Definitely call the FA office tomorrow.
I have NEU as my first choice school as of now. Will call them tomorrow. Thanks!
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Thanks!
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Ok thanks. This is helpful. My son got the $2500 scholarship. It sounds like there is no reason to not accept it, even if he gets into USC.
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Copy/pasting for those considering Florida schools: If you have or are a Benacquisto scholar (present, prospective, past) PLEASE GO TO Initially called the “National... - Protect Bright Futures | Facebook and comment directly on that post regarding the impact of the Benacquisto Scholarship.
This is to create a central list of comments in ONE place to share with legislators and media!
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Does the NMSC coordinate the announcement/communication to students with colleges that sponsor scholarships? Several schools haven’t announced admission decisions and we strategically designated one as our National Merit #1 to be eligible for that school’s award if admitted. For example would NMSC notify him of a $2500 award if the college was going to admit him next week and offer its NM scholarship?
The $2500 awards were sent out yesterday by email, and portals were updated. They are awarded independent of the college sponsored scholarships. There is not really any beneficial strategy to designate a #1 college early unless that college is one of the rare early designation colleges, such as BU, BC or, I believe, NEU. Most colleges require designation by April 30 or May 31. Does that answer your questions?
Thank you. My understanding is that you can’t receive a “double” award, meaning that the $2500 would be rescinded if your received a college-or corporate-sponsored award. My question is whether there is coordination between NMSC and the college to the degree that NMSC would not grant a $2500 award because it knows that a college-based award is forthcoming.
No, there is absolutely no coordination between NMSC and the colleges with regard to the college sponsored awards.
However, there is a distinction between the small, college-sponsored awards administered through NMSC, and the larger awards given by colleges for NM applicants which are independent of NMSC. What school(s) is/are your son/daughter considering?
Vanderbilt.
I’m not as familiar with Vanderbilt’s policies, but it looks like Vanderbilt will supplement any corporate or NM scholarship up to $5000 per year, depending on whether your child gets any Vanderbilt merit scholarships. They aren’t clear as to what portion of that $5k is the college sponsored scholarship administered through NMSC. In any event, it looks like it doesn’t matter whether your child receives the $2500 award or not. The award from Vanderbilt will be either $2000 or $5000 per year, total (which is more than the one-time $2500 amount). Nice!
Thanks for taking a look. I agree that the scholarship is generous coming from a college that is in the highly competitive range. Looks like there are no tea leaves to be read based upon the NMSC awards. I’m trying to keep everyone away from the portals as much as possible until there are real outcomes to be read.
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Best of luck!!
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My dd received the $2500 merit scholarship. However, my company is one of the sponsoring corporates and provides better award that can be renewed each year. I was told the winners haven’t decided yet and she’s currently one of the candidates. My question is if accepting the $2500 award will take her out of the running for the corporate supported scholarship. Since she can’t get both awards, does she need to do anything or NM will automatically consider the situation and possibly give the better award to her if she wins the corporate sponsored scholarship too? Thanks.
That is a situation I’ve not heard of before. If I were you, I would contact NMSC asap. The corporate scholarships have already been sent out, so I’m puzzled as to how there can be a straggler. Can they give a valid scholarship after those notifications went out already? Will the company announce the winners before the deadline to accept or decline the NMSC scholarship? It would certainly be a bummer for your D to decline the NMSC award, and then not get the corporate award. Definitely call NMSC to explain the situation and ask about your options.
Thanks for the suggestion. I just got off the call to a NM representative. I was told if she receives the corporate scholarship (could be in a week or two), she will be receiving a notification that the $2500 award will be replaced by the corporate one. Looks like we don’t need to worry about it 
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That’s awesome!
In the same boat here. I know everyone is saying it doesn’t matter, but then why would anyone decline the scholarship?
No one should decline the scholarship. If you scroll up and read the response post of @lkg4answers, you will see that, at USC, if one declines the NMSC $2500 scholarship, that individual will not receive the $1K per year stipend from USC that makes him/her a scholar. He/she may still receive the half tuition for NMF, but he/she will not progress to scholar or get that additional stipend.
Thanks. The option to reject the scholarship and the short time frame is odd, especially as we’re on spring break here. Hope nobody misses it! My son was admitted to USC so should get the half tuition if he decides to go. I believe only one school he’s waiting on does anything with NM, and he’ll have that information before then.