Same here in Houston. Finally broke down and called principal, today. And finally received letter in mailbox this afternoon. Whoever said this is a marathon not a sprint was correct!
my son was the only one and he got so much attention for being a semi finalist but just a little blurb I. The announcements for being a finalist
Thanks @Reebtoor. Will talk to NMSC
Where does Fordham say there is a march 1 deadline to nominate it as number one? We don’t want to miss anything.
Fordham does not say that.
So I read through this again and I think I am still missing something about NMS. I apologize in advance for the questions.
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I saw it written that you want to be a NMS if possible. Is there a reason beyond the $2500 scholarship?
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If you put down a first choice school, are you then not able to be a NMS, because the paper states one award per student?
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How are the NMS decided? Is it just off SAT scores etc?
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If you are a scholar, I saw it mentioned not to refuse the scholarship that the schools like UTD and UCF will make up the difference but how do they know to do that if you haven’t listed them as the first choice as stated?
Thank you!
I’m confused by your questions 1 and 2, but I think I can try to answer 3 and 4.
- Nobody knows how the $2500 awardees are selected exactly. The materials say a committee including college admissions officers and high school counselors choose the recipients without regard to things like major and college choice. Beyond that, I’m guessing it’s ”holistic”, or what I think is better termed as “mysterious”. :wink:
- Your kid will still be able to designate a school, even if he or she receives the $2500 scholarship.
@mm5678, when you mentioned USC in your question about competitive awards, did you mean USC as in Trojans, as opposed to Gamecocks?
NMF awards by USC, as in Trojans, are not competitive, according to their rep.
Thank you @amsunshine. That helps. I might be confused in the first two questions which is why they don’t make sense. To be designated a NMS you would have to be one of the $2500 award recipients and not the college sponsored one, correct? If that’s the case I am wondering why the $2500 would be better because it seems the college sponsored are worth so much more? Unless you are applying to a school without a NMF offer. So if you are applying to a school with the college offer, why wait for the NMSC award. I think that’s where I’m confused. Unless I am missing something about being designated NMS vs NMF? I admit I’m confused about a lot of this though and I’m probably not making sense. I just read the NMF letter again and I just can’t make heads or tails of it. Thank you for putting up with me!
@2tiredmomma Your kid can be named an NMS by receipt of any one of the corporate, NMSC or sponsor college scholarships.
@robNNN I was referring to CA. For some reason I thought their NMF scholarship was competitive but I don’t see that in the website. I likely confused the half tuition (NMF) award with the full tuition (competitive) award.
Ahh! Thank you! That makes more sense. I knew I had to be missing something!!
Good morning,
This process is confusing to me too. Can I have some feedback as to what I should do about nominating a first choice NMF college? Or even if we should? As for now we have none named as first choice. My question is should we designate Fordham as the first choice?
Here are the colleges that she applied to; Fordham, a couple of Ivy League’s, a state school, a handful of liberal arts colleges. FYI (as you probably know) the Ivy leagues, and state school and liberal arts colleges offer no prize for national merit finalists.
The only big ticket prize of full tuition for nmf is offered by Fordham. If she gets that Fordham tuition gift it may be the one that she would attend. However she may forgo that gift and attend an Ivy League college. Or she may attend a liberal arts college if they give her a significant award that has nothing to do with being a nmf. We have to wait til all the acceptances and offers to come in to see what are the final prices.
Given this info, what should we do with designating? Keep it undecided or designate fordham?
Thanks
It is competitive to get into USC but if a NMF is accepted, they automatically get at least the NM 50% tuition scholarship. They have to list USC as their first choice before May 31. In some cases, a student may be accepted into USC and be awarded different scholarships (Presidential, Trustee, Mork, etc.) which are equal to or more than the NMF scholarship but the two do not stack.
@silverpurple. From what you said, it sounds like Fordham is the only school that she applied to offers anything for NMF. If that is the case, then there is no need to wait to designate her first choice school. The reason you want to wait to designate first choice is when there are more than one that will offer $ for NMF and you don’t know which school you want to attend yet.
The NMSC people who answer the phones are very helpful.
I phoned and asked how and when the $2500 scholarship recipients were selected. I was told that they were already selected and the students will be notified in March. The person I spoke to said that selecting a school with a NM scholarship does not impact whether you are awarded the $2500 from NMSC. It is the school who selects whether to reduce what they give you or allow you to stack the scholarships. I did not ask about NMSC scholarships from employers and corporations.
I am also curious if there are perks other than the money (and title) that come with being a NM Scholar.
@silverpurple Make sure you are certain about what each of the schools offers for NMF. If any of them offers a small sponsor scholarship, such as $1000/yr,and she chooses that school, you don’t want her to miss out on that. Also, she hasn’t been offered the scholarship at Fordham yet so there is no rush. Make certain - sometimes colleges offer something that isn’t obvious on their website.
Good point @amsunshine . I will call all the colleges next week.
@lkg4answers
MY DS was BOTH a Trustee scholar AND a NM scholar and as such received $1000 per year from NMSF ,in addition to USC’s full tuition scholarship Trustee scholarship.
Obviously, he would not receive both a 1/2 tuition scholarship[ which USC pays to NM’S] AND a full tuition scholarship from USC. But the NM $$ helped pay for books, fees, parking on campus, etc.
@menloparkmom interesting. I thought the NMSC scholarship was a one time $2500. Was your scholarship for NM through a corporation?