Ok well I’ve looked online at this stuff for a while now and sorry but I just don’t get it, so I’m going to ask you guys for help.
So right now, for NM, my first choice college is undecided. There are 7 colleges that I am considering going to that offer national merit awards.
College 1 offers only $1000 to NMF and only offers it to 3 students that go to the school. Idk about the deadline for listing it as my first choice college.
College 2 offers nothing.
College 3 offers $750-$2,500 a year. Idk the deadline.
College 4 offers full tuition + $6,000 a year. Deadline to list it as my first choice college is April 30th
College 5 offers a full ride. Idk the deadline for this college either.
College 6 offers full tuition. Idk the deadline.
College 7 offers full tuition. Idk the deadline.
Those colleges are listed in my order of preference. At the same time, if a go to either of my first two choices, I’d be better off getting the $2,500 national merit award rather than the college award.
I definitely won’t be able to decide on these colleges (at least the top two) until the end of March at the earliest.
So my question is, should I leave my first choice college as undecided or put one of these colleges down as my first choice. If I do put one of these down, when should I put it down by?
Sorry if this is confusing. I don’t really understand NM’s process myself.
Look at the deadlines for naming 1st choice. Many have May 1st as the deadline, so you have time. You can also CHANGE your choice by May 1st using the form on the NMCorp website.
Does College #1 give $1k per year to the 3 selected? If so, that would be $4k, while the NMCorp is a one time 2500
Right now, leave your choice undecided UNLESS one school requires you to name 1st choice by a certain date. If so, name that one, and then CHANGE it later if you decide on another school.
@mom2collegekids I heard that if you are offered a college-sponsored scholarship though, you cannot be offered another one. So if a college had a deadline of march 1st, and i name it by then and they offer me a scholarship and then i decide on college 5 a month later, wouldn’t it be too late to change it because i was already offered a scholarship?
and no,college 1 is a one time award i believe. however that is what I heard from someone at the college- i cannot find the info anywhere online
@Copperrrrrrrrrrr
The college-sponsored scholarship being referred to in that restriction is ONLY the official part that comes from the National Merit Corporation directly to the school when you are enrolled. By far the largest portion of those large scholarships advertised as for National Merit Finalists are sponsored by the school itself and only a very small part is administered directly by the National Merit Corporation. It is only this small part that is subject to the “only offered one” restriction. And National Merit Corporation does not start mailing official offers for the college-sponsored scholarships that it directly administers until May 1.
In other words, you will not be officially offered that small part that comes directly from the National Merit Corporation until sometime between May 1 and May 31 depending on when in that time period you have a first-choice on record. The college may say they are committed to giving their NMF scholarship to you including the official NMCorp part (and there is no doubt that they will eventually if you declare them as first choice by their deadline) but that is not the same as the official offer of the small part that will come in a letter directly from the National Merit Corporation in May. It is only after May 1st that you cannot change from one college that sponsors and NM award to another that sponsors a NM award and expect to get the second college’s award to replace the one from the first college.
This is also the reason that, until May 1st, you can have offers of scholarships for National Merit Finalists from multiple colleges at the same time.
WAIT until you KNOW where you will be going to college- you will have until April 30 to decide -THEN notify NM of that choice.
Dont bother with sending anything to NM until then.
The $2500 award is given independant of where you decide to go. BUT, just to confuse things, IF you enroll at a college where NM awards MORE than the one time $2500 in National Merit $ cumulatively over 4 years, you would be wise to decline the $2500 award so you can get more $$ in the long run.
USC is one such college- National Merit pays USC NM finalists $1000/ year for 4 years.
"I heard that if you are offered a college-sponsored scholarship though, you cannot be offered another one. "
These are the facts- so pay attention-
National Merit Scholarship Federation - a non profit -awards small scholarships to NM finalists. That $$ comes from donations and fees they collect.
Colleges which sponsor [i.e. donate to NMSF] ALSO can award SEPARATE scholarships to NMF’s. Those larger scholarships come DIRECTLY from the colleges and are not the same as the small scholarships awarded DIRECTLY from NMSF.
So you CAN receive 2 “NM” scholarships-1 from NMSF AND 1 from the college you enroll in- IF YOUR COLLEGE OFFERS THEM.
The colleges that DO offer seperate scholarships WAIT to see if a NM finalist enrolls there AND declares their college to be the finalists first choice.
Then they will process the paperwork for the scholarship they are offering.
Both will be processed by the bursors office when the time comes to pay your first semesters bills.
Look to see when your schools require you to name them as #1. It should be on their NMF webpage.
@mom2collegekids @STEMFamily @menloparkmom Ok I think I understand it all now. Thank you everyone!
What if the college doesn’t say a deadline to name them as number 1? For example- this is from one of the college’s webpages-
National Merit Scholarship/College-Sponsored Merit Award: The National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) has a variety of scholarships that are awarded to students based on academic performance. The [College 3] serves as a sponsoring institution for prospective freshmen selected by NMSC to receive the College-Sponsored Merit Scholarship award. Students selected for the UM Sponsored Merit award will receive a four-year renewable scholarship ranging from $750 - $2,500/year. All finalists should follow NMSC’s instructions for first choice notifications carefully and observe deadlines to remain eligible for awards.
The National Merit Scholarship also awards Corporate-Sponsored merit scholarships and National Achievement awards. For more information on the National Merit Scholarship program please visit: www.nationalmerit.org
That is all that is said about National Merit scholarships on their webpage. Is it safe to assume then that their deadline is also April 30th? Or should I call and ask?
@Copperrrrrrrrrrr Ithink you can take \
to mean that you are good for May 1st. (April 30th for good measure.)
@menloparkmom
Some schools that offer competitive scholarships for which NM Finalists compete with each other set the earliest First Choice deadline (ie March 1). There is no requirement to be enrolled at that time but if a Finalist is interested in that school, they must make an early designation of First Choice. The Finalist can always change that First Choice later to either another school or “undecided”.
@STEMFamily I just looked at another thread where someone called the college and was told the same thing, so you were right. Thanks again!
My son has applied to one school (BU) which has a Mar 1 deadline to declare them First Choice (and they will award $20K/yr scholarship with admission decision in late Mar.), another school (NEU) which has a April 4 First Choice deadline, a handful of other schools which give good $$ to NMFs (with no special deadline listed), and a handful of schools which give no money to NMFs. So please confirm this is the correct strategy for declaring First Choice:
- now (before Mar.1) declare BU as First Choice
- around Mar 30 (after receive BU decision but before Apr. 4) change First Choice to NEU
- around mid April (but def. before May 1) change First Choice to
a) the school he will attend, if they give NM scholarships or
b) to undecided, if he will attend a non-sponsoring college, to be eligible for the one-time $2500 scholarship
Is this correct? I called NM and BU but they did not give me clear answers.
what you need to finds out is WHEN NM actually sends out the list of NMF’s to the colleges in question.
As an example, I was told a while ago that USC does not receive THEIR list until well into May. I dont know if that is because they arent interested in an earlier notification or because they choose to wait to find out whose has actually accepted their offers of acceptance AND notified NNS that USC is their first choice school .
The one time NM $2500 notifications are often sent earlier than April 1, but that award can ALWAYS be refused IF you wish to receive a scholarship for more $$ from a college.
NM has the most unclear and contradictory instructions. See here:
http://www.nationalmerit.org/Merit_R&I_Leaflet.pdf
This says that lists of NMFs begin being sent to colleges on one’s first choice list around Mar. 1.
This also says the NM $2500 scholarships are sent Mar 24.
It also says that "Consideration for a college-sponsored Merit Scholarship award is limited to Semifinalists who qualify as Finalists and who also … 3. have not been offered any other National Merit Scholarship (corporate-sponsored, National, or another college-sponsored award). No student will receive more than one scholarship offer from NMSC.
So I really wonder:
- if you win the one time $2500 award Mar 24, are you out of the running for ‘college-sponsored NM Scholarships’ which are $500-$2K per year. Above quote says so!?! How about the “big” scholarships given by colleges you designate as first choice?
- if in my above example, BU gives a “big” scholarship mid April and reports that back to NM, is my son unable to compete for “big” awards at other NM schools?
If you get the $2500 then you ARE out of the running for any college-sponsored scholarship but some colleges will make up the difference.
Note that this says will not receive more than one scholarship OFFER. It has nothing to do with whether you accept or reject an offer. You will not get another offer.
It MAKES NO SENSE to turn down the $2500 scholarship. This is an official offer from NMSC and you will NOT be offered something different later. These are always offered before any college-sponsored scholarships.
@pickpocket
To clarify: NMCorp has nothing to do with the big NMF scholarship packages sponsored directly by a school. It is only the small NM college-sponsored part that is subject to the multiple offers rule. If you get the $2500 you don’t get the small official NM part but you are still eligible for the rest of the “big” scholarship. Some schools (I know of Alabama and Oklahoma) will even give you more of their own funds to make up the difference between their official college-sponsored part and either the $2500 or a smaller corporate scholarship.
Schools do not report anything back to NM. NM only knows (and only cares after April 30) what college the student has declared as First Choice. The student is notified of a college-sponsored offer by letter directly from NM Corp. Those mailings start May 1st.
So your son is not restricted at all from being considered for any “big” scholarship at any school or for multiple schools at the same time.
Our NM son picked a non NM school. He receives $2500 per year. We have to pay the rest of his tuition and room/board because he didn’t want to attend the NM schools which were all OOS, with the exception of USC which only offered him ½ tuition.
His school has a large number of NM winners and since the school has exceptional students, my son says that one or two received full rides and the rest just get the $2500 per year.
"NM has the most unclear and contradictory instructions. "
Understatement of the century!! It has ALWAYS been that way!! Why they CAN’T or WON’T rewrite it in clearer terms is beyond all reasoning.
grrrrrrrrrrrrr- that said
“if you win the one time $2500 award Mar 24, are you out of the running for ‘college-sponsored NM Scholarships’ which are $500-$2K per year.”
NO, but only if you REFUSE the one time $2500 award- which can be done in May.
You must choose which “official” scholarship to receive if you are going to go to a college that DOES sponsor NM AND you are offered the $2500 award…
Lets say you are notified that you have been chosen to receive the one time $2500 scholarship.
1 month later you are accepted at college “A” and decide you would rather receive 1000K per year,.
All you have to do is contact NM and let them know you are refusing the $2500 award.
Then send in the card after your college decision is made Notifying NM that college “A” is your first choice.
You will then have the 1K automatically deposited into the student acct into which you pay tuition.
“How about the “big” scholarships given by colleges you designate as first choice?”
NO. You are not out of the running.
The stipulation for the BIG awards is you designate YOUR final choice of college to NM in early May as your first choice.
But those full rides are not official NM college-sponsored scholarships. They would be from the college’s own funds, not funds from NM Corporation.