"And if they say “must list XYZ school by the deadline set by National Merit” is that March 1 or the May 31 final deadline?
The May deadline is the NMF deadline when a students FINAL first choice must be chosen.
That is the only one that matters.
"What happens if you haven’t gotten into your first choice college you picked for national merit and you find out you didn’t get in. Can you then change your first choice to another college at that point? "
Yes, as long as you do so before the NMF May deadline.
“So my understanding is (and someone please correct me if I’m wrong), if your child ends up choosing a school that does not participate in the National Merit Program, he/she is not guaranteed to get an award, but could be one of the 2,500 recipients of the scholarship directly from National Merit. It is a one time $2,500 award that could be applied to an Ivy or small LAC that doesn’t participate in the National Merit program.”
Correct, but know that the $2500 awards typically go to the most outstanding NMF’s in the country. In other words, they are as hard to receive as a “yes” from Stanford"
Tradition! This is a very long running program. I love that the school is going to get to notify my son and make a big deal out of it in front of his friends. Opening an email would be anticlimactic!
@ThreeSeniors I’m glad his school makes a big deal out of it and they absolutely should. My girls are at a public school with over 800 students in their grade level and they typically have 3-5 NMSF/NMF. This year, they had 6 which is the most they’ve ever had and the highest total of the public, non-charter, HS in the county. They didn’t even announce that they had NMSF in Sept and I’m seriously doubting they will make a big deal of this next week. Now, this past week, they were proud enough to announce on Twitter that 6 senior student athletes committed to college programs - 5 different schools and the only one I’ve ever heard of was RPI.
@ThreeSeniors That sounds fun, and like what is probably anticipated by National Merit. If only all schools treated it the same way! Unfortunately, many of us didn’t have a great experience being notified about semifinalist status by our schools. I do understand that our counselors have a lot to do in big public high schools where they are short staffed and sometimes figure the high-achieving kids will make it on their own, but that makes me think initial notices should go directly to the student.
Gosh, it would be nice if D20’s school made a big deal. We have both an NMSF and an NHS this year but they aren’t likely to do anything publicly. They just decided to get rid of honor roll assemblies, so I doubt NM gets a mention at all.
Every school and every scholarship has its own set of rules. Here are some examples. Brockman scholarship (A&M) and Terry Foundation (UT) will ask you to reject all other scholarships. Brown scholarship (A&M) will allow you to stack any scholarship you receive. A&M, per its own policy, “If you qualify for more than one Academic Scholarship, our office will offer you the highest dollar-value scholarship only.”
So, you will have to contact the school and the foundation offers the scholarship to find out their specific rules.
@PPuggle My son was the only NMSF in his school, this year. No mention of it whatsoever by school or district. The principal seemed completely unaware. But there are posts and tweets about the football team (and its members) every week, even though football season is long over. Unreal.
@fansofpudge…Congrats to your son. Unfortunately, some schools/districts take education for granted and non-academic activities take precedent. Please continue to encourage him to do well in school
Are there any other homeschoolers who did NOT receive it yesterday? I am starting to worry that we somehow messed something up. There is no reason with a 4.0 and a 1590 SAT this kid should not move on but we relied on the Community college counselor to serve as the recommender. He’s not been in any trouble there so I can’t imagine what would have happened.
@jennibc Where do you live? I think so far the letters have been received in only a handful of states. More important, you haven’t received a rejection letter, and your child’s stats are excellent.
My guess would be that the letter is still in the mail. Your kid is very very likely just fine, but I understand how you feel. The entire college application process can be rather taxing on homeschooling parents, and it’s so easy to double guess yourself. At least that’s how I feel.
Hopefully, the letter will show up in your mailbox tomorrow.
@mathKids We are in Texas. I saw a homeschool parent in Oklahoma got it yesterday so that is what is worrying me. And yes, on the application process being taxing for homeschoolers. Even with over 70 dual college credits, we still face a tremendous amount of bias against us, so many colleges perceive a lack of rigor or assume that the kids have been socially isolated which is absurd.
Yes!!! This is how my child’s school is. They hype up sports but rarely hype up academics. My sons school has never had a merit scholar - it’s looking like he’s 1st ever - I’ll be upset if they do not make a big deal out of this! I cannot wait till graduation day so my child can go college and thrive!!! A bigger school in our state gets banners to hang in gym for merit scholars semi finalist and are on news. My son gets a certificate at a quicky board meeting. ??♀️
Unfortunately, many of us didn’t have a great experience being notified about semifinalist status by our schools. I do understand that our counselors have a lot to do in big public high schools where they are short staffed and sometimes figure the high-achieving kids will make it on their own, but that makes me think initial notices should go directly to the student.