. so, on the part where the transcript has to be entered by hand, do you think that lengthy process might be because you home school? just wondering if our school might be able to use naviance vs. the lengthy way you had to do it.
My D letter did not have her login information. I just called the National Merit office and they are closed for the weekend. She was hoping to get started on the essay writing now, as she has a pretty open weekend which is rare… Would someone mind sharing the essay prompt?
@Scubaski1
For the class of 2020, the prompt is:
“To help the reviewers get to know you, describe an experience you have had, a person who has influenced you, or an obstacle you have overcome. Explain why this is meaningful to you. Use your own words and limit your response to the space provided.”
Our school uses Naviance, too, but our GC said she had to enter all the info by hand. I’m not confident that she actually knows what she’s doing, though, so it might have been possible to do via Naviance, and she just did not know how to do it.