UCF has a NMSF event in the fall that covers hotel and transportation, I believe.
@PPuggle @FLParent888 There is nothing binding about choosing a first choice school for NMSF purposes right now. In fact, the schools won’t even know which school you indicate until the first list goes out in the spring. If your student has UCF on any of the (4?) lists they get before a certain date, your student is eligible for the Benaquisto at UCF.
Some schools specify the student must put that school as their first choice school for the first list that is sent out in order to be eligible for their NMF scholarship. That is usually on the school’s website.
NMSC allows the student to change their first choice school. I can’t remember if there is a limit to the number of changes or not.
Only the school your student lists will know your student chose them. (Although a lack of being chosen might indicate another school was in that slot at some point.)
There are very clear dates for when you need to have that school in their portal for (the $2000) school-based scholarships in most cases. Have your kid write all the dates now & keep track of them. Read the fine print & paperwork that is available in their student portals.
Luke at UCF sends out emails to kids in the Spring that he knows are interested/ have applied to tell them the key dates. I don’t know about other schools’ communication.
What are the deadlines for applying for finalist status/sending in a confirming score? I tried to ask D20 about it, but she wasn’t really interested in talking about it. She hasn’t started on her application yet, and I am just wondering how much time she has.
October 9th. Her school may require her to finish her part of the application earlier than that. GC is the one who has to submit the entire application by Oct 9th.
Thanks @mathKids! Do you know about submitting confirming score? Is that also Oct 9?
Scores are due Dec 31, 2019.
from NM website:
You will be withdrawn from further consideration in the competition if NMSC does not receive a report of your SAT or ACT scores by January 31, 2020. NMSC must receive your scores no later than December 31, 2019 for full award consideration.
Is there a way to find out electronically if NMSC received scores or would you call? I can’t find a way to check college board to make sure they were sent.
DD20 has several schools to which she is applying that are NOT on the NMS sponsoring schools list, nor do they have an internal scholarship that references NM in any way. Does that mean that they will therefore not receive any notification at all of what she picks as a first choice school?
I too would like to know how to be certain regarding the scores. We sent DS March scores automatically, and I want to make sure they weren’t misplaced, since DS20 wasn’t a NMSF then yet.
Checking the College Board website (btw it took us forever to figure this out)
- Go to mySAT
- Click on Score Sends next to the score you are interested in
- You will see the score and any details that come with it. You will then have to click Score Sends this time at the top of the report (kind of like a tab)
- You will finally be able to get to a webpage that lists where the scores were sent and the status.
@mathKids Thank you so much! It worked! I never would have figured that out myself. 
I have a question to those whose kids have turn in their application. How do you know that the school has finished putting in their endorsements? Is it basically asking GC to see they’re done with it before and/or on the deadline?
@mathKids Thank you!! So helpful!
@“liz@robins” You can log in to where the NMSC application was done and it will say your child’s application was submitted and whether or not the GC application is done.
@StillLotsToLearn thank you so much for explaining this! I checked the application PDF preview and the numbers were filled in. The rank right now says 2. My DD20’s rank is top 2.3% so it might just be roundup number. I thought the rank was among those who made semifinalists.
@ebh87 thank you!
@chucktaylor1 could you please send me the NY list? Thank you!
Does anyone know if we need to send transcripts from colleges to NMSC if our student does dual enrollment or is the high school transcript enough if that information is included on it?
Good question. I think no based on the fact the NMSC doesn’t actually get a high school transcript. All grades are hand entered by the GC. However, it might not hurt to double check with them about that.
No need to send.
@mathKids It is fine to have the scores sent before being named NMSF. You can call National Merit to confirm that they have received the scores; the folks there will be happy to help you. I did that in the past for both my kids just for peace of mind.