@TxSenior , no Texas list yet :(. Its the subreddit for PSAT/NMSQT and National Merit Program. Not able to put the link here.
And again, San Jose has a huge number for NMSF. I’m not sure what is in the water there.
Just called NMC, and it’s official 
Congratulations @riverandsasha3 and to everyone else awarded NMSF status! I’m a current NMS (applied last-year,) so please feel free to reach out with any questions about the NM application! 
Edited because I thought I was replying to a specific comment. For those without official word, the essay prompt has not changed…
found the Texas list posted on the reddit link. It won’t post here but you can find it there. Also didn’t open in chrome but did in Firefox.
I’m confused after reading the “Competition Instructions” in the NMSC online scholarship application. Specifically, if DS21 selects a college as his top choice for the college-sponsored scholarship, does that mean that he’s out of the running for the NMF $2,500 scholarship? It’s very clear that you can only receive one of the three: either the NMF, a corporate, or a college sponsored scholarship. But I don’t want him to select a top choice college if that means he won’t be considered for the NMF.
In other words, he is hoping that he hears from MIT mid-December that he has been accepted EA. Then he will want to be in the running to receive the $2,500 from NMF that he can use for MIT, rather than be considered for the full tuition or full COA at ASU or UF or UCF, etc.
@sherimba03 Yes, once you receive a college-sponsored NM scholarship, you CANNOT receive a corporate or NM $2500 scholarship. NM College-sponsored scholarships tend to be processed in early Spring (around March,) but if you’re unsure if you’ll attend a NM sponsoring college or not, then either select “UNDECIDED” or list a college that does NOT offer NM scholarships (such as MIT, though idk if the college will be notified before the Spring, as IIRC only my NM scholarship award offer letter in March told me that Brown, my first-choice w/NM, had been notified of my offer.)
However, keep-in-mind that some schools (such as Boston University and College) have NM college-sponsored deadlines in early March (when the first first-choice lists are sent from NM to the sponsoring colleges,) in-order to receive their NM scholarship, so make sure to check with the admissions websites for the appropriate deadline (although for most colleges this will be May 31st, which is the final deadline with NM to change your first-choice.)
Hope that helps! Good luck with admissions!
@PikachuRocks15 I understand that once he accepts a full ride at UCF, for example, he can’t take the $2,500 from NMF. What I am asking is what can he do to ensure he is in the running for the NMF $2,500 because he considers UCF (or similar) to be a safety school.
So I think you’re suggesting he should indicate UNDECIDED for now, and then if he gets rejected EA at MIT he should change the decision to the NMF-scholarship school (like UCF, etc.). What if he gets deferred at MIT? This seems really complicated. I guess I just find it hard to believe that the only kids who are considered for the $2,500 are the ones who select UNDECIDED or a non-NMF scholarship school. Are you sure that’s the case?
Is it possible instead, that ALL semi-finalists are considered for the NMF scholarship of $2,500, and only the ones who are awarded the scholarship, and end up at a non-sponsoring college, and who do not get a corporate sponsored scholarship, actually end up receiving the $2,500?
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@sherimba03 NMSC mails out the $2500 scholarship awards toward the end of March. This past year, they mailed them out March 26. I haven’t checked to see what the date is for this year, but my guess is it will be around the same time. You and your son might want to look into this to put the date on your calendars. Assuming your S21 does not apply for any colleges which require designation by March 1, he is probably safe to stay undecided until after those awards go out.
Thanks @amsunshine and @PikachuRocks15 - it seems the safest route is to stay undecided for now. I will make sure he does that!
@sherimba03 The NMSC 2,500 $2500 scholarships IIRC are allocated much like the NMSF designations: on the basis of relative state populations (~top 1% of each state) i.e. why CA has much more NMSF than Alaska. They are intended for students not receiving a college-sponsored scholarship, which is why NMSC won’t consider students who have listed a sponsoring college before the late March date (according to @amsunshine, this is roughly when NM $2,500 award letters are sent out,) although your receipt of one doesn’t preclude you from being eligible for UCF’s full-ride Benacquisto scholarship.
However, colleges sponsoring NM scholarships will likely not offer you the $500 or $1000 per year that they offer non-corporate or NM scholars in-order to designate them as NMS from NMF and count the $2500 as part of your award (which is COA-(Bright Futures, if in-state + NM scholarship.)) There are exceptions, such as Vanderbilt, which offers $5K per year inclusive of your NM scholarship and the remaining amount comes from the school, and Tulane, where the FA office told me that they would provide me their $2K/year + $1K/year I receive from my corporate scholarship if I had attended.
I was deferred from Brown ED and left them as my first-choice school with NM: as long as the school doesn’t sponsor scholarships, NMSC’s not going to differentiate between choosing MIT vs. undecided when considering you for a corporate or NM sponsored scholarship. The only exception, again, would be if you’re applying to BU, Boston College etc. that require you to select themselves as your first choice college before the May 31st NMSC deadline.
Has your son considered the University of Florida? Their Honors program is not a guarantee by any means (13% acceptance rate,) but they also offer a University Scholars Research Program to the top applicants (IIRC by academic stats according to my acceptance email from the program.) The program essentially matches students with research opportunities with faculty, although there is no guarantee of funding from the program (but UF’s Center for Undergraduate Research DOES have multiple funding opportunities.) They are looking for students interested in research in a variety of fields, not just STEM (I applied for Public Health, and the website references the other social sciences, music etc.) You do not apply to the program (but DO apply to Honors,) and will know of your acceptance with your admissions letter in the Spring.
URSP Information: https://cur.aa.ufl.edu/about-ursp/
Hope that helps!
@PikachuRocks15 yes, UF was actually his first college obsession after he found out his PSAT SSI last fall (226, so we knew he would be an NMF). He walked around the house chanting “Gator Nation!” which was pretty funny. We were both thrilled! I had a trip all planned and purchased to visit UF, UCF, and Miami over spring break. Then on the way home we were going to stop at ASU. He wasn’t interested in Bama, UNM, UTD, or any of the other big money NMF schools.
And then two things happened: the pandemic, and football recruiting. He is “at the top of the board” (football coach talk for a strongly-supported athletic recruit) at half a dozen D3 schools, which gives him that elusive “hook” so valuable when their acceptance rates are all less than 10%. He loves the game and really, really wants to play. And I am extremely uncertain about the viability of the Benacquisto, given all that Florida’s economy is experiencing due to the pandemic.
I’m crossing my fingers the Benacquisto continues to be funded, for all the amazingly talented kids attending school in Florida, even if mine ends up going somewhere else. But really, so much can change in the coming months that I have no idea where he will ultimately end up. I’m certain he’ll have a wonderful experience no matter where he goes…assuming our country figures this whole Covid thing out by then (sigh).
@sherimba03 The Benacquisto Scholarship is absolutely amazing (although I’ve read on CC that UF has stated they will NOT support the scholarship if funding is removed, though FSU and UCF HAVE,) and I really loved UF’s environment when it came to the small class sizes and resources of Honors and URSP (which made it even harder to choose Brown over UF, although Brown had been my dream school so that definitely was a huge factor in my choice.) 
I still highly, highly recommend applying to UF, as the regular decision deadline is November 1st IIRC and decisions release in the Spring, so you can always reassess the state legislature’s funding situation then. Housing is not guaranteed, and the application is first-come, first-serve, so I recommend applying ASAP before the RD deadline in-order to have a higher chance of getting housing/a space in the housing you want (Honors has Hume Hall for freshmen.) I applied in September and once decisions released, had until April 3rd I believe to submit my housing deposit, so I had enough time to wait for the rest of my RD decisions (IIRC don’t apply too early as otherwise you’ll have to submit a housing deposit before all decisions release.)
UF’s housing website provides a good overview of the housing application process: housing.ufl.edu
UF’s Honors Admissions: www.honors.ufl.edu (will not load otherwise, for some reason.)
Is your son pre-med? If so, take a look into UCF’s Burnett Medical Scholars program, which is a BS/MD program that will allow you to apply-out and keep your spot (it doesn’t list this info on the website, but I confirmed with Honors Admissions after being admitted.)
UCF Burnet Medical Scholars: https://honors.ucf.edu/admissions/burnett-medical-scholars/
FSU has a quasi-BS/MD/pre-med mentoring program as well I think: https://honors.fsu.edu/university-honors/honors-medical-scholars-program
Hope that helps!
Hi, Is there a list of colleges that give out the smaller NM scholarships (I’m talking about colleges that give out smaller amounts ($1-5K) that makes one a scholar but not necessarily the full or half COA). They are not widely discussed and I find them by happenstance (e.g. Vanderbilt and Boston U giving some money from this thread and U Chicago giving a small amount from a NM scholar from last year). Does NMF keep such a list much like the list of companies they publish? Thanks!
I missed this before, @sherimba03, but wanted to make sure it was clear to you and anyone else reading this thread that this is absolutely not true. If your DS gets either a corporate award, or the $2500 award from NMSC, he may also accept the Benacquisto full ride from any of the Florida schools. He wouldn’t get the smaller $500 college sponsor award, however, which is separate from the Benacquisto.
Thanks! I must have overlooked this section before.
@amsunshine Some schools will allow you to accept their own sponsored award as well, but this is usually for schools with smaller awards (like Vanderbilt and Tulane.)
True, but that is not relevant to my point. I was only addressing what @sherimba03 said about UCF and the Benacquisto. It’s important to note other people may be reading this thread and making assumptions based on what is represented here. I wanted to make sure the representation about UCF/Benacquisto was clearly corrected.