<p>My daughter was notified that she is a NMSF last week. She is likely to become a finalist (great SATs, 4.0 UW, good recs) unless she does something spectularly bad, such as hold up a liquor store. At least it appears this way to me, if 15,000 out of 16,000 people from the NMSF pool become finalists, as their website states.</p>
<p>But what does being a finalist mean in terms of admissions? 15,000 people isn't a small number, but they can't all be applying to the same schools. It seems that it would help a little, but I've heard conflicting things about this.</p>
<p>We were told that most top schools don't give money for merit finalists, which seems bizarre to me, since finalists are most likely to apply to top schools. Or is the scholarship need-based in addition to merit-based? </p>
<p>If we don't fill out a FAFSA or CSS, is she disqualified from receiving a merit scholarship, assuming she does become a finalist?</p>
<p>Once you’ve read through that list, you’ll see that the schools that offer big NM money are generally not well-known schools, though there are exceptions. Finalists do apply to name-brand schools, and some will receive NM scholarships directly from the National Merit folks instead of through the school. All of these scholarships are merit based; as far as I’m aware need is not a component. </p>
<p>As far as filling out the FAFSA or Profile to receive merit aid: this depends on the school. Some schools require you to fill them out to be considered. You’ll need to check with each school.</p>
<p>Arizona, Arizona State and Oklahoma offer virtually a full ride for NMSF. Scholarships dont get much better than that. </p>
<p>Its true most schools dont do much with NMSF, but if you daughter did well on PSAT she will probably clean up on the SAT as well. </p>
<p>In addition to helping on admission virtually all schools have merit scholarship money that are based largely on test scores. These would be included in the offer letters from the schools she applies to.</p>
<p>First of all, congratulations to your daughter for her high score!</p>
<p>The 16,000 NMSFs represent the top 1/2 of 1% of PSAT scores in each state. It is definitely an honor, but it is also somewhat arbitrary (for many varied reasons - different cut-offs for every state; test taken only once; test taken early during junior year; scores are not necessarily consistent from year to year, etc.). Thus, highly selective colleges do not put much weight in the honor.</p>
<p>The actual National Merit Scholarships typically go to children of employees whose corporation sponsors the award. They are also generally only one year awards that cannot be renewed.</p>
<p>Some selective schools do include token amounts of money for NMSF. Vanderbilt for example will include $2,000 per year. So you definitely want to check with schools when you apply to see if this is the case. But it is unlikely to be enough to change your decision. The big prizes, as you have discovered, are for schools that bright kids might not consider otherwise. The University of Alabama, for example, likes to brag about how many NMSF they attract (without pointing out that they all receive free tuition).</p>
<p>One more suggestion is to look at Keilexandra’s original list of schools and see if anything there appeals. That’s because some schools that used to offer guaranteed NM scholarships no longer explicitly guarantee them, but in essence will give them to NMFs who specify the school as their first choice. My example from a couple of years ago was George Washington University, which used to guarantee IIRC $20k a year. They then changed their guarantee, saying that GW would strongly consider any NMF for the GW Presidential scholarship. D1 asked about this explicitly at her interview, and was told that any NMF who applied RD and named GW as their first choice school had been given that scholarship. </p>
<p>The school list may seem disappointing, but do look carefully because there are some gems there. D1, for example, really liked Macalester and GW. She toured but ultimately decided against Boston U and U Rochester. I tried to interest her in USC given their auto half tuition for NMFs (and as a Cal and UCLA grad that’s saying something! ) to no avail. </p>
<p>There are a lot of parents here who have been very very happy with the Alabama full ride package. </p>
<p>Top schools tend not to give money for NMSF because</p>
<p>1) So many of their applicants are NMSF that they can neither distinguish between them all or give money to them all.</p>
<p>2) Some schools hardly give any merit scholarships whatsoever.</p>
<p>As has been said before, a few schools like Vanderbilt and Northwestern will give small amounts to the tune of $2,000 a year, but the big NMSF scholarships will come from large state schools. </p>
<p>Being from California I know that USC is somewhat of an exception being an excellent private school that gives many fat scholarships to NMSF applicants. It’s half-tuition guaranteed with a good chance to get bumped up to full-tuition or full-tuition + stipend following another application process so if your daughter likes USC, it could be a really good fit.</p>
) to no avail. </p>