If I can add to amsunshine’s detailed response, FSU has changed a lot. Florida is pouring money into FSU, UF and its other publics; seeking to eventually emulate the UC system. The quality of student attending FSU has risen. Sure you can always find a party. But you can also find your serious students. The honors dorm is great for finding your crowd. My NMF OOS son has been challenged at FSU and formed a tight friend group of extremely talented, ambitious fellow students.
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The comments of you and @amsunshine are very helpful. I hope my son’s application is not too late.
S21 has applied to USC, so he will get half off tuition IF he gets in. He’s also applied to a few other schools that potentially have small NMF scholarships (occidental, pomona, etc) . So far he hasn’t designated a school. It is my understanding that we should wait to see where he gets in and then designate a school after he decides where he’s going. Is that correct?
Btw I’ve read through the replies and I’m still a bit confused and concerned that I’ve misunderstood something! Lol
Yes, your son should wait to designate a first choice until after he gets all of his acceptances and then decides where he is going. NMSC has a drop dead designation date of May 31, but typically your kid will decide by the end of April (just before the commitment deposit date), and will designate by April 30.
The only exception to this rule of thumb is in a case where a college to which your son applied requires an earlier designation date than April 30 or May 31. This is somewhat rare, but as discussed above, it does happen. So check with all relevant colleges to verify when they require a first choice designation to be certain about this.
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@amsunshine, thank you for clarifying!
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I have tried to read thru this whole thread and keep the info straight, but yet I still have a question. 
Does anyone know if there are any corporate scholarships tied to Ga Tech? I understand that Ga Tech does not sponsor National Merit anymore, but if my son is admitted and will attend, do we list as first choice in case there is a opportunity through a corporate scholarship? Sorry if this has been explained already and thank you!
Corporate scholarships are typically awarded to children of their employees. If awarded one, it can be used at any university the student attends (it follows the student). You can check with your employer to see if they are a sponsor, and the list of sponsoring corporations is also available at the NMSC website. An application may be required and the deadlines may have passed (my employer’s deadline was last Spring, before students were even notified of semifinalist status).
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What @Culbreath stated, above, is 100% accurate.
I just wanted to add: I’ve looked at the GA Tech webpage because my D21 has applied, and I totally understand your confusion! They are not super clear. National Merit and National Achievement Scholarships | Office of Scholarships & Financial Aid (gatech.edu)
If your kid is awarded either a corporate scholarship, or one of the NMSC $2500 scholarships, designating GA Tech as first choice will only serve to make sure that GA Tech ultimately receives those scholarship funds from NMSC if your kid attends. There is no benefit to designating GA Tech as first choice prior to receiving a decision from GA Tech.
NMSC will send out notifications of corporate sponsor scholarships on March 10 and notifications of NMSC $2500 awards on March 25. The good thing about these notifications is that they will appear in your kid’s NMSC portal, in addition to being mailed out. So, you should know if your kid receives one of these awards by the end of March, which should coincide with most college decision dates, including GA Tech.
I hope all that makes sense!
This does make sense…and thank you for noting that it is confusing on the Ga Tech website! It all may be a mute point as he was deferred and he may not get in, but at least I know we don’t need to designate right now.
I appreciate everyone’s kindness on this forum. This is my first kid, so I have definitely have had a learning curve – and this forun has helped a ton.
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We should create a list of sponsoring colleges that require a first-choice designation before May 1. My son wanted to stay in the Northeast, so I only know of BU (March 1) and NEU (April 1). The other issue is that many colleges have a merit award deadline for admissions that is earlier than their regular deadline. My son applied to UMaine by the 12/1 deadline, but we missed others since I hadn’t even heard of EA and expected all RD deadlines were around 1/1.
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Boston College deadline is March 1. Undergraduate Financial Aid: Frequently Asked Questions - Office of Student Services - Boston College (bc.edu)
From the FAQ:
Boston College-sponsored National Merit awards are determined each year from rosters of finalists who have selected Boston College as their first choice institution. The award, in the amount of $1,000, is awarded to seven students each year. Boston College selects eligible students from the first National Merit Scholarship roster only, which is generally received in early March. Students whose names appear on subsequent rosters are not considered. Boston College-sponsored National Merit Scholarships are renewable.
When you say “merit award deadline”, are you talking about NM awards, or just the regular merit awards not associated with NM?
Not sure if you are looking to split hairs on your list :), but University of Oklahoma is April 30 - before May 1 but just barely! I was just putting together a spreadsheet for my NMF daughter. She’s applying to audition-based music and acting programs and artistic decisions tend to come in very late so she needs to be organized. So far, the only schools where NMF = serious money and she has both academic and artistic admission are OU and UMiami - we are OOS and had never heard of Benacquisto before she got into UMiami so I actually came on here looking for deadline and logistics info for that.
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Sorry to confuse. I mean deadlines (or priority deadlines) for merit scholarships including the extra merit money for NMF students (not the $2k/year ones). My general comment is that I was surprised to find so many early deadlines – I hadn’t realized this was the case and it’s not mentioned in our rural school. I guess not all of them are hard deadlines – for example UF’s November deadline for RD doesn’t seem to apply to NMF, based on what I read on CC.
Can you give an example? I don’t believe I know of a school that has an early app deadline for one of the bigger NM scholarships. I could be just blanking here.
(I do know UF and FSU have early RD deadlines. Apps received after that are considered on a space available basis. The Benacquisto comes from the state, not the school. So assuming acceptance after RD, it shouldn’t be a problem to get the scholarship for NMF.)
Hm, maybe I’m just basing this on our limited experience… UMaine had a 12/1 deadline for merit scholarships even though they normally have rolling admissions. And I guess the others my son applied to were normal. UMaine is new to big NM scholarships so I’m not sure how strict that deadline is.
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My S21 will be taking the test for the Computing Scholars Program in March and I was wondering if you can tell me how the test was administered online. Did they send your daughter a link on that day? Do the answers have to be typed into the test or can the student manually write then upload the answers? Thanks
I honestly don’t know how it worked other than the fact that Dr. Page emailed my D the test at an appointed time. Actually, with the time difference, it came through earlier than she was expecting it to come and she was lucky to have been awake on the morning it came through. My advice is to have him email Dr. Page with any questions, and if there is a time difference involved, make doubly certain of the time he intends to send it!
Thank you, I think he’s already confirmed that the test will be administered Texas time. I’ll tell him to email Dr Page for his other questions.
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My D took the test last month. It gets posted on the student portal. There were three questions (30 minutes each) and the answers had to be typed up.