@OH2020MOM - can confirm, your student will receive an email from NMSC when the #1 - UTD - accepts them as NMF scholar. The student does to the website and accepts the NMSC portion of the scholarship. At that point, your student is a National Merit Scholar. I have twins who are both NMF. One went to Notre Dame. They do not participate in the NMSC program, so he is still “just” NMF. The other went to Arizona State. They have a 100% tuition for NMF program. Once my son accepted it, he was considered a National Merit Scholar. Hope this helps.
As long as she has indicated the first choice in her NM portal, and the college is a sponsor, she should receive the email from National Merit asking her to accept or decline the college sponsored scholarship. If she has not received that yet – give National Merit a call to verify that your D is good to go. They are not answering phones right now, but they do return messages fairly promptly and they are super kind and helpful.
We were in the same boat. My son never received anything via snail mail and never received an email. We luckily happened to check his OSA account a couple days before he was to accept or decline the offer. Very strange.
My son just got an email from NMSC saying his school sponsored scholarship was cancelled because he did not log on and confirm. He sent an email to them now. Did anyone else have this happen? He has been on top of everything so far that I’d hate to have him lose it now!
I hate that there is no communication from them on how any of this works! Finding out from other people only because you are asking the right questions is not how it should be! My daughter received her FA package which included a NMF college sponsored amount several weeks ago and still has not received something from NMSC about it. Until I saw the comments above, I never would’ve even known that there was something she had to “accept” from NMSC as it is the school giving her the money. Hopefully they will make it right for your son!
The granting of their money is so convoluted I cant even figure it out and i have a Masters. Ihope they make it right and grant you the money @Rabbitrunner
We did get this figured out and his scholarship is still good. NMSC team was great at helping us when we reached out to them. Thanks for the replies
That’s so great – happy for you that all ends well!
Really happy that they were helpful. I don’t know why things need to be so convoluted and confusing with NMSC.
Navigating Money Such Confusion. Who else has a funny play on the acronym?
No market pressure. Hence no incentive to improve.
Hi all- Please help me figure this out. My daughter will be going to Oregon State. Because she was a national merit finalist, she was awarded the following:
"National Merit Scholarship
OSU collaborates with the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) to award merit-based scholarships. Students selected as National Merit Finalists who list OSU as their first-choice school on the NMSC application will receive scholarship support totaling at least $2,000 per year for up to four years total. This support may include a scholarship award from the NMSC, a scholarship award from OSU, or both."
This scholarship recently showed up in her awards at OSU. I wrote NMSC to find out if she is now considered a national merit scholar. They wrote back:
National Merit Scholarship Corporation does have College-Sponsored Scholarships; however, you are not listed as being offered an award through NMSC. We recommend you contact your financial aid department directly for details pertaining to the award.
So- is she is a naitonal merit scholar? Or does she have to do something or does OSU have to do something to be considered a national merit scholar?
Thanks for your help!
This is something you need to clarify with NMSC and/or OSU. Did your daughter list OSU as her first choice within the allotted time frame and then did she respond to the email from NMSC offering her the college sponsored scholarship indicating her acceptance? That would have all had to have happened before the deadline at the latest on June 1. If this is a different scholarship, then it would not confer scholar status as the response you got from NMSC suggests.
@hm1101 - this is always the annual “debate”. Personally, I would consider her a NMS. AS the previous poster said, contact both organizations to get the straight info. My contact with NMSC was very positive. I would start with them.
@hm1101 My daughter’s counselor forwarded their email mid June:
[My daughter’s name] is being offered a college-sponsored Merit Scholarship® award for use at the institution that is financing it. The name of the Scholarship the student is being offered is the National Merit [college name] Scholarship. Pursuant to an Agreement with National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC), this Scholarship is sponsored by [college name]. We are emailing this notification to you in the interest of expediting this important notification to your high school. If you are not the principal, we ask that you share this information with that individual.
Certificates for college-sponsored Merit Scholarship winners will be sent to sponsoring institutions for transmittal to students who accept their college-sponsored awards.
I also got a letter in the mail from NMSC yesterday (7/6) regarding “Your College Sponsord Scholarship” and it said "the seven-digit number shown above is your NMSC Scholar identification number. So NMSC is referring her as a scholar and is sending the certificate.
I was hoping that anyone on this list who’s child received the NM $2500 scholarship straight from NM could let the list know when their school actually gets the money. The NM site says they mail the checks in September.
Wow, that is really late. Why does NMSC seem to run in slow motion?
@lkg4answers Just when you think they run in slow motion all the time, NMSC just published all the state cutoff scores for class of 2021. I’m not sure if this is a mistake on their part or not. But maybe they are speeding up how they do things a little:
https://www.nationalmerit.org/s/1758/interior.aspx?sid=1758&gid=2&pgid=1228&sparam=2021&scontid=0
Thanks @amsunshine Wow, that’s a first, isn’t it?
Anybody know when the NMSC send the checks for national merit scholars. Do they send directly to the colleges?