<p>For those of you who qualify for the NMS standing, congratulations! </p>
<p>I like to hear your comments, experiences and expert advice on how to choose the "College Choice" in the NMS packet which is due in a few weeks. </p>
<p>Questions - </p>
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<p>Do you choose the most ideal college you would like to attend or do you choose a safety school?
What if you did not choose this college as "College Choice" but end up with attending, will you still get scholarship assuming you are a Merit Scholar in the end?<br>
Is there any downside of picking up a college as "College Choice" which does not offer NSM or offers very little?
Is there any other consideration while we are filling up this packet and pick the "College Choice"? </p>
<p>My son indicated that he was ‘undecided’ on the initial paperwork. I believe he found out that he could do that from something posted on the Carleton College website. You actually have until late spring to make the final choice, but if you are planning to attend a college that offers a substantial scholarship, it would be better to do it earlier - say once you find out that you are a finalist. In my son’s case, he did not name a first choice college until late March when National Merit called him to ask for it so that they could make him a scholarship offer.</p>
<p>A mistake that some people make is listing a selective college that they like, but doesn’t offer NM money (eg. Ivies), in the hope that it will impress them or show that they want to attend. Many of these schools don’t really care as a large number of their applicants are NM finalists anyway and they can tell by your scores, they don’t need to see the designation. So, definitely don’t waste your designation on a school that neither offers $$ or cares about NM.</p>
<p>I would strongly encourage you to put down “undecided” at this point, unless you are sure you already know which college you will be attending. Remember that once you have a designated a particular school as your “first choice,” then you will not appear on the list of eligible candidates for any other schools offering NM scholarships. You have until the spring to make your final determination, so there is absolutely no point to limiting yourself now. By March or April, you will know if you have been accepted to any schools that do offer a NM scholarship and you can choose which one is your “first choice” then</p>
<p>If you are not applying to any schools that offer a NM scholarship, then it’s a moot point anyway.</p>
<p>Thanks all for your replies and they are very helpful…</p>
<p>I have a few other questions related to admission and scholarship in general and hopefully dads and moms can share their experiences and lessons learnt etc…</p>
<p>Yes, in general, most public Us are rolling applications. I’m sure there are exceptions. For Michigan, their first decisions come out in early Nov. and if your application is in by Nov 1, they will give you a decision by Dec 24, still in time to submit RD admissions to other schools.</p>
<p>Scholarships for these schools are somewhat different. I know that when my D was accepted to Michigan, she found out about some scholarships immediately, but the largest one had an interview weekend in Feb and released decisions in March.</p>
<p>To my knowledge there is no disadvantage of applying to these rolling schools early as long as you don’t have to give them your decision until April. Even schools like Yale, who has SCEA, makes provisions for rolling admissions schools.</p>
<p>morninggrain–since you mention Indiana I can tell you that your student will benefit by applying early and will find out about the automatic scholarships in the acceptance package. At least they did it that way last year. Students that meet the criteria for admission to the Honors College will also be sent a package for selective scholarships and an additional application for those. Those are announced between February and March.</p>