@Luanne @Beyou2022 We are in the same boat - also glad there will be direct notification. Since many scholarship apps are due now/soon, it would have been nice to hear sooner from the school, but I suspect they are overwhelmed right now.
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I have a few questions about designating a first choice school. In the first instance my child designated their ED school (from which deferred), which doesnât actually give any NMF money. If they now change their âfirst choiceâ designation to a different school, would ED school find out? Although ED school gives no money, we wouldnât want them to think theyâre not still the first choice of school. Second question - if child picks a new âfirst choiceâ before March 1, would that information be seen by Admissions at that school such that they may view child as being paticularly serious about them? Or does Admissions have no idea? Third and final question - if child has a given school identified as âfirst choiceâ but then after receiving decisions, does not get into the designated school, can they change to a school to which they have been admitted? Thanks in advance for your guidance!
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Good questions. I donât think the ED school was notified yet. First notification would be in March. You could change now to undecided and no one would be notified
Before May you can change to a school that accepted your child
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Yes, Williamson County.
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My suggestion would be to change to âundecided.â I doubt the ED school (that doesnât give NM scholarships) is scouring the updated lists from NMSC for changes. Since they deferred your child, changing from that school to undecided shouldnât ruffle any feathers.
Is there a second school that does give NM scholarships that your child would likely attend if accepted?
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My son has applied to 2 schools that award money for National Merit.
He had his first choice listed but they only give a small award. His second choice awards large NM scholarships. By listing another school first I wondered if that would affect whether his second choice would admit him.
I just had him switch to undecided.
But it hadnât occurred to me that the schools could see the list of students and their choice of schools.
I am wondering if changing to undecided will reduce his chances of getting in to the first choice NM school.
I think only the first choice school gets notified. The second choice will not know if other school was listed or if he was undecided
They will know he is semifinalist
I donât believe schools are notified of choices until March 1, based on the National Merit instructions (see page 5):
It isnât clear whether schools get names of all finalists or only the ones that named that school.
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It is likely that they do, as we received pitches to apply to some schools that we have not based on semifinalist status
Alabama and Arizona among them
I meant it isnât clear if schools get the names of all finalists AND their first-choice school
You are right. Only the list. They donât get the school choice, unless they are the ones named
I believe this is on the instructions
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My son hasnât gotten anything in the mail yet other students in his school have so I assume the letters got to town. We didnât get a rejection letter either.
I suggested he go talk to his counseling office to see if they know anything, but my son doesnât want to bother them. Is there a number to call to find out?
Counselors are not helpful anymore. Thatâs the reason kids donât want to talk to them. You can imagine what kind of counselors are they if kids donât want to talk to them. My kid is also waiting for the letter. Counselors can call NMS and get the result but they donât want to do that.
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Letters to schools were mailed February 7. In our district, all mail goes to some central warehouse and it didnât wind its way to the actual principal and counselor until February 15. 
Letters to individuals were purportedly mailed February 14, but we havenât seen ours yet.
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No letter for us either
Neither for us:(
I mentioned this is another thread - I can see in our Informed Delivery a letter from NMSC. Not sure if the letters are actually mailed from Evanston, IL but we do live fairly close to Evanston.
Also I saw on Reddit (r/psat) that NMSC wonât give out info over the phone until a week after letters have been mailed out.
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I called NMSC and was told that school administrators may call to inquire about their studentâs finalist standing. However, students and parents may only do so beginning on Monday,2/21.
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It came, it came! What a relief! We got the letter in todayâs mail. I hope there are more postings of good news today!
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Principal told me the NMF letters were sent out to schools one by one instead of a whole list for a school.
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