I believe because you can only take it once, and everyone takes it at the same time. I also imagine you have much less prep for most kids that take the exam, versus the SAT. Then you still have to get a confirming score on the actual SAT and have the grades. I actually think it’s pretty well structured. If you luck out on the PSAT and can’t get a good score on SAT, or if your grades aren’t solid you don’t make it to finalist stage.
2 Likes
It’s there, but the finalist letter says he’s undecided. Hmmm
Edit: I just noticed the date they listed (Jan 12th). He made the change shortly after that date.
1 Like
Counselor just gave my daughter a letter that she is a finalist! We are all the way in Alaska so everyone else should have received their letters by now😂
1 Like
Our school never bothered notifying students and at this point it’s reasonable to conclude they will not, so it’s good that the NMSC directly provided the letters to the students. The school even sends out regular emails from the principal with congrats to kids for any sports win, etc. They have a Google form to suggest announcements so I filled it out and they didn’t even bother to reply, let alone announce it. It’s very clear they want absolutely nothing to do with promoting National Merit. My guess is that directive come from the school district superintendent who made an unsuccessful push a year ago to drop all advance math courses and APs because they weren’t equitable, and she probably considers this another example of part of the problem, to be shunned rather than celebrated…
1 Like
Same at our school. We had 3 NMSF- not a mention in the newsletter, nothing…but they have congratulations extended for sports, art, counselors week…I don’t get it at all. I also messaged our school about it, with no reply.
2 Likes
I’m reading on here about several schools who downplay the award. I would be very concerned that these are the same people writing the letter of recommendation for your child. Hopefully they put a little more effort into that part of the process.
4 Likes
I was nosy and logged into the portal and saw my kid’s finalist letter. 
School will not be notifying him apparently (they took a longggg time to get around to letting him know about NMSF 
), so I’ll wait for my kid to get his mail in the next few days.
I’m so happy for him! I honestly didn’t think his GPA was up to snuff considering what I’ve read/heard from others, but here we are! 
4 Likes
That’s certainly a possibility. But absolutely nothing to be done about it, especially now.
Does anyone here know what Northeastern awards for NMSF? And is this mostly guaranteed or does the school only offer the award to a fraction of its NMSF? They seem to have changed their strategy dramatically as admission rates plummeted in the past couple of years.
(Sorry if this has been addressed previously; I’m not sure how to search a discussion thread by keyword.)
1 Like
Kid is a finalist—hooray! But, he’s not attending a college that awards a NMF scholarship. The $2500 award would be nice. Will he be automatically considered or does need to apply? Congratulations to all the other finalists!
2 Likes
I don’t have first-hand experience, but this is what I understood from reading the Northeastern threads. It doesn’t seem great, so I hope I misunderstood.
Last year kids who were NMF got about $5000 on top of whatever merit they had been previously awarded. However, if they previously qualified for financial aid, their financial aid award was reduced by whatever amount of additional merit they were given. 
1 Like
He is automatically considered and will be notified. 
1 Like
Perfect. Thanks for the info!
Happened to find this on a sporting website reference scholarships:
Undergrad - minimize debt (preferably zero) with the best mix of school experience and school reputation for grad school.
Grad school - get into the best school you can as long as the debt will be manageable with the chosen career path.
Kids from middle class families with good grades and SAT can be wise to downgrade the undergrad school choice so they can maximize scholarships and stay out of debt.
2 Likes
Thanks for a very useful thread. My apologies if below question been answered already as I might have missed that in my quick scroll.
Question: It seems that NMSC will provide only 3 type of awards and the winner will be considered only for one ($2500 or corporate or sponsoring college). My question is who decides that? Is it at NMSC discretion or is there a form where student can provide his or her preference.
I am asking this because my employer takes part in corporate sponsorship, the college my son is applying also provides scholarship. The amounts differ significantly so is there a way to say I am not interested in corporate but only college scholarship?
1 Like
My daughters both got the corporate $2500 scholarship from National Merit and then the full ride offers from their respective colleges for putting them as first choice. If you have questions or concerns about how at works, the people at National Merit are incredibly friendly, patient, helpful, and very easy to get on the phone. A real human answers when you call their number and transfers you to the correct person!
1 Like
I think you need to talk to the school. Son is at Alabama and rec’d the $2500 NMSC freshman year. UA reduced their portion by $2500 that first year - so all students were getting the same amount. Just different sources for the money.
1 Like
@brokemom23 congratulations to your son. My S24 is likely to qualify as a semi finalist based on last year’s CA cut offs. What portal are you referring to ? Is there is a separate national merit portal and is that accessible only after the semi finalists are announced (which I assume will be October 2023 for all 2024 applicants)
One good reason academics are not mentioned or hyped in schools is due to FERPA laws. These are federal laws that place severe restrictions on the discussion of student academics. What qualifies as academics is not always clear - grades, obviously, but achievements such as NMF? Hard to say. It does give information on a student’s test scores (i.e. they obviously scored at or above the minimum qualifying score) but that could be construed as academic information. Each school will handle that differently. Remember tho that a breach of FERPA is a FEDERAL CRIME - no joke and while I doubt someone will go to prison over it, they will undoubtably lose their job. I imagine many schools just err on the side of over caution, particularly given today’s overly litigious society.
No such laws apply to sports.
1 Like
The NMSC literally puts out press releases with the names of all the semifinalists so they must have determined it doesn’t trigger a privacy violation. Some people only find out they qualified from these media articles since they don’t contact students directly and some schools never pass on their letters. Also, privacy wouldn’t explain why the same schools refusing to acknowledge the achievement are sometimes also the ones who never give student their letters, even privately. There is definitely an overt hostility to this accomplishment (and likely more broadly standardized tests in general) among some school administrators.
8 Likes