Full Rides for National Merit Finalists/Scholars

<p>I have to give a plug for the program that Arizona State in Tempe offers for National Merit Finalists. My son is nearing the end of his first year there as Business major, and is doing really well in a great environment. The Merit Scholar deal at ASU is easy to understand. It's $21,500/year (for out of state, less for in-state) credited to your student account, which easily covers tuition, room and board and some extras. (Don't know if it will go up if tuition goes up - the award did go up last year from the previous year.) So the money part is very easy to understand. However, I think the real benefit is the strength of the school. First of all, all the NMFs end up in the Barrett Honors College, which is superb. Great faculty, strong support and advising, super opportunities for study abroad, a faculty member whose job is to help these kids get all sorts of scholarships (i.e. Truman, Fulbright, Rhodes) as well as take advantage of the programs that pay for summer study, etc. Secondly the academic environment is strong - my son realized through his required freshman honors seminar that he wants to double major in Philosophy. Also, if the kids follow through on the senior thesis requirement, they graduate with a genuine Honors degree. Thirdly, for business, engineering, communications and education majors, I think the ASU schools in each of those disciplines are quite well regarded. (And as another poster pointed out, where you get your undergrad is pretty well irrelevant once you get the graduate degree that most kids will need. And a top student from a public university is always going to appeal to a prestigious graduate school that wants to have a diverse student mix.)
The Barrett Honors College does a great job with recruiting and ASU overall is a very easy school to deal with - even from across the country. People are genuinely nice and accommodating, I have run into NO red tape which is amazing. (People at the school attribute this to the fact that it gets so hot in Phoenix, they have to be nice to each other...) Honors students get priority registration, so my son has gotten all the classes he wants and needs.
Obviously we're very pleased with the experience.<br>
And lastly I would have to urge any student with the opportunity to get four years of education essentially for free to take advantage of the opportunity. What is available for NMFs is just too good to pass up!</p>

<p>Have any NMF students been notified of having been awarded NMS? D got NMF notification in February but hasn't heard anything since...it'd be nice to be selected as NMS :)</p>

<p>If I recall correctly from last year, I didn't hear anything for sure on whether or not I was named a NMS until after school let out. They release the list of NMS's in several waves. It should all be explained in your NMSF packet or your NMF letter. I know it's hard to wait to hear back anything, but sometimes patience is the key. Keep in mind only about half of those students named as a NMF are named as a NMS. I was not one of those. However, I did receive several generous scholarship offers and am going to school out of state for a very very reasonable amount (I'm the D of workingforblue).</p>

<p>For NMF, by which date do we need to OFFICIALLY declare our first choice school?</p>

<p>to the OP,
many top tier schools don't offer full rides off of NM; they usually give $1000 or so depending on need. HOWEVER, just because a school doesn't give full for NM doesn't mean you shouldn't apply there. if you're top 1%, you're definitely competitive for other merit scholarships if your ECs are good. you could possibly get a full ride without the title "national merit scholarship." bottom line: keep your options open. there are other merit scholarships out there that's not under NM.</p>

<p>mems55,</p>

<p>You may want to write about the Barrett Honors College in the State Honors College thread. I was going to write about it, but my schedule has been crazy and I am leaving today in a 1800 mile drive.</p>

<p>Here is the is the link:
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=48925%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=48925&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>My daughter was a finalist 2 years ago and received a full scholarship (tuition, room & board) to University of Richmond in Virginia. UR had 50 full scholarships per year but not necessarily based on NM status (however, it helps) - might be worth an application. She also received high monetary offers from UT/Dallas; OU (Oklahoma University); Trinity in San Antonio. Hope this gives you some ideas. You will probably be receiving letters from a number of colleges with offers provided that you list them as first choice.</p>

<p>from what I've seen, univ. of central florida has one of the top full-ride offers out there for nmf's. </p>

<p>a tip - if the nmf or nmsf is interested in publics, be sure to let admissions know that you've been named a nmsf or nmf .............even if the school isn't a national merit participating school. some of the schools may offer presidential scholarships, etc. and especially to in-state students.</p>

<p>This thread seems to be very good for a new round of potential NMS. Any new information regarding full ride scholarship that anyone can add to this?</p>

<p>Just if anyone's interested... a couple of private schools offer half-tuition scholarships for NMFs... BU, USC, etc. It's not a full-ride, but it's a pretty substantial amount.</p>

<p>OSU offered full tuition plus $4500 last year to NMF which is about a 3/4 scholarship. This will be my son's first choice if he makes NMF (and really even if he doesn't) for engineering.</p>

<p>I believe USC (Southern Cal) has both full and half tuition scholarship for NMF's.</p>

<p>If you want to take advantage of getting the half-tuition at a school like BU you have to be sure to list them as your "first choice" school before the deadline, or you will not receive the scholarship.</p>

<p>We went to our son's senior awards night, and our Salutorian and another NMF finalist chose UCF in part, I believe, because of the fabulous scholarships. My S is going there, too ... not high enough for NMF but UCF offered him Honors admission and merit money, even with us having a high EFC. </p>

<p>Zebes</p>

<p>zebes, in your opinion, is UCF a very good school? Thanks.</p>

<p>d was nmf last year and ucf was a school she considered but in the end, did not choose. ucf extended the merit aid offer to her and she would have been in the honors college.</p>

<p>in addition to ucf, you might want to check out the merit aid offers at univ. of tulsa, oklahoma, oklahoma state, baylor, univ. of texas - dallas, univ. of houston, texas tech, and texas a & m. </p>

<p>also check with the public colleges in your home state and nearby states.</p>

<p>be sure you let them know that you are an nmf when you inquire.</p>

<p>leungpy1,</p>

<p>I think UCF is up and coming, and I know that certain majors do very well there ... engineering, nursing, are two I can think of. My husband's an engineer with Siemens, and we have several friends that work for Lockheed Martin, and they've been hiring a lot of UCF graduates and been very pleased. Also, the Rosen Hospitality school is perfectly situated in terms of being in one of the tourist meccas, i.e. Disney/Universal. There's also the digital imaging degree, which is afficiliated with EA games and Full sail, and a new imaging group coming to town that helped with Spiderman and Polar Express, can't think of the name. I know that the addition of the med school is bringing some excitement to the area, too ... especially as it's going to be with a major biomedical research firm and other bio tech/med businesses at Lake Nona. The impression I've had about the Honors College, and again ... my S is an incoming freshman, has been positive. We went to an admitted student open house a couple of weeks ago, figuring there wouldn't be many there, as it was on a Friday afternoon right after school. They have these open house, periodically. Anyway, we were right, the weather was horrible, rainstorms in the area, so we figured local kids would blow off the meeting, and they did. So, we had the director of honors, the head of honors advising and three students who were to discuss the program and answer questions, and little ol' us. We spent the next hour and a half having essentially a tutorial. They answered all our questions, offered some excellent advice, and made us feel as though we were very important to them, even though they easily could have given us a readers digest, watered down afternoon. My s was impressed, overall, and pleased he'd decided to do honors housing, as well. They helped him define/refine his plans for his undergraduat degree, knowing that his goal is law school. I won't attempt to say that UCF is the best florida university; I know better. However, I believe it's the best fit for my S.</p>

<p>zebes</p>

<p>Question on UCF.... they only offer scholarships to NMF? What about if you are only Commended? Any schools out there, even if not full scholarship. What do the schools give?</p>

<p>Uurkulmum, </p>

<p>I don't know how many scholarships are offered or how many are full ride, but my S was not National Merit ... not even commended, and he was offered merit money. Full ride, no ... but excellent, considering he already gets full tuition through bright futures, and this was on top of that.</p>

<p>Zebes</p>

<p>I have a question regarding NMS scholarship offered by University of Alabama. On their web site they indicate that the scholarship will cover housing. Is that mean room and board rather than just room?</p>