First-Choice College on National Merit Application

Paying for College
1

<p>A few of the schools I'm applying to are on this list - UChicago, UT Austin, Rice University. Which do I put as my top choice? I know there's a bit of gaming involved here, and I've also heard that putting 'undecided' is the best choice for now since I don't know which school I'll be attending.</p>

<p>Help?</p>

<p>Also, for college major and career - if I'm kind of undecided, should I put that? Or should I put down one of the choices I'm considering?</p>

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<p>For NM, see this thread:</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/775059-college-choice-national-merit-scholarship-semifinalist-nms.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/775059-college-choice-national-merit-scholarship-semifinalist-nms.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Major and career don’t matter much if at all, undecided is fine. Exceptions are for instance: when you need to apply to a specific School within a university (eg. Engineering, Architecture), a ‘rare’ major (eg. Classics, as long as you have the academic and EC cred to support).</p>

3

<p>I also am not sure what to do for that…
I would just put undecided, but my top choice is WashU, and I always hear how conscience they are about interest in admissions, so I feel like that would hammer down that I’m interested…but is it not worth it if I miss out on scholarship opportunities elsewhere???</p>

4

<p>Yeah, I’m facing the same dilemma. Schools on my list are Emory University, Northwestern University, Rice University, Vanderbilt University, and WashU St. Louis. </p>

<p>Unfortunately, I can’t really decide on which school to label as my First Choice. I remember listing Rice University and WashU when I was notified of qualification and Rice was awesome enough to give me a fee waiver…while WashU just sent a ton of information, so I think I’m leaning towards Rice, but I also heard that Vanderbilt gives out $20,000 to their sponsored National Merit finalists.</p>

<p>It’s such a hard decision!!! Any tips?</p>

5

<p>The best decision at this point is to put “undecided”. NM will not notify the schools until sometime next year. This have nothing to do with “show interest”. Find out where you are admitted first, consider all options including the NM sholarship and then put down the “First Choice” school, the one you are going to attend. With some exceptions, you normally have until April next year to put down your first choice school.</p>