<p>Son just received a letter from National Merit Scholarship Corporation today telling him he has been selected as the winner of a NM $2500 Scholarship for use at Rice which, the letter says, he reported to NMSC as his first choice.</p>
<p>Although he DID initially list Rice as his first choice, he later changed it to "Undecided" on their change form. I faxed it to NMSC on February 21st and called and confirmed that they received it on February 22nd. I kept the fax verification and wrote down the name of the person I spoke with, but I never mailed a hard copy.</p>
<p>Now the form says that he must notify them of any college change no later than April 7th. We won't even visit Rice before April 7th, we're still waiting on his package from Northwestern and Notre Dame, and he hasn't ruled out Texas A&M or Wash U either. Frankly, Rice offered such a paltry amount and does so little for NM students that it is not at the top of the list right now.</p>
<p>So.........did NMSC mess up? Or did we? Of course we will call them Monday, but I'm wondering if anyone else has dealt with something like this.</p>
<p>I’m learning along with you, but I’m pretty sure that the awards coming out at this point are the NM-sponsored awards ($2500, one time, can be used at ANY college or university, whether they participate in NM or not). NMF can only be offered ONE award from NMSC…so if he refuses this one, he doesn’t get anything. (I’m assuming this is a NM award, not corporate-sponsored scholarship??)</p>
<p>IF his other schools participate in giving NM awards, you’d need to check to see what they do about the one-time award – sometimes this screws them up, some schools will work with you (as those lovely big awards given to Finalists come mostly from the school…not NMSC, so they have some lattitude to work with you).</p>
<p>Did you screw up? Probably not, since a kid CANNOT receive one of the $2500 awards if they didn’t name a college (so undecided would have actually NOT been in his favor). They are still giving him time to make a choice, and will not rescind the $2500, so I would definitely call them on Monday and see if you can move to Undecided now, as the college awards aren’t mailed until late April. If they won’t allow Undecided, you do have a week to do more research about best options – I would take the time to call each of the other schools and find out how they handle the $2500 award, if it can be figured into the NMF package he may receive from them. Do any of his other schools have guaranteed scholarships to those who list them as first choice by the deadline? If it’s competitive as to how many awards are given, that’s another one to factor in.</p>
<p>You did folllow up, and how smart of you to write down the name of the person you spoke with – now, have a good weekend, and get ready to call them ASAP on Monday morning!!!</p>
<p>PS – The $2500 award is given to the top NMFs in each state – so it is an honor to receive…just frustrating if you are weighing $2500 against a full ride…such a complex process…believe me, I know – we’re in the middle of it ourselves!</p>
<p>Ugh. It sounds like he needs to make a decision before April 7th. Which means making a decision before he’s even visited the schools.</p>
<p>I knew I should have driven that change form to the post office and mailed it certified. Can’t believe this happened.</p>
<p>But thanks for responding, mf.</p>
<p>I am surprised that you are being asked to make a final college choice for the NMSC $2500 award by April 7th. My understanding is that you need to make a college choice but you can change it any time before May 31st. Please call NMSC and clarify as that does not make sense.</p>
<p>Mommafrog, you seem to really understand this thing. This kills me - I think I understand it, but then I do not, and it appears that we actually screwed up. Tried to get info from son’s college guidance at achool, but never got a reply.
So we never identified college choice - per you, that means that we have no chance to get 2500 NMSF award?! This does not make sense if you can change college choice to undecided later anyway, and from NMSC site:
“•National Merit® $2500 Scholarships
Every Finalist competes for these single payment scholarships, which are awarded on a state representational basis. Winners are selected without consideration of family financial circumstances, college choice, or major and career plans.”</p>
<p>Dad2011, thanks – but I think I have NMSQ on my speed dial…this is what I was told when I called w/the same question the end of Feb. D had listed “Undecided,” but I wanted to check the rules of this very complicated game with them. My concern was that, if a kid is selected for the 1 time $2500 award, could that knock them out of the potential of a full-ride college-sponsored award? (Their answer – sometimes…depends on the school’s rule. NMS actually only provides a small amount of that full ride, the rest comes from the colleges who want to recruit NMFs.) Anyway, I asked then if it would be better to remain Undecided (as she really hadn’t made her choice) and the rep told me that you have to have a school, ANY school (whether they give NM dollars or not) on file by that March 1st date to be considered for the award, because if you don’t list a school, they have no idea if your child is going to go to college. Not sure about the corporate scholarships, as her dad and I work at places not on the list…</p>
<p>HOWEVER…from my somewhat obsessive reading here, it looks like students who were up for that one-time award and still listed Undecided did receive contact from NM telling them to choose a school quick…d didn’t get that letter, and we haven’t seen any award notices coming yet. (Really okay at this house, because her true first-choice school will give a larger guaranteed 4-year award, and she has selected them.) Apparently, the state-representative thing has to do w/picking the top kids (don’t know if that’s the highest of the high scorers, best essay, or what criteria).</p>
<p>I may have misunderstood the rep – my best advice would be to go to the source and give them a call next week. (They are very nice, even if you call them three times in one day…as I have…) This has got to be one of the most convoluted processes ever invented!! At the end of it all, some kids will get free college, some get smaller, renewable awards, some get a one-time payment…and about half get no monetary awards at all. And to think, when d brought home that lovely PSAT score, hubs and I thought she could choose just about any school, and have her way paid…</p>
<p>Thanks Mommafrog! Yes, this is way to convoluted, the question is:why? Really does not have to be. I initially thought you had to do it by March ,but that was only for half tuition distinguished NMF award at OSU ( 4500 value). Did not do it then - I though he could wait to see if he can get this generic $2500 ( small chance as only 2500 out of 15000 get it and now thinking back he did his essay in like an hour, I did not realize this was for an award, only to become finalist which was given) and then make college selection.
As far as full rides - he refused to apply to schools that offerd full rides for it.
Should’ve called in February, but will try to call them on Monday. Though he probably did not get an award, so now we have to see if his top schools offer something still and what the deadline may be).</p>
<p>Yes, it is a convoluted process but there is a method in the madness and there have been several postings and threads here explaining the process. As far as I know if you are undecided and being considered for a corporate or NMSC scholarship, they will notify you as they cannot mail out an offer without a college named. But everything I have heard so far is that you can always change the name of the school as these are fully transferable and the deadline as far as I know is May 31st. So I am very surprised by what Givings was told. It needs to be verified.</p>
<p>The 2500 NMSC scholarships are state proportionate i.e.every state has quota that depends upon the number of high school students in that. The catch here is that is does not depend upon the number who take the PSAT but the total population of HS students in that year in that state. So students at states where PSAT is not popular (e.g. mid western states), a student with a lower PSAT score may get the scholarship as opposed to someone in MA. Unfair maybe, but they want to make sure there winners from every state. </p>
<p>There was an excellent posting by Scholade recently where he had synthesized how to name a first choice. I would suggest that as an excellent reading.</p>
<p>Thanks, MazeWanderer. So the fact that we were not notified yet probably means that he was not selected for NMSC $2500 award.
Could you please point me to Scholade’s post you have mentioned?</p>
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<p>I assume you’re referring to the April 7th deadline I mentioned?</p>
<p>The mailing DS received yesterday included four pieces of paper consisting of a congratulatory letter, a “Request for College Change” form, a list of instructions/public announcement information and finally, a “Reply Form” on which he must accept or decline the Scholarship. It references an “Offer date” of March 24 and a “Reply deadline” of April 7.</p>
<p>He is not ready to make a decision by April 7th.</p>
<p>S received the same letter yesterday and I almost got a heart attack. Incidentally the school he chose as his first choice is Rice as well. However, after reading it again it looks like the April 7 deadline is to accept or decline the scholarship. The recipient can change the first choice later. </p>
<p>BTW, in our case Rice is very high on the list and S received a nice merit scholarship from them that makes it the most affordable choice so far. He is in the running for a full ride at another college. If he gets the full ride and decides to go there, losing $2500 won’t matter. But there are 1-2 other options that we are considering. These schools are not participating in NMSC and that is why he didn’t put them as a first choice. Anyway here is what the letter says, and I hope that I understand it correctly and it means that the first choice and be changed later than April 7th. </p>
<p>“Congratulations! You have been selected as the winner of a National Merit $2500 Scholarship.</p>
<p>The Scholarship is offered for your use at Rice University, which you reported to National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) as your choice, and you are responsible for making all arrangements for admission. Subject to the conditions explained in Term 4, this Scholarship may be used at another institution: however, if you change the college or university you attend, you must report the change to NMSC as soon as your college plans are firm.</p>
<p>Read carefully all Terms of the Scholarship. Then complete, sign and return …… (etc)”</p>
<p>Term 4 says that the student must enroll into college in the fall of 2011 and it can’t be an online college, etc.
The second page is the reply form and has “I accept” and “I decline” check boxes. This form has to be returned by 4/7/2011, but at the bottom it says:</p>
<p>“I have signed and dated my reply to this scholarship offer. In addition, I have provided a probable career field to be used in NMSC’s public announcement of scholarship winners. Once my college plans are firm, I will report to NMSC any change in the college or university to be attended”</p>
<p>Now it makes sense. There are two different deadlines.</p>
<p>The April 7th deadline is accept or reject the scholarship. May 31st is the deadline to change college choice.</p>
<p>So you can accept the scholarship by April 7th and change the college choice by May 31st. You are not at disadvantage because of that.</p>
<p>Scholdades thread is given below. hopefully that should clear some of the confusion in this post.</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/national-merit-scholarships/1103731-how-choose-your-first-choice-college-national-merit-purposes.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/national-merit-scholarships/1103731-how-choose-your-first-choice-college-national-merit-purposes.html</a></p>
<p>keylimepie is exactly right, April 7 is not the drop dead date for college name change.</p>
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<p>Me too! And DS was accusing me of being overly-dramatic! But I just couldn’t figure out how this happened after all of my diligence… (Still concerned that NMSC thinks Rice is his first choice.)</p>
<p>So if son still can’t make a decision by April 7th and rejects the $2500, does he go back to waiting for a school-sponsored scholarship? Which would be determined, of course, by the school name he provides to NMSC by April 27th?</p>
<p>And are we done with the NMSC Official Scholarship, or might he still receive one after the 27th?</p>
<p>National Merit Finalists; must designate Rice as their first choice with the National Merit Corporation $1,000, Renewable for four years.</p>
<p>You can reject the national merit and get possibly $1000 a year from Rice i.e. $4000. Rice may be one of those schools that allow you to keep the $2500 for the first year and give $1000 for the next threes, best of both worlds. Talk to Rice first and see how they handle that. Look at your other schools and see how they handle that before you make a decision.</p>
<p>Please do not confuse between the official and unofficial parts of a school scholarship.</p>
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<p>I don’t know. You can’t get the college-sponsored scholarship if you received the national merit scholarship. I am not sure if receiving national merit and then rejecting it will make you eligible for the college-sponsored one.</p>
<p>^^Correct. And there is a long rant-thread from a parent who was treated rather shabbily by Rice over on the Rice forum about this. It’s a disturbing read.</p>
<p>I know that the rule is you can only have one scholarship. However the question here is “If I reject the NMSC scholarship, can I be considered for a college scholarship?”.</p>
<p>The opposite is a clear No No. If you accept the NMSC scholarship you cannot be considered for the official (repeat the official portion not the unofficial goodies) of the college scholarship.</p>
<p>Logically, if one declines the NMSC scholarship, they should be allowed to be considered for the college scholarship, but there is a risk element to that. What if the college does not give it to you?</p>
<p>However, there are lot of things about the NMSC process that do not make sense to the outsider, so they may take stand that rejecting the NMSC scholarship means rejecting even college NMF scholarships. The best way to know is to ask NMSC in those specific terms. </p>
<p>Please post the response as it will be useful for others.</p>
<p>Accepting the NMSC scholarship allows you to change the college choice if want to do so at any time before May 31st. However, you may want to do it sooner, especially if the college has an unofficial component (the extra goodies like free tuition)</p>
<p>Update: Spoke to NMSC today and was told the the award is fully transferable, and that as mazewanderer says the choice needs to be updated with NMSC by 5/31.</p>
<p>And I’m sorry mazewanderer, I am seeing your post after my phone call, so I did not ask the question about rejecting the NMSC scholarship and how that affects the official college NMSC award.</p>
<p>So if you already had a first choice scholarship offer Baylor (132 K) and now you got the $2500 offer do you lose your school scholarship offer? That would be horrible! Do you need to reject your $2500 to get the school scholarship? I called the school and they said they just keep the NM scholarship it goes to offsetting their expense. Help? I don’t know what to do with the April 7 deadline letter. This is so confusing!</p>