<h1>Regading NMSF to NMF, do you know how the selection happen? When I read their website, they say in Sept, they will announce the NMSF list of 16000 top students. Then within a month they will announce NMF list of 15000. So, seems like about 1000 kids will be dropped out. How do they do that, based-on what criteria. Then these 15000 kids will apply and write essays to get selected in top 8000 list who will qualify for merit-based scholarships from colleges etc. But I am still not sure how that transition happen between NMSF to NMF??</h1>
<p>This is how it works…</p>
<p>In Sept of senior year, your son will be named a NMSF. There are 16000 NMSF.</p>
<p>He’ll fill out paperwork, write an essay, send his SAT to NMCorp (code 0085), and his school will send transcripts and a LOR. </p>
<p>THEN…in FEBRUARY of senior year, he’ll likely be one of the 15000 that get named a finalist. (the only ones that don’t make NMF are the ones who had bad grades, too low of a SAT (below 2000), didn’t do the paperwork/essay, and/or were a discipline problem at their high school. That’s why so many kids DO make it.</p>
<p>From that 15,000 NMFs, NMCorp chooses 2500 to receive ONE TIME 2500 scholarships.</p>
<p>As to the college and corporate NMF scholarships…those are dependent on where the child applies (not essays) and whether the child has a parent who works for those corporations.</p>
<p>EVERY NMF student who applies to certain colleges WILL get the NMF scholarship from that college. Some schools only have competitive awards, but some award to EVERY NMF student…</p>
<p>USC is not exactly a “small intimate” school – its student population is similar to that of Berkeley or UCLA, though it has a somewhat higher percentage of graduate students versus undergraduates.</p>
<p>USC is generally thought to be a bit less selective than Berkeley or UCLA (there was a posting a few months back listing, for some southern California high school, each student’s applications and acceptances (no student names, of course) where there were numerous USC admits who were rejected by UCLA, but not the other way around).</p>
<p>Washington CS is good, but apparently undersized relative to student demand. Only a small number of freshmen are admitted directly to the CS major; the rest of the places in the major require competitive application by students who have completed the prerequisite courses. Supposedly, the (college) GPA needed to gain admission to the CS major is very high. You may want to ask on the forum specific to that school.</p>
<p>Yes, you may be right about USC admission requirement vs. UCLA or Cal. USC takes a holistic approach while admitting freshman whereas UCLA, Cal are more on academic and essay. Stanford does the same holistic approach also. Most of the private schools do that. One of our friends’ son is a freshman in USC, he chose USC over UCs. He got merit scholarship and in his freshman year, he is already doing research with one of the professors in Mechanical Engineering.</p>
<p>But it is certainly possible for a holistic admissions school to be more or less selective than some other school. Also, different holistic admissions schools may still weight different criteria differently. For example, among academic criteria, Berkeley is generally thought to favor high school courses and grades over test scores, while USC is generally thought to like high test scores.</p>
<p>You asked about my son, what he likes outside of academics. He is a very nice kid, he is focus on his study mostly, volunteer works, his music(he is an accomplished Violinist), plays for School Symphonic Band and plans to join San Jose Youth Symphony this spring.
He is popular among his friends, boy and girl friends. But he doesn’t want any relationship or so with any girl or so. He likes to have them as his good friends and classmates. He is crazy about programming, writing various games using Java programs. He is putting them up on Android Marketplace for free download etc. And of course he is crazy about building Robots. He likes smaller, quieter environment. He is not a party goers(didn’t go to any school dance party - yet!!!). That’s why we want him to be a place where he can focus on studies and research, clubs etc.</p>
<p>I would plan some college visits…not just to view their academic quality, but also to see how various schools’ vibes affect your child. So, visit a variety of schools that are rural, city, big, small, quiet, spirited and see how he does.</p>
<p>I woundn’t visit on a weekend, summer, or a day that the college is closed…you just won’t get the right feel for the school and profs won’t be available to meet with. </p>
<p>if your son’s Catholic High has the week after Easter off, that might be a good time to visit, since many colleges are in session during that time.</p>
<p>sanjosedad,
Based on what you said: “what he likes outside of academics. He is a very nice kid, he is focus on his study mostly, volunteer works, his music(he is an accomplished Violinist), plays for School Symphonic Band and plans to join San Jose Youth Symphony this spring.”</p>
<p>“He likes smaller, quieter environment. He is not a party goers(didn’t go to any school dance party - yet!!!). That’s why we want him to be a place where he can focus on studies and research, clubs etc.”</p>
<p>That sounds like Chapman University. DS is at Chapman for similar purposes and very happy there. DS loved science and the arts during HS. After we heard about Chapman, we went to visit, it was like the perfect match made in heaven. It’s the ideal size campus, small class sizes (professors know the students by their names), gorgeous campus in a tranquil environment, great location and great neighborhood, beautiful weather year-round, and most importantly, great merit scholarships and great academic programs. BTW, Chapman is building a new Performing Arts Center and a new Science Center and a new Filmmakers’ Village. What a gem! Just like what Mom2 had said, you’ve got to visit the schools to see for yourself. We can only describe the schools in so many words. Best of luck!</p>
<p>Chapman has a decent course listing in Computer Science, but many of the courses are listed as “offered alternate years” or “offered as needed”. Most of the rest are offered only in fall or only in spring. Browsing the course schedules indicates that its selection of Computer Science courses each semester is limited.</p>
<p>You may want to check catalogs and schedules at any schools not especially known for Computer Science, especially smaller schools, in order to see if they have a decent course selection.</p>
<p>You can also check for [url=<a href=“http://www.abet.org%5DABET%5B/url”>http://www.abet.org]ABET[/url</a>] accreditation in Computer Science or Computer Engineering, but it is only useful in a positive sense – if the degree program is ABET accredited, you know that it meets a (relatively high) minimum standard, but there exist good degree programs in Computer Science which are not ABET accredited (e.g. Stanford and Berkeley L&S CS). But there also exist (not ABET accredited) degree programs in Computer Science that have insufficient offerings in key courses.</p>
<p>He may want to attend a school that has departments of Electrical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering which have course work and research in robotics, even if his primary major is Computer Science. The existence of such departments may allow him to take elective courses in robotics alongside his Computer Science and other courses.</p>
<p>Please note that USC’s acceptance rate is expected to be around 18-20% this year according to the admissions department, making it rather selective. </p>
<p>Your S would most likely qualify for the Presidential NMF scholarship at USC which would guarantee him 1/2 tuition plus $1000 a year (many NMF also got an additional $2500 per year in April last year to further entice them). When we compared financial packages last year between the UCB and USC these scholarships brought the COA of USC to within $2k of Cal. We figured with the current huge tuition hikes at Cal, USC would be cheaper in future years than Cal would be (being full pay).</p>
<p>I can’t imagine how the schools would rank among themselves, but Mudd is an excellent school with excellent CS. They also seem to have quite a bit of robotics. My CS major son (non-robotics) is very happy and challenged there. Their robotics projects sound quite interesting, and at least one prof, and I think more, is researching various fields of robotics.</p>
<p>Harvey Mudd offers an automatic $10k/year scholarship to every applicant who meets certain SAT/grade criteria. Still would be a little over $35k/year, but one of the top places in the country to get a CS education is worth it.</p>
<p>“Chapman has a decent course listing in Computer Science, but many of the courses are listed as “offered alternate years” or “offered as needed”. Most of the rest are offered only in fall or only in spring. Browsing the course schedules indicates that its selection of Computer Science courses each semester is limited.”</p>
<p>From day one, Chapman students are given a list of courses to take according to their majors. So regardless of when the courses are offered, they have been accommodating (including opening another track if necessary when a class is full), to ensure the students are graduating on schedule. Perhaps that’s one of the benefits of attending Chapman (a private school). Chapman has become a professional/liberal arts school. They will be opening a Biotech/Pharmacy school in the new Science Center. Chapman University and Keck Graduate Institute announced plans of opening a BioPharmacy school by taking advantage of Chapman’s strengths in computational sciences and entrepreneurship. That is exciting and something to look forward to for many of us.</p>
This is no longer true - they changed it a couple years ago. They still have a $10K scholarship, but I think there are fewer of them to go around, and their criteria are subjective (so now it’s like most other scholarships).</p>
<p>lockn quote
" Harvey Mudd offers an automatic $10k/year scholarship to every applicant who meets certain SAT/grade criteria. Still would be a little over $35k/year, but one of the top places in the country to get a CS education is worth it."</p>
<p>This no longer exists as an auto scholarship. And, the OP has suggested that her son will score around 1400 M+CR, so that wouldn’t be close enough for consideration. Those who’d likely be awarded would likely have 1520 - 1600 M+CR</p>
<p>To further clarify…a $10k merit scholarship from HMU would bring costs down to over $45k …COA is over $55k these days. And with costs rising each year (while merit doesn’t), would likely mean that the cost would easily be $50k+ (after merit) by the time the student was an upperclassman.</p>
<p>I have another question not related to the current topic. For his Sr. year, my son decided he won’t take AP English Literature and Comp. He will take a regular English class. In this year, Jr. year, he is taking AP English Language and Comp and gets ‘A’ in it but still he doesn’t want to take it in Sr. year. Since he will finish both AP Calculus AB and BC in school by Jr. year, rather he decides to take Multivariable Calculus from a community college. His school principal and counselor already signed the approval form. He is an ‘A’ student in both AP math classes. Now my question is will this be an issue in his college application? Will the admission people take a look at his classes and will think that he doesn’t challenge himself to take next higher AP English class. Will that become negative factor for him to be considered in Comp Science/Engg. program in college? I am little worried about it. His school counselor also warned him that if he is to be considered with other students with same profile as him, & if they see that other students take AP English Literature and he doesn’t, he will be rejected in favor of others. Any comment from anyone?</p>
<p>Post #36, when your son does not want to take, do not make him take it. If he gets a C for senior year, it will be a lot more problem than take a regular english class and get an A. Especially senior year with senioritis. I learned from D1 the hardway. She almost received a D for AP Calculus because she didn’t want to take it and I thought it was an easier course.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t force him to take it, but let him know that not choosing the most rigorous available course in a core subject like English can be a small point against him at the most selective schools.</p>
<p>Some schools (e.g. Berkeley Letters and Science, but not Berkeley Engineering) do give potentially more subject credit for AP English literature compared to AP English language.</p>
<p>Is there a schedule conflict between math at community college and AP English literature, or would it be possible for him to take both?</p>
<p>No it’s not a conflicting of schedule, rather his choice. He thinks since he will be in CS/engg in college, reading poetry and analyzing them will not be of much use in his college and life after college. Besides, he doesn’t want to overload himself too much. Besides taking the community college class, he will be working as TA for the AP CS class in his school. Also, he plans to work on a research project during summer and fall to apply for Intel Science Talent Search competition and he is getting involved with an educational volunteer organization to raise about $75K to help setup a Tech Middle school in our school district.
Of course another sticky point is kids who are taking the class, telling them that the teacher is a very demanding and tough one, getting good grade is very tough.</p>
<p>He should remember that CS and engineering majors do have to take humanities and social studies breadth courses. (However, the range of such courses available in college is much greater than what is available in high school.)</p>
<p>Also, in many non-school contexts, CS and engineering are applied to humanities and social studies. For example, the change over time in word use in English and other languages is more easily analyzed using computers:</p>