Got a letter about National Merit Aid... does this mean anything?

It’s my first choice, I applied EA and listed them as the first choice on my national merit finalist app. Do you think they send this out to all semifinalists? Does this in anyway help my admission chances?

My son received one, He has applied EA and did not list Chicago as his number one, as he listed our in state public university that will give a full ride for National Merit Scholars.

My D also received a letter about NMF merit aid, and she has not applied to UC. She has not listed a first choice school with NMSC. She has no connection to UC, other than receiving frequent mailings from them. So, I wouldn’t put too much stock in the letter.

Wouldn’t read too much into the letter - they are probably trying not to repeat last year’s missteps. They terminated their $4,000 / year guarantee to NMF’s in the middle of the application cycle (after some NMSF EDI’s had already committed) and - not surprisingly - ended up getting a few complaints. This year they are disclosing the scholarship potential more openly, which is a good thing.

My kid was NMSF this time last year and was deferred EA. She switched to EDII and was accepted. UChicago tends to attract a lot of NMF’s and the ones we knew about all applied ED as well. It’s hard to gauge how much NMF potential actually helps you anymore but it probably does to some extent or at least is correlated with other things they like about your application.

UChicago doesn’t see any lists till March so you have plenty of time to list them or another institution as “first choice”.

Same thing as @ShrimpBurrito here. I would not read anything into it.