<p>Confused about naming Fordham as first choice for National Merit consideration. D has been awarded the Fordham NM Semifinalist Scholarship. Now that she is named a Finalist, what is the potential benefit of naming Fordham as her first choice? Thanks in advance for any assistance.</p>
<p>My3Daughters- I received $15,000 year from St. Joes, another Jesuit university. That offer is just merit aid (no idea on need based) as opposed to Fordham’s offer of $9,400 all together.</p>
<p>Congratulations, Beast! My D has the NMSF scholarship and she received an extra $1000 from Fordham. She sent the form back in April, after she decided to go to Fordham.</p>
<p>Beast,</p>
<p>If your daughter puts Fordham as her first-choice, it will make her eligible for Fordham’s ‘official’ National Merit Scholarship; receiving this will make her an official National Merit Scholar. No matter what scholarship she receives, I don’t think the actual money from Fordham will change- the university would probably just deduct the amount of the scholarship from the aid they’re is giving her.</p>
<p>Hold on a minute…</p>
<p>We do not have to designate Fordham as our first choice to NM in order to receive the full-tuition scholarship, but if we do, we receive $1000 from Fordham, which is then cut in half?</p>
<p>Or is the $1000 from NM corp, something I have never heard of?</p>
<p>And are we NM Scholars only if we report Fordham as our top choice to NM.</p>
<p>Hmm, the only problem for me is that Northeastern has you report them as well.</p>
<p>Junior, you don’t have to designate Fordham to get the NMSF full tuition scholarship, but you do need to designate Fordham to get additional $ from Fordham. It was $2000, which was cut in half. Last year, the designation deadline was after May 1st, so my D didn’t have to send the form back to the National Merit corp until after she selected the college that she wanted to attend.</p>
<p>About the “Are we NM Scholars,” yes, you are only a national merit scholar if you receive the $2,000. If you look up the annual report, it says how many SFs attend the school on the university’s official scholarship (the 2000). I think it’s like 34/37 at RH.</p>
<p>I believe the three who weren’t awarded the scholarship were awarded either one of the 2,500 or nothing.</p>
<p>where do we find our financial aid package I didnt find anything in the envelope or online?
Can someone direct me to it?</p>
<p>I havent gotten the financial award yet either. I did get notification of a scholarship today though. Was about 15,900 if I remember correctly.</p>
<p>If you filed your FAFSA through Fordham’s third party partner Student Financial Services and designate Fordham first on the FAFSA you receive an early “estimate”. It came out to be the exact same when I used the net price calculator, so give that a try</p>
<p>GCmom415…my D was accepted in November…I think with similar stats (your D had more Honors and higher GPA…same SAT, I think). We did the SFS through Fordham and filed the FAFSA in Dec. We got an estimate around Christmas with a very small tuition award. I’m hoping that they might add to it. Had you received the estimate yet? Do you know what kind of scholarship? My daughter received a very generous scholarship at Hofstra…though I know Hofstra and Fordham are quite different…the choice is hard. She really wants to go to Fordham!</p>
<p>I did not get an estimate. My daughter was admitted EA but I could not do the early fasfa…I just submitted it last week. I was just notified today about the merit money but that still would not be enough for me to send her. I have to see the full financial award…I also am waiting on my ex husband to submit the non custodial css profile.</p>
<p>sounds like all these non NMS packets are stinking…
im not NMS and i got a little less than half the full cost with a fairly low GPA… but with very low income Fordham is still not on the table… its a shame.</p>
<p>Does merit aid tie in at all with need? My daughter was accepted EA and we did the FAFSA in December. I don’t beleive we would qualify for any need-based aid. Her stats were 2120 SAT, National Merit Commended Student with perfect score in Writing, 3.77 unweighted / 4.15 weighted – she got $13,800. Artobsessed, you indicated you had a little more than half the tuition covered. Do you mind my asking your stats? (You probably gave them at one point, but I forget.) Does income impact what a student gets merit-wise?</p>
<p>Fordham solicited my application so I applied. I was accepted EA but my family does not qualify for aid, huge EFC. So far Fordham only gives me $20K merit aid. Fordham is no longer a consideration since my family still have to apy $40K out of pocket.</p>
<p>@My3Daughters no problem:
weighted GPA - 3.51 at the time of application (3.61 now not that they care)
SAT 2170 superscore
essay - really awesome
art portfolio - radical
recommendations from english and physics excellent
taking 7 AP courses senior year
a (near) trilingual white catholic school girl, less than $60,000 family income
i received approx. $25,300 after submitting my FAFSA</p>
<p>** GUYS, do you think if i submitted more stuff to the admissions committee (stellar mid-year report and increased GPA, a scientific abstract for my major, some recent awards, etc.) they would reconsider and raise merit scholarship? in other words, should i try to negotiate with some of my improved stats? **</p>
<p>Artobsessed, yes I think you should use your recent accomlishments to try to persuade Fordham to give more aid.</p>
<p>AirForceWuhn: are your stats better than my daughters’ (right above your last post)? I’m trying to figure out, if need doesn’t figure into the picture, why my daughter wouldn’t have received more than $13,800. Could geographic diversity (we’re from the NY Metro area, so not diverse), or other similar factors impact the amount of merit aid?</p>
<p>Quick post before I go for a college visit. My stats are SAT 2320, 10 APs, top 1% rank, 4.0 UW GPA. I would have considered Fordham if I received full tuition because I love NYC.</p>
<p>Shocked you didn’t receive more merit aid, AirforceWuhn – try to appeal?</p>