<p>We saw one of your past posts about University of Tulsa ( top 100) & their National Merit scholarship. We visited, our son LOVED IT and he will now be attending on a full ride ( Presidential Scholarship) . We also know other NMF who didn’t win the Presidential at Tulsa but are attending Tulsa with good scholarships. So, thanks for sharing. In fact, we learned a ton from all of you who shared. Thanks & Good luck mantori.suzuk to your son at the state university on the big NMF scholarship and all the rest of you. Woohoo!</p>
<p>I am very happy that I’ve helped tune someone in to Tulsa! Good luck to your son there. In seven years I’ll be encouraging my daughter to give it a look as well.</p>
<p>Thanks to this excellent site, my son was able to track down the school and program of his choice, Auburn University School of Engineering, and receive a full scholarship as a Presidential Scholar. An earlier comment about U of Chicago rang very true: though he was accepted for the Fall of 2010, the school personnel seemed fairly indifferent in our many communications with the Financial Aid Office. </p>
<p>The folks at the Honors College at Auburn were incredibly friendly, hospitable, and knowledgeable. I highly recommend National Merit Scholars to explore Auburn. Ditto University of Alabama, which offers a very comparable scholarship package for NM Scholars. He probably would have been just as happy to attend University of Alabama, though their engineering programs didn’t seem to be quite at the same level.</p>
<p>As an aside, we live in Madison, WI, and UW-Madison would have been his first choice were the financial aid and scholarships even close to UA or Auburn. Definitely not. He was accepted to UW, but the financial package was minimal</p>
<p>Thanks to all of you for contributing to this site. What a great gift to parents and students!</p>
<p>RickUW: Congrats on your son choosing Auburn. My daughter also will be there and I have heard so will be another 120+ NMF in the freshman class. A lot of recruiting. There should be a good number of academically strong peers to choose from.</p>
<p>My son is a national merit finalist. Loyola Chicago gave out five full tuition scholarships to national merit finalists. He received one of them. Estimates to 31,000 in tuition per year. They also are giving him 2,000 annually towards their 10,000 annual room and board. He submitted his SAT and high school transcripts. This appears to be strictly on merit alone.</p>
<p>RickUW and proud_mom: War Eagle! I’m from an Auburn family and I can tell you without a doubt that the Auburn experience is wonderful. Great academics, good atmosphere, plus SEC football. Good luck to your children.</p>
<p>My daughter is touring Auburn today – very friendly, a beautiful, garden-like campus, well planned itinerary and helpful advisors. They mentioned that since the most recent board of trustees meeting (mid June, 2010) there will be some changes to scholarship requirements in the upcoming year. We are hopeful that the NM award is not in any sort of jeopardy.
RE: University of Tulsa – there were several students from my son’s high school who will be attending U.Tulsa this fall – they all were very impressed with the program, received excellent scholarships, and his high school has great feedback from its alumni who have attended in the past or are currently attending. Must be well worth a good look.</p>
<p>audellmom: It is interesting that you were told that there may be some scholarship changes for the fall. Auburn’s website does show changes to their non-NMF Academic scholarships, including the big Presidential one, but the NMF is still the same, so far. Hopefully, for your daughter’s sake it will continue. They want NMF’s, but this economy is relentless.</p>
<p>proud_mom: The Auburn admissions liaison sent us an email today – she said that the NMF award will remain as it is (good news). You are correct, they have adjusted the non-resident presidential award (now 2/3 of tuition) but National Scholars is currently unchanged. My daughter loved Auburn – best of luck to your student!</p>
<p>Beware of the wording “full tuition”. Some states have not increased tuition, but they’ll hit you with hidden fees—fees per credit hour, health center fees, rec center fees, bus fees, etc. They can add up, but in general, it’s still a good deal if you qualify.</p>
<p>As I wrote earlier,Son #1 is happily enrolled at Auburn University as a Presidential Scholar (as a result of NM Finalist status)and begins his freshman year in August. Son #2 is a high school senior and has PSAT scores higher than his brother, so is likely to get the NM scholarship as well. He is not interested in going anywhere but Georgetown or Naval Academy, possibly Boston College.</p>
<p>I just wish we could get him interested in Auburn. We couldn’t be more pleased with the staff, faculty, student representatives, campus, on-campus employment opportunties (son #1 was hired to do gopher work for the Athletic Department)… Campus ministry was also an important factor in his decision, and we visited several Christian organizations and were extremely impressed. We’re Lutherans, and Lutherans are scarce in Alabama, but the Presbyterian and Wesleyan campus ministries were very gracious and offer students much to grow in their faith.</p>
<p>Put Auburn on your list, definitely, if you are a National Merit Finalist. There is so much to commend there.</p>
<p>*Son #2 is a high school senior and has PSAT scores higher than his brother, so is likely to get the NM scholarship as well. He is not interested in going anywhere but Georgetown or Naval Academy, possibly Boston College.</p>
<p>I just wish we could get him interested in Auburn. *</p>
<p>Well, if you can happily pay for Georgetown or BC, then you probably can’t influence your child. However, if you can’t pay what those schools would expect you to pay, then you simply tell your child that you can only pay X dollars and that won’t likely be enough, so he better have some less expensive back up schools…such as Auburn and others. </p>
<p>I would insist that my son visit a few NMF schools and keep an open mind. Your son may be resisting the idea of going to the same school as his brother. There are other schools that give big NMF scholarships, so include some of those. </p>
<p>My older son was a bit like this at first, but we made it clear that our EFC was too high (even when the second child would go to school), so he needed to also apply to some schools that would give him a good NMF scholarship. We visited many schools. Three of them gave big NMF scholarships…Auburn, Alabama, and Fordham. </p>
<p>He is starting his fourth year at Alabama and loves it. The honors program is awesome, the profs are caring, and the campus is beautiful. Our younger son is there, too. He didn’t want to apply anywhere else (but we made him apply to at least 6 schools).</p>
<p>RickUW: I concur with your impression of Auburn. My daughter also starts her Auburn career this August. She and a roommate are interested in the Wesleyan ministry and she plans to be involved in a pre-health organization. Her only problem so far has not being to get student season football tickets. I guess a scalper will get some of her money. Thankfully she has the NMF scholarship.</p>
<p>RickUW: Is your son interested in political science, or history? His school choices (incl. the Naval Academy) seem to trend in that direction. I would concur with Mom2collegekids that Fordham may be worth a look. They have notable poly sci, history divisions, great business and law programs, and the Rose Hill campus is quite picturesque. Room and board is expensive (excessively so, but it’s NYC) but the NMF scholarship covers your tuition. Fordham is Jesuit, but if BC is in the running, then I’m guessing that wouldn’t be an issue. Keep it in your sights as a possibility.</p>
<p>I didn’t realize Fordham gave full tuition to NMF. Good to know. We have several friends attending this year, and a couple are NMF. Were wondering how a couple could afford it, but at least one got some good outside scholarships, including the Byrd.</p>
<p>Hoping the trend continues with Auburn and Alabama continuing with their generous NMF scholarships. I’ve heard there have been changes to the Auburn non NMF scholarships, and I hope they don’t go the same route with the NMF package. Auburn has been wonderful for some friends of ours who are National Hispanic/Achievement, opening a lot of doors for kids who otherwise may not have been able to go OOS. (We’re in Louisiana). There are major cuts in education in our state right now, as in others, and we are greatful nearby states are offering such great scholarships to our kids.</p>
<p>I am re-reading earlier posts from you folks, and want to thank you for the suggestions. Being at Auburn, in the Honors program as a Presidential Scholar (NM Finalist) has been everything he could have hoped for. Alabama and the deep south is completely unfamiliar territory for us, but we could not be more pleased.</p>
<p>So much so that our other son, just notified that he made the Wisconsin cut fo NMSF, will be touring both AU and UA next week–and going to the Auburn-South Carolina game on top of it! Even days ago he would not have given these schools a second look, but his brothers positive experience has opened his world to the great possibilities that come from looking at all the options with fresh eyes and heart.</p>
<p>Thanks again for all the good folks who contribute to this thread and these discussions. They have saved us lots of trial and error and expense.</p>
<p>Best wishes to you and your adult children.</p>
<p>RickUW, you won’t be far from Ole Miss, which offers a great NMF package as well. It’s a different kind of environment than Alabama, more of a small-college feel. (Don’t know much about Auburn.) I’d encourage you to check it out.</p>