<p>I know National Merit Finalists get some pretty nice offers, but do National Merit Semifinalists get anything?</p>
<p>Monetarily, no. College advertisements, yes (if you signed up to get them).</p>
<p>How much do Finalists get monetarily?</p>
<p>TrEline, it depends on the college. At Ivies and some top colleges, nothing. A few give a token amount ($1,000/year is what it amounts to). There are some colleges with guaranteed scholarships for NMF – some schools that have good ones are University of Alabama, U of Oklahoma, and I believe USC offers half off tuition. There are more, those are just ones that get talked about a lot.</p>
<p>There is a whole forum on NMF here:</p>
<p>[National</a> Merit Scholarships - College Confidential](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/national-merit-scholarships/]National”>National Merit Scholarships - College Confidential Forums)</p>
<p>USoCal’s 50% tuition for NMFs is not guaranteed any more, and there are NMFs who don’t get admitted and some who do but are NOT given merit awards.</p>
<p>Furman offers a scholarship based on being semifinalist.</p>
<p>15000/16000 NMSFs make it to NMF. The ones who don’t have “issues” or didn’t bother filling out the paperwork. Here is an older thread that will give you a start on some potential schools: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/national-merit-scholarships/649276-nmf-scholarships-updated-compilation.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/national-merit-scholarships/649276-nmf-scholarships-updated-compilation.html</a></p>
<p>Last year there was at least one student with what appeared to be one “C” equivalent on his transcript and no other known issues who did not make it. It does not seem to be as true as it was previously that only those who slack on their paperwork or have signfiicant “issues” don’t make it.</p>
<p>There is also the $2500 scholarship from NMSC directly. Not everyone receives it, but I suppose it is convenient in some ways because it can be used towards any college. However, if you are dead set on one college in particular, a specific scholarship from that institution would probably benefit you more because you generally receive more than $2500.</p>
<p>College Advertisements??? I don’t understand. What are they?</p>
<p>scmom12 I couldn’t find the scholarship anywhere. Do you have a link? Thanks.</p>
<p>Confuserer, I think they mean you will get a lot of mail from colleges. </p>
<p>This page has the NMF merit scholarship info for Furman. I don’t see anything on semi finalist, though (at least not guaranteed). The $2,000 scholarship for finalist is a common amount, although make sure you understand how they apply or stack that with any need based grants (some colleges wipe out part of the need based grant so your cost of attendance does not change just because you got the NMF scholarship :().</p>
<p>[Admission</a> | Other Scholarships](<a href=“Furman University | Top Private Liberal Arts University in Greenville, SC”>Furman University | Top Private Liberal Arts University in Greenville, SC)</p>
<p>Erin’s Dad I know. I’m probably going to be one of those with “issues” (you know, teenage stuff), so that’s why I wanted to know if there were any good scholarships for semifinalists. I took the PSAT my sophomore year and I got a 224. I’m about to become a junior.</p>
<p>Thanks for the info. I’ll make sure to be on the lookout for mean colleges. :)</p>
<p>Be sure you get your paperwork in on time for the NMF application when you are notified – they give you what I think is a very short time period to get all of it done and an essay written. Our kids’ school held the paperwork so they could “announce” at an assembly in mid-September. We knew the cutoff and that our D had made it a few weeks before that, and someone out here kindly passed on the essay topic so she could work on that. Fall of senior year is so darned busy, though. So make sure you stay on top of it. If you don’t get NMF then you don’t get it… but at least make sure you control what you can.</p>
<p>@intparent Thanks a lot for the tips. Thanks a lot for caring. I think I’ll be able to be on top of everything. Thanks again.</p>
<p>Confuser - I can’t find Furman scholarship either…they must have dropped it. My Ds both got it but neither ended up attending so I’m slightly out of loop. sorry.</p>
<p>You know you need to take the PSAT again? The one you take sophomore year won’t ‘count’ for NMSF. They only look at the junior year score.</p>
<p>Arizona State U is one offers full tuition/fees + a one-time research stipend for NMF, but sorry not for NMSF. They do have some smaller scholarship for NMSF, but you’d have to ask them about it. Barrett Honors College at ASU will pay for your plane fare to visit if you make NMSF, and put you up for a visit with student, eat in dining hall, set up meetings with dean and anyone else you want to talk to, visit classes, do tour, etc.</p>
<p>Celesteroberts, I wish I knew about the ASU Honors College thing when I was going through the application process!</p>
<p>One tip I just want to throw out there: College essays (including the one for your Common App) are extremely useful for scholarships as well. For my scholarship application, I had copy and pasted my Common App essay word for word into the blank form.</p>
<p>Is there such thing NM winners or does the line end at finalists?</p>