<p>Please- someone who has been through this before...</p>
<p>My S made semifinalist and we have started the process. We have completed the online application(with the exception of the essay, still working on it). We have registered him for the Oct SAT. He has taken the ACT(we live in the South). His counselor is writing the rec. letter. My understanding is he just needs to score around 2000(hopefully better), keep his grades up(currently 3.9), meet all the deadlines, write a decent essay and stay out of trouble.</p>
<p>I found last year's press release online from our local paper. It stated that only about half the semifinalist become finalists and only about half of those kids get scholarships. I have spoken to the scholarship office at his college of choice. They offer almost a full ride to National Merit Finalists. The way I was looking at this was as long as he meets all his requirements we should have a 15,000/16,000(93.75%) chance of getting a nice scholarship. However, all of the conflicting reports are very concerning.</p>
<p>Bamamom: about 15,000 out of the 16,000 NMSF’s advance to NMFs and you’re right about what it takes: complete the paperwork, make sure the school completes their part of the paperwork, take the SAT and get a score of roughly 2000 or greater & send the score to NMSC, have a decent GPA, don’t write a rude essay, and don’t have disciplinary issues.</p>
<p>Only about 8,000 NMF’s become NMScholars, which is when a student receives/accepts a scholarship. Some students don’t choose to attend schools that offer automatic NMF scholarships and the corporate scholarships may be limited to relatives of employees. </p>
<p>Sounds like the paper confused National Merit Finalist with National Merit Scholar.</p>
<p>University of Alabama. 8 semesters of Tuition, On-Campus housing, additional 1000 per year, & IPAD. We are members of the National Alumni Association so there’s additional money for that too. The scholarship office told me that gets added to the NMF scholarship. Our final bill would be very small.</p>
<p>It is typical to find much confusion in the media about this. RobD has given you the correct information. Suffice to say he will qualify at Alabama when he advances to NMF. He might have to cite them as his first choice school.</p>
<p>Descartesz- When we completed his online application, there was a screen where you listed a preferred college and major. We selected University of Alabama. Hopefully, that is what you mean by college of choice? Is there somewhere else we need to list it?</p>
<p>Thank you Descartesz and RobD for your help!</p>
<p>I found last year’s press release online from our local paper. It stated that only about half the semifinalist become finalists and only about half of those kids get scholarships.</p>
<p>Oh, these articles get these things wrong all the time. As stated above, about 15,000 become finalists and about half of those get scholarships (not a firm number because some choose schools that give assured scholarships)</p>
<p>2500 get the one time 2500 from NMCorp
X number get corporate NMF scholarships
Y number get official NMF college scholarships</p>
<p>All of the above are Scholars.</p>
<p>If anyone is unsure about what school has been selected their first choice school, they can either fax in the form from the NMCorp website to re-assure…or call and ask what has been selected.</p>
<p>16,000 semifinalist - (~1000 who write a rude essay, don’t get an SAT score to confirm PSAT score, ie ~SAT of about 2000; or don’t turn in their paperwork) = 15,000 finalist</p>
<p>15,000 finalists; of these…
~6000 are called NMF
~9000 are called NM scholars= scholarship winners-<br>
a scholarship winner gets a National merit corporation award of $2500; or designates a school that gives a NM scholarship; or gets a corporate scholarship</p>
<p>How does one qualify to get a National Merit $2500 scholarship? What are the criteria used to determine which of the students not getting a company/college specific scholarship will receive one of the transferrable $2500 awards?</p>
<p>Bamamom2012: Your S is fine. My D is a sophomore at UA with the same scholarship. It’s a (for lack of a better word) guaranteed scholarship once he is named NMF in February. Once he accepts the scholarship and enrolls in UA then he will become a NMS. If he decided to go to a school like Harvard that doesn’t give NMF scholarships, and he didn’t receive one of the corporate or NMSC scholarships, then he’d remain an NMF.</p>
I agree. There is no information on what criteria NMSC use to discriminate between candidates.</p>
<p>When all is said and done, NM – which uses a single 2-hour test score administered twenty months before graduation to screen the bulk of its candidates, allocates qualifier spots based on geography and high school graduation rates, doesn’t publish a list of qualifying scores, doesn’t divulge its final selection criteria, and takes 18 months to determine winners – is a fairly bizarre competition.</p>
<p>so if they make arbitrary decisions from finalists to winners, can I just say that I’m a National Merit Scholar even if I don’t get chosen for a scholarship? Because at that point it seems like what matters for prestige and honor is if you make it to the Finalist stage…</p>
<p>I would prefer to say that the 2500 NMSC scholarships are unpredictable rather than arbitrary. Just because we do not know the details of the selection process does not make it an arbitrary one.</p>
<p>My daughter got a National Merit award (not one of the ones awarded through a college or an employer) and I think that they’re looking for strong extracurriculars, a good essay and excellent grades. I don’t think it’s particularly arbitrary, but like all scholarships, some people who appear very deserving will not get one.</p>
<p>*I would prefer to say that the 2500 NMSC scholarships are unpredictable rather than arbitrary. Just because we do not know the details of the selection process does not make it an arbitrary one. *</p>
<p>Right…it’s not like “the luck of the draw”. It’s just not a perfectly obvious formula. I know that my nephew got one and he had a high PSAT, a perfect SAT, and he was Val…so high GPA.</p>
<p>I do seem to recall reading somewhere that the $2500 one-time scholarships are given out in the same state-by-state ratio as number of NMSF’s. Not sure if that’s accurate or not. Does NMSC ever publish state-by-state results for the numbers of $2500 scholarships awarded?</p>