<p>Can someone help us and answer a simple question, please? In short, our D will be a NM finalist in about two weeks, and in reality we don't know what that means. Besides the fact the we're proud of her, and that she just got accepted to Smith College. Is it true that only students who are named finalists, and have parents who work for large businesses that provide scholarships, are the only ones who get money for the accomplishment? How does this thing work?</p>
<p>Your daughter got a booklet when she was notified of semi status. That will answer all of your questions. Here is the NM site, which should also answer your questions <a href="http://www.nationalmerit.org/%5B/url%5D">http://www.nationalmerit.org/</a></p>
<p>Basically there are 4 types of scholarships awarded.<br>
1. Some companies offer scholarships to the children of their employees, and sometimes to students in their community.
2. Some colleges participate in the national merit program and offer students $2,500 scholarships. You need to check online or call Smith to see if they participate.
3. A small number of finalists are picked by the NM people to be National Merit "Scholars." These students get a one-time NM scholarship of $2,500 that can be used at any college, whether or not it participates in the NM program.
4. There are "special scholarships" given out by corporations.</p>
<p>Also, some colleges, all state schools as far as I know, offer scholarships to National Merit Finalists. These scholarships are not associated with the NM program - it's just a scholarship colleges use to entice NM finalists to attend their school. Some of these can be full-rides, special honors programs, etc. </p>
<p>This is the page that explains the different scholarships. <a href="http://www.nationalmerit.org/nmsp.php#progrec%5B/url%5D">http://www.nationalmerit.org/nmsp.php#progrec</a></p>
<p>If any of this is incorrect, someome please feel free to make corrections.</p>
<p>over30 has it nailed. And just let me add that the number of NM Finalists who actually receive scholarship money does not equal, or even come close to, the total number of NM Finalists. A quick glance at the Parents board late May/early June of last year would show a number of very proud yet disappointed families (ours included). In our school last year, the only kids who were named National Merit Scholars were those with perfect 1600 SATs. (Don't know if this is more universally true.) Basically, be proud of your D's accomplishment, and if money appears, even better!</p>
<p>College-sponsored scholarships (#2 in over30's list) can be up to $2000/year ($8000 over 4 years)</p>
<p>My son had a college-sponsored National Merit scholarship -- he did NOT have perfect SATS. The students who receive the college-sponsored awards are considered National Merit Scholars and the program continues to be administered via National Merit. For example, to continue the scholarship each year, the student needs to file an annual report with National Merit verifying class standing & grades. </p>
<p>I believe National Merit does provide a list of all participating colleges with the materials that go out when the student is notified of semifinalist status.</p>
<p>OK, my post was referring to over30's #3 above. The kids at our school who were granted "Scholar" (a.k.a. scholarship recipient) status via #3 were all 1600-SAT kids (with less impressive ECs and other accomplishments than some of the kids who came away empty handed, I might add).</p>
<p>(sorry.... still swallowing some sour grapes, I guess... my bad....)</p>
<p>Mootmom is correct about the actual NM Scholars. Our school usually has between 20-25+ finalists. The last 2 years we have had 0 scholars (despite some truly amazing kids with amazing scores who ended up at Harvard, Yale, Stanford, MIT and other such schools). Three years ago we had 2, one is at Penn and the other at CalTech. The year before that we had 1 and she's at the Naval Academy. </p>
<p>And congrats on the finalist standing.</p>
<p>I can answer part of the question: Smith (and most highly competitive colleges) don't give diddly for National Merit. D applied to seven schools...none of them offered anything for National Merit. However, BJM, the scholarship your D got to Smith beats that, so you're ahead of the game. For your D, the National Merit & two bucks will get her a medium coffee at Starbucks, along with one complimentary "Attagirl."</p>
<p>TD...I can always count on you for the real worls answer. That's what I thought, just wanted to check anyways. Seems alot of work for nothing but the distinction of being named a finalist or scholar. Don't get me wrong, that's a wonderful accomplishment; just wish there was some real money tied to it, that's all. National Merit Foundation has this aura about them that they give out tons of money for qualified students, but that's not really true.</p>
<p>A lot of work??? My son was a National Merit Scholar, and basically he took an exam during school hours and filled out a 1 page form. Maybe 3-4 hours of time, total??? For that he "earned" a potential $8000 (though he let the award lapse, so he actually only got $4000). I'll be very glad the day I can earn $1000/hour for my time. </p>
<p>In addition the scholarship, he got a big boost in college admissions at a whole range of colleges, and offers of full ride scholarships at schools like Arizona State U. Admittedly, ASU was not my son's cup of tea... but if he had come from a family of more limited means, the full ride offers could have meant a lot. I mean... just because he didn't accept those offers doesn't mean they weren't worth something.</p>
<p>The way I saw it was that the "honor" was very dubious -- my son scored just at the state cut off, so I was well aware that the "honor" meant as little as 1 point on a standardized test which probably has a margin of error of at least 3 points. But it was nice to have the money.</p>
<p>Now that I have a daughter who didn't take the PSAT and doesn't tend to score as well on standardized tests, it is very obvious to me that the NM status was a huge admissions boost which required virtually no effort at all on my son's part. Just that benefit had value. </p>
<p>I'm not a fan of National Merit, but I'm not going to treat it with disdain, either. It probably has opened doors to a lot of students at a lot of colleges.</p>
<p>Be aware that a student can only accept ONE full award...our D was lucky enough to win a scholarship through H's employer and a great award from our state flagship - full tuition, plus $4500 per year, which would have nearly covered her room fee. NMSC notifies the school that student chooses about any other NMSC awards to that student and she received an updated award from state uni deducting the amount of her award from H's company from state u's offer. Seems this is as it should be - any amount is a help...no 'double dipping' means more aid for more students.</p>
<p>The boost of the National Merit Finalist status is not with the awards the actual Corporation gives but what you can translate it into being at individual institutions.For that boost, you may have to be willing to compromise on what you consider a "status" school.
And its not only public U's that will give you a monetary reward,as someone has posted.S applied to U Miami and would have been guaranteed a 1/2 tuition scholarship as a NMF.You have to investigate each school and see what they will offer.</p>
<p>{A lot of work??? My son was a National Merit Scholar, and basically he took an exam during school hours and filled out a 1 page form. Maybe 3-4 hours of time, total??? For that he "earned" a potential $8000 (though he let the award lapse, so he actually only got $4000). I'll be very glad the day I can earn $1000/hour for my time. }</p>
<p>CalMom...calm down. I didn't mean it that way! By alot of work I meant all the hard work and time they put into taking these tests PSAT, SAT, SAT II's etc. I realiize that this money given to some students is extremely helpful to the families. My concern is that it seems that only some state school students and some employees from certain businesses get these scholarships. That's all. I am very happy for these students and their families. I just think that NM has this aura about them, and I don't think that most people (including me) really understand how the money is appropriated.</p>
<p>You definitely don't need a perfect SAT to get a NMSC award. It varies greatly with location, just like the finalist designation.</p>
<p>"My concern is that it seems that only some state school students and some employees from certain businesses get these scholarships."</p>
<p>While it's true that the official NM scholarships through National Merit aren't worth much (one time only award of $2,000), and relatively few students get them, NM is a big boost for far more than state school students.</p>
<p>Being a finalist opens doors to major merit aid, particularly from second tier private and public universities that are trying to boost their SAT scores and also want bragging rights of bagging NM finalists.</p>
<p>Being a NM finalist also could help one get merit aid at the many first tier schools that give merit aid. </p>
<p>Merit aid can be substantial including full tuition and even perks like paid international internships and laptops.</p>
<p>Just to clarify, the onetime NM sponsored awards are $2500, (not $2000), the renewable ones from colleges range from $750 (if you have no need) to $2000 - but many schools will sweeten the pot with more money, grants or better F.A. packaging. I remember MacCalester offered $5000 a year, and Bowdoin made a needbased f.A. package loan-free. Then there's the big bucks from many state schools, often not administered through NMC but directly from the colleges themselves. (and, sob, my son is probably one-two points below the Texas cutoff... sob..) Regarding nomenclature - my school district refers to all finalists as "National Merit Scholars" (actually, they usually include commendeds in there, too!) If you get to finalist status, you should be allowed to call yourself a "National Merit Scholar" IMO!</p>
<p>
[quote]
My concern is that it seems that only some state school students and some employees from certain businesses get these scholarships.
[/quote]
I think about half of the students who make finalist status qualify for one of the NM-administered awards. The reason that many students don't get awards is that they CHOOSE to attend more selective colleges that do not give any sort of merit aid or participate in National Merit. The most selective colleges do not participate because the vast bulk of their students would qualify. </p>
<p>What participation in NM offers to a college is a way to attract or reward students who are at the top of their applicant pool. As others have noted, many private colleges also offer benefits of their own beyond the official scholarship to NM qualifiers. </p>
<p>My beef with NM is I think colleges give it too much weight -- I don't think its fair that my lazy son who happened to score very well on a test one day got solicitations to attend ASU for free, while kids from his high school from needier families who had better grades & EC's never had that opportunity. Because my son's high school was economically and ethnically very diverse, I also had the sense that it was a boost my son got from being the white Jewish son of two lawyers. We are a very verbal family - our kids have great vocabularies. The problem witn NM is that the entry point is decided entirely on the basis of a single test -- and the families of the neediest students tend not to even be aware of the importance of the test until after the test day has come and gone.</p>
<p>The point is, NM was a great boost and benefit for my son, though hardly well-deserved. He would have gone to his chosen college with or without the extra $2K. There are more deserving kids who would have been very grateful to get some of the solitications from less-selective public universities that ended up in our trash can.</p>
<p>For those who get the money and attention from some state schools and certain others, more power to them. But for glory, there's really none beyond semi-finalist, and even that is absurdly discriminatory by state.</p>
<p>That's the aura of which I speak. Everyone seems to think that, beyond the distinction of being named a semi or finalist, is that there is big money waiting for all who gain such a title because of their high scores. And, this just isn't the truth at all. There's a mystique about gaining this award that people just don't understand, and I believe the folks at NM don't want them to understand. Again, to those who qualify and get free rides to state or other schools, congratulations! But for the many who qualify and get nothing but a title except to maybe help with RD admissions to schools, there is nothing in it for them in terms of scholarships. And isn't that what everyone thinks, that if you become a semi or finalist you get lots of money for college?</p>
<p>Well, I don't know what "everyone" thinks. At my son's high school it wasn't deemed important enough to mention at his graduation, even though they listed awards and scholarships that other kids had won. It was because he was the first ever NM Finalist -- I don't think anyone else at the school had a clue as to what it meant. (I wouldn't have given it a second thought myself if he hadn't scored well enough for semifinalist). </p>
<p>I admit its a little annoying when people have the impression that your kid has won some big scholarship, and the amount is a drop in the bucket compared to what you are paying. My son's college gave him $20K in grant money, mostly based on need -- and my parents sent their email Christmas letter to everyone on the plane announcing that dear grandson had a "full" scholarship. I was really burned up about that but when I said something to them, it turned out that they were under the impression that $20K was actually enough to pay for a year of college. I guess when they were putting me through college, it would have been enough to pay for all 4 years and then some. </p>
<p>My son was given some sort of "award" from a local bank which was announced at graduation... and I was quite disappointed to learn that all he got was a lousy certificate. I mean, you would expect that if it comes from a bank, there would be some money attached to it. </p>
<p>But I don't think its really worth fretting over. I think that maybe your frustration comes from what YOU thought.. as opposed to what "everybody" thought. That's understandable - especially if you encouraged your d. to study for the PSAT and got excited at the prospect of the award -- I'd be disappointed too. I just came from a different perspective, because I never expected my son to do particularly well on the test.. so it never occured to me to even ask what it all meant until we received the paperwork in the fall.</p>
<p>anxiousmom said: "Regarding nomenclature - my school district refers to all finalists as "National Merit Scholars" (actually, they usually include commendeds in there, too!) If you get to finalist status, you should be allowed to call yourself a "National Merit Scholar" IMO!"</p>
<p>In our area there is sort of a competition to bragging rights for schools with the most NM Finalists. A couple of private schools send in photos to the newspapers with ALL the semis and commendeds, with captions saying how many "National Merit Scholars" they have--something like 50% of their senior class. IMO they are using the term loosely. The public schools send in photos of the semifinalists only which of course is a smaller number, but more accurate in terms of those likely to see any scholarship money.</p>