<p>Finalists are the winners, so to speak. Basically, all finalists receive some form of scholarship based upon their PSAT score. However, some of those scholarships can only be redeemed by attending a specific school. For instance, I know one of the UTs offers a scholarship based upon National Merit. To have a chance of getting it though, you have to designate it on the form you fill out as a semi-finalist, and they will notify you if they choose to award the scholarship to you. You don’t get to choose whether you want a school-specific or an independent scholarship. You have to fill out the form and designate some school, and then things will work out somehow and either you become a finalist (winner w/ money) or you don’t.</p>
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<p>Technically this is not true. I think there are three ways NMF’s can get scholarships that are officially part of the NMSC (National Merit Scholarship Corporation) awards:</p>
<ol>
<li> Many students are offered a one time $2,500 scholarship (not sure of the number, I seem to remember hearing 8,000, but could be wrong)</li>
<li> Some students end up with corporate-sponsored scholarships. Often those are students whose parents work for those corporate sponsors.</li>
<li> Colleges offer some official scholarships. Some larger ones as discussed above and in the scholarship forum, some smaller ($1,000/year is a common amount to end up with after stacking of various types of aid). At some schools those scholarships are guaranteed for all NMFs that designate the school as their first choice by May 1 of senior year. I think some schools have a limited number of the scholarships, so the timing of when you have to designate them as first choice may be earlier – this is always super confusing, and people often end up phoning the NMSC to discuss this and understand their options.</li>
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<p>But some students who end the very top schools end up with no scholarship money. I don’t think any of the Ivies offer any, and I know Swarthmore doesn’t – my D was accepted there, and if she had attended she would have had no NMF scholarship money because she did not get one of the $2,500 scholarships and we don’t work for a corporate sponsor.</p>
<p>Certainly NMF students are often awarded other merit scholarship money just on the basis of their strong academic skills. But as far as official NMF scholarships, those are the types you can get.</p>
<p>Confuserer, I missed that you are just entering your junior year. You do need to take the PSAT again this fall to be considered for NMF. Sophomore scores are not considered, and you can’t just carry that sophomore score forward or anything like that. You must take the PSAT again this fall to be considered for any of these scholarships. It is well worth doing, a nice thing to have on your application even if you don’t end up with much money from it in the end.</p>
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<p>While it isn’t sufficient evidence, I have not met any NMF who was not awarded a scholarship. As I mentioned in my previous comment, the scholarship can come in the form of a school-specific one. If the student chooses not to attend the school, then he/she doesn’t receive the scholarship. Nonetheless, the student would have been offered a scholarship. I am not sure about the situation with your daughter, but that is honestly the first time I’ve ever heard of someone not being offered any money at all at any point.</p>
<p>Did you miss what I said about my D being admitted to Swarthmore? They award NO NMF money there, and she was not awarded one of the $2,500 ones – those are entirely separate award processes, so they don’t somehow try to synch it up so everyone gets money. If she had chosen Swat, she would have had no NMF money. And no Ivy league colleges give NMF awards of any kind. In fact, I bet maybe 20% of NMFs end up without a dime because they attend Ivies and aren’t part of those other two pools of money. Schools that have a lot of NMF applicants and low admission rates don’t need to offer the money to draw the NMF students, so many of them don’t do it. </p>
<p>If you don’t believe me, go to the financial aid website of every Ivy and see if they say anything about NMF scholarships. They don’t because they don’t exist there.</p>
<p>Maybe you don’t understand that the scholarship money is not all controlled by the NMSC. As far as I can tell they only control (1) who is an NMF, (2) giving out the $2,500 one-time scholarships to about half of the NMF pool – that is NMSC money, (3) announcing NMFs, and (4) I think they put some rules around the scholarships offered by the colleges and corporations that are called “National Merit Finalist” scholarships – but the money for those college and corporate scholarships comes from the college or corporation, not NMSC – and not all colleges choose to participate in the NMF scholarship program.</p>
<p>Can you get $2500 and get the scolarship money in a college(taking only the NMF in consideration)?</p>
<p>Intparent (post #24) is right.</p>
<p>I apologize if I sounded accusatory, intparent. Maybe I didn’t understand every detail about National Merit, so thank you for the clarification. I was just trying to explain using my knowledge and experience with the program. However, I did pick up on the fact that your daughter received no money. As I had stated before, it was honestly the first time I had ever heard of this situation. There are likely more students out there in situations such as your daughter’s, but since I have not met any, I couldn’t have known that this situation was possible and I was pointing out that fact by stating “While it might not be sufficient evidence.” I know that Ivy League schools don’t offer National Merit scholarships, and I never said that they did. However, until there is a statistical survey stating that 20% of NMF end up without a dime, I will refrain from agreeing that a large number of students receive no offer of scholarships.</p>
<p>Is there a list of what colleges offer to NMSF and NMF? If so, can send the list, cause I’ve never realized you can get so much off the PSAT</p>
<p>Look under Financial Aid at the National Merit subforum. There are a couple of long-running, often updated threads about the large scholarships.
<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>
This is the main thread, but there are others that discuss specific scholarships. If info is known about NMSF money, it is included, but often the situation for NMSF is not clear and you need to contact the school directly to ask. Start with schools on this list. And post what you find out on the thread so others can see.</p>
<p>It wouldn’t be a bad idea to move this thread there.</p>
<p>If you want to know who gives out smaller amounts to NMFs, I don’t know if anyone has a list going, but you can start by looking at NMSC’s annual report on their website and scroll to the pages where they list colleges with numbers of sponsored freshman students. Use the first list on page 31 that also includes corporations. The second list, of colleges that enroll NMF scholars, is a bit misleading. If you want to use that list, only look at the 2nd number, the one in parentheses, which is the number of students sponsored by the college. For example Northwestern has 236 scholars, but 169 sponsored by university. The rest have corporate or NMSC awards. Harvard has 268, none sponsored by the college. Then you can check university websites to find out how large the scholarships are and if they are guaranteed or competitive and call/e-mail for more info. Some of them may have large scholarships that haven’t made it onto the scholarship thread yet.</p>
<p>The list in the annual report is just for the small official scholarships of $1,000-2,000 one time or per year. But the big scholarship schools are included there. They typically break out a small amount of the money in a separate category and call it the official scholarship so they get listed. ASU has 97 freshman NMFs. They all get the big scholarship, but 75 of them get it all from ASU, while the other 22 get the small sponsorship from corporation or NMSC and all the rest of it from ASU.</p>
<p>This approach still misses some money. For example, UW-Madison is listed as sponsoring 5 students. They do have a small amount of money to give at most 5 students $1,000-2,000. But they also give up to 60 or so WI resident freshman NMFs a $7,000 one time award. This doesn’t show up in NMSC annual report, I believe because those scholarships are funded with private money.But the annual report is a good place to start your search.</p>
<p>Another question: NMSC offer $2500. If you take it, are you eligible for the colleges that offer merit scolarships?</p>
<p>TrElite, the NMC $2500 award is a one-time award. Often, a large college scholarship will be reduced by $2500 for freshman year and then will be for the full amount for the other years.</p>
<p>Lots of NMFs do not get money. From the NMC site:
Finalists</p>
<p>"In February, some 15,000 Semifinalists are notified by mail at their home addresses that they have advanced to Finalist standing. High school principals are notified and provided with a certificate to present to each Finalist. back to top </p>
<p>"Winner Selection</p>
<p>"All winners of Merit Scholarship® awards (Merit Scholar® designees) are chosen from the Finalist group, based on their abilities, skills, and accomplishments–without regard to gender, race, ethnic origin, or religious preference. A variety of information is available for NMSC selectors to evaluate: the Finalist’s academic record, information about the school’s curricula and grading system, two sets of test scores, the high school official’s written recommendation, information about the student’s activities and leadership, and the Finalist’s own essay. back to top </p>
<p>"Types of Merit Scholarship® Awards</p>
<p>“Beginning in March and continuing to mid-June, NMSC notifies approximately 8,300 Finalists at their home addresses that they have been selected to receive a Merit Scholarship® award. Merit Scholarship awards are of three types.”</p>
<p>So 15,000 are recognized and 8,300 get NMF-related scholarship money. These kids obviously are good students, so they do get money from other sources.</p>
<p>At our school this year there are 2 NMFs who didn’t get any scholarship money because they didn’t get NMSC $2500 or corporate and are enrolling at schools (Cornell, Darmouth) that don’t give NMF scholarships. So it does happen.</p>
<p>Four of our 16 NMFs got the $2500. Three are going to schools (Swarthmore, Stanford, Princeton) that don’t sponsor NMFs, so they are happy, I’m sure.</p>
<p>Two students going to schools that offer ~ half tuition. My D to a school that gives full tuition.</p>
<p>The rest to schools that offer small NMF scholarships.</p>
<p>We also had 2 NMSF who didn’t make NMF due to grades, but landed well anyway.</p>
<p>Actually, we seem to be above average this year in % of NMFs getting some kind of scholarship money related to the status. Random fluctuation.</p>