You appear to not be aware of the larger scholarships offered by various schools around the country for NMF. It’s a little late now because many deadlines have passed, but if you are interested in a specific school/major, perhaps we could point you in the right direction?
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Still waiting in NC. 
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Just to give you some examples, last year, my D20 got the following offers in connection with NMSC: full cost of attendance at both UF and FSU; full tuition at Fordham; half tuition at USC; and nearly full coa at U Alabama. This year, my D21 will choose between a little over full tuition at TAMU (with an extra stacked scholarship); full coa at UT Dallas and UCF; and half tuition if accepted to USC.
Many other schools offer great scholarships - u of Arizona and ASU both offer at least full tuition. BU offers a big scholarship (about 1/2 tuition?). The list goes on.
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I see you’ve been accepted to Northeastern. I’m not sure what their scholarship is, but I think it’s a significant one – have you contacted them to find out? Any small $1-2k scholarship offered through NMSC may stack with it, but that’s something you need to talk to the school about.
eta: You need to designate NE as first choice by April 1, fyi.
I was accepted to University of Miami, and I vaguely recall reading somewhere that in the past the Benacquisto has been offered to those who choose the University of Miami as a first choice, only because its private you are instead offered up to the COA at a state school (which I remember reading is somewhere around 20k/year?). I have no idea if this was ever true, or if something changed in recent years, or its still the case.
On the website, they say
“National Merit finalists who are accepted, enroll, and then name the University of Miami as their first choice may receive a $1,000 or $2,000 college-sponsored National Merit Award”
However, on the official Benacquisto 2020-21 form, University of Miami is still listed as one of the sponsored colleges along with all the other publics, which is why I am hoping that I may still receive substantially more than that 2k/year. For instance, is the website accounting for UM gives you, but not what the government gives you (as I believe the Benacquisto is government-run scholarship?)
The website seems clear so this is probably just wishful thinking, but without a substantial scholarship from NM, I definitely won’t attend for financial reasons. Although I’ll probably end up emailing them, I would really appreciate any input here. Thanks.
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Yes, at UMiami, you receive the Benacquisto plus the $2k college sponsored National Merit award! You are correct that the Benacquisto is the amount equivalent to the full COA for a Florida public college, so it does not cover full coa for UMiami. However, if you receive another scholarship from UMiami, I have read that those stack with the Benacquisto. You need to contact the school to discuss this.
The $2K college sponsored NMSC award is a separate award, and is the one which makes you a NM Scholar, as opposed to just a NM Finalist. The Benacquisto is awarded over and above that amount and I believe it stacks at UMiami. Again, these are details you need to verify with the school as far as stacking. Also, make sure you designate them as first choice by the deadline, whatever that is for UMiami.
Congratulations!
eta: I am operating under the assumption that the $2k award is the one for UMiami because you mentioned it – I do not know for sure if that is the actual award or not. My daughter at FSU receives $500 per year.
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That’s awesome, thanks for letting me know! If they let this stack with my presidential scholarship it seems like it will come out to just about full tuition, which is incredible!
On a side note I wonder why they don’t mention the state COA on the website, as it makes quite a big difference to prospective applicants. Maybe they don’t care about the number of NMFs attending and they have other things to be proud of
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You should definitely call them to verify about the stacking, but I could swear I’ve read here that it will. Maybe do a search of past threads to see what you come up with. Good luck!!
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Thanks @amsunshine - still having discussions over here. I could not control myself and called the HS and they confirmed he is a finalist. I just can’t see picking BU over Purdue or even Texas A&M if he plans on starting off in engineering. He is still not 100% that he wants engineering, and so we want to make certain that the college he attends has strong programs in math, physics, computer science, etc.
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What does Purdue offer for NMS? TAMU’s package for NMS is really awesome and would be hard for us to pass up if it weren’t for the fact that my D21 seems more drawn to a couple of her other schools. We will see.
@culbreath - WOW! I had no idea about that trip. I guess it’s doubtful that it would take place this year too.
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if i get nmf, I will definitely choose university of florida over purdue. i feel like for engineering, the experiences I have in college through clubs and internships matter more than the college prestige. even still UF is a pretty good school anyways.
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I should call and find out if they’ve decided about the 2021 trip. I think if it were going to be cancelled they would have announced that. If I learn anything I’ll share. Truly, it’s an amazing experience and I hope they can make it happen this year.
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@amsunshine $500! But, my son did get an academic scholarship from Purdue. So, there should not be a huge difference in cost between Purdue and TAMU for us. I presume that even if he gets accepted to UofM, Georgia Tech, Northwestern or Cornell that he will not get any merit awarded. So that only leaves Virginia Tech as a potential reasonable option if he gets accepted and possibly BU if their merit is granted to him.
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@culbreath - I think I read in the FAQ that students are sent an invitation to apply. So either we did not get one or they have not sent them.
Good deal! and Good Luck! 
Our school’s Principal is not so generous, but luckily they received the information on 9th and sent us a mail on the same day.
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I agree with @amsunshine. Being a finalist can open doors for other scholarships that aren’t officially through the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (depending on the college). My son will get $42,000 from Texas A&M for being a finalist and they’re otherwise known for being stingy with scholarships, so this is an incredible honor and blessing. And it IS prestigious because of the the tiny percentage of testers who earn the recognition.
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FYI, some principals may be ignorant of this process, especially if your school doesn’t have semifinalists/finalists every year. Our school has not had one in several years, so our principal was unfamiliar with the process. They didn’t know to expect a letter and they held onto it for a couple days when it arrived. Meanwhile, I’m trawling multiple forums and checking USPS Informed Delivery every day! Don’t be afraid to kindly nudge the school along, especially if we’re more informed than they are!
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Agreed! In our case, the school knew to be looking for the letter, but with how slow they’ve been this year, our principal didn’t realize that NM would take a call… once I explained others had done that, she was happy to pick up the phone. It doesn’t hurt to call and see what you can find out.
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Same thing here; even though our HS has many NMFs every year… usually around 15-18, the principal wasn’t aware that he could call to get confirmation.
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