Just looking back through some of the information about UTD and OU and my daughter got something in the mail from UTD yesterday. A couple people have pointed out that UTD is full ride while OU is not (including me). But, OU’s scholarship pays tuition for up to 5 years which means kids could come out of a lot of programs with a master’s degree pretty much paid for. I didn’t remember the details of UTD’s scholarship from our visit since my daughter wasn’t overly impressed with it, but the info she got in the mail from UTD yesterday says their scholarship pays tuition and fees for 4 years. So, if that’s accurate (which I assume it is since it came from the school itself), it’s still not quite an apples-to-apples comparison saying UTD is full ride and OU isn’t.
I thought it said on nm site that the kids will receive notification at their homes on 2/10/2020.
@twinmommy. I believe it says the notification will be sent on the 10th to student’s home address, not received. But I’ll more than happy to be wrong if we can “receive” the notice on the 10th.
@twinmommy That’s the way I originally read it too, but in fact, they will put them in the mail to student’s home address on 2/10/2020. The notices to schools were mailed either 2/3 or 2/4, when originally I thought it read that they would be mailed so that schools would recieve them on 2/3.
If I recall correctly, the wording was something along the lines of students would be notified at their home addresses on 2/10. I thought that meant that the notifications would be in the mail before that and we would receive them on the 10th. After reading through all of this and last year’s thread, and seeing the press release dated 2/4 stating that notices were mailed to schools that day, I now understand that NMSC will mail the notices on 2/10, not we will receive them on 2/10.
It says on the site that on feb 10 Nmsc will notify finalists at their home address. It says on feb 3 that nmsc will Mail a certificate to the school. It doesn’t say mail on feb 10
The wait is so frustrating!
Just hang in there ~ 1 more week! Yes, the wait is frustrating, but should be worth it in the end.
Daughter just texted me and said nothing from her principal/guidance counselor. We are in the Milwaukee area, WI. Don’t know if school received notification or not yet…
You can hope, but that’s not how it has happened in the past. (“I do not think those words mean what you think they mean.” To misquote Inigo Montoya.) And I believe NMSC uses bulk mail, so yes, very slow!
@murphyce I believe U of Alabama offers 5 yrs of tuition, 4 yrs of housing, a $3,500/yr stipend for 4 yrs, a $500/yr book scholarship for 4 yrs, and they allow you to stack other scholarships up to full COA. https://scholarships.ua.edu/freshman/nationalscholars/ So possibly more apples to apples? (Or apples to apple pie with whipped cream?)
Congrats @Libby1901!
Nothing today in North Idaho (homeschooler.) 
@Reebtoor I looked into U of Alabama when I found a site that listed schools and what they offered to NMF students. We got information from them but when it came down to narrowing down where to visit, daughter said she wasn’t interested. So, I’m sure there are schools out there with better offers than U of Oklahoma, I’m just not familiar with all of them. I was really only addressing a few pages back where there was a discussion about whether or not OU was full ride (it’s not, I know that) and the fact that UTD was. So, while it’s true that UTD is full ride, it appears to be limited to 4 years while OU (which is not a full ride) offers up to 5 years. Again, I really liked UTD but my daughter didn’t. I think it mostly comes down to she has a friend or two that she’ll know at OU. It may also be related to ROTC…I think she wants to enroll in ROTC and OU has their own programs while UTD doesn’t but has partner agreements with other universities that have ROTC programs.
A full-ride is COA, which includes room/board, fees, travel, etc. OU is not true COA, but looks to be full tuition “plus”. For an undergraduate degree, UTD is a full ride. Now, when you add a Masters in 5 years into the equation, the apples to apples comparison changes. The question now becomes: how much over the 5 years at OU would one pay for housing and other things their scholarship doesn’t cover compared to the cost of a 5th year at UTD?
Another variable is if your student wants to study abroad, which UTD provides up to an additional $6k, which is very generous.
@murphyce read the OU information very carefully, that 5th year only covers “tuition” it does not cover any of the crazy fees, there is no additional money to off set the fees or living expenses that 5th year as there are the first 4 year. Yes, it’s better than nothing but that 5th year is much more expensive than earlier years. Also those fees increase each year and the scholarship does not.
My oldest is NM and went to OU for Meteorology and it was a good fit for her so I’m not saying to rule it out just be very aware.
Middle son and youngest (both National Merit) are attending/will be attending UTD. While dorm fees and meal plans do increase each year the scholarship always covers full tuition and FEES no matter the increase.
DS just met with his advisers and they approved his graduation plan, because of this AP and DE credits, with Fast Track he will be able to graduate in the 8 semesters covered by the scholarship.
After this semester (his 4th semester) he’ll only have 10 credit hours left in his undergrad degree plan and 6 of those can be double dipped with fast track. He also double checked the masters degree calculations: 33 hours required in the degree plan 6 from fast track = 27 hours left for semesters 6,7,8. that works out to 9 credit hours per semester, the recommended course load for graduate students.
So for him UTD was a full ride for both undergrad and grad school!
@BMC9670 and @3scoutsmom I’m not knocking UTD or touting OU over UTD. As I said, I was very impressed with UTD when we visited and kind of wish my daughter was more interested in it than what she is. It boils down to OU is a better fit for my daughter so if it costs me a little more in the long run, that’s ok with me. Because of NMF, it’s still costing me a whole let less than what it could’ve.
I think the bottom line is don’t necessarily take what the school says, or what you think you heard them say, for granted…do your own research. Just as in all things in life, some things will work better for some, while others will work better for others.
@BMC9670 I’m new to this forum, other than reading some things last year when I was looking for which schools offered good scholarships for NMF. I don’t know what COA stands for. Cost of attendance?
Congratulations to everyone for making it this far…and hanging on this long 
Almost there! It seems from past years that the letters (first to the schools then to the students a week later) take about one week on average from when they were mailed until they are received. So I am anticipating most schools will get them on Monday or Tuesday and most students will receive a letter at their homes a week or so after that. Keep in mind that many schools do NOT notify students when they receive the letter, unfortunately. Our school, for example, considers it confidential and does not tell the students when the certificates come in. They save the certificates for the Senior Award Night in May.
Wow! I spoke too soon about daughter not getting any information about NMF today. Daughter just found out in the last hour or so that she made NMF through school twitter page. All is GOOD! I guess she will get her certificate sometime next week. Again, we are in Wisconsin.
@drxxpresso oh yes I know your school;-) As I’m pretty sure you know the school my kids go to;-) The GCs there make me nuts! They push kids to apply to the most selective school. They could not understand why my kids weren’t applying to most prestigious schools. I finally asked one if she was planning to pay for my kiddos to attend those schools . She said they could get merit scholarships - sorry no those schools don’t have merit scholarships. Then she said that GCs wren’t allowed to discuss finances only to refer parents to FAFSA.
To be fair this isn’t a district with too many doughnut hole families it’s rather affluent and prestige is a big deal to many parents not to mention the realtors that talk about the great colleges kids that graduate from this district get into.
My middle son did a lot to educate other students about National Merit and UTD as no one could believe he turned down UT Austin to go to UTD. I see more kids going to Alabama, UTD and UCF then in past years but UTD Austin and Texas AM are were the vast majority go.
I’ll pm you the data of college applications, acceptances and where the student enrolled - unfortunately it isn’t broken out but NM
Also, in case this helps anyone, regarding NMF or NMSF financial awards, it seems several of the schools are still accepting applications. Some are full COA, some full tuition, some partial tuition, etc., but they are all offering a large award for this accomplishment. And I think sometimes you have to apply to see how much they will offer in the end as they bundle different awards. Recent letters we have received: Arizona State University, University of Oklahoma, and University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Other ones we received not too long ago but not sure if they are still open: Washington State University and University of Arizona.
One website to work off of to call and/or research what is still open is: https://www.collegekickstart.com/blog/item/colleges-with-great-scholarships-for-national-merit-finalists
Wishing all the students much success!