Help, how do I receive National Merit money?

<p>I’m a finalist and I’ve been accepted to ASU. How do I get the official scholarship offer? The only stuff they send me in the mail is generic stuff or housing information.</p>

<p>Thanks.</p>

<p>You must do two things: be accepted into Barrett the Honors College which is an application beyond the regular ASU application, and notify National Merit organization that ASU is your first choice. You should have received a postcard from NMS when you were notified you were a finalist. You mail or fax a change of your first choice. NMS notifies ASU. Then you will automatically be offered the Barrett scholarship. </p>

<p>My student is a freshman there this year and has already been offered more opportunites than anyone could ever accept.</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

<p>You do NOT have to apply to Barrett in order to receive the NM Finalist scholarship. Applying to Barrett is a personal choice and completely separate from financial aid issues. However, as elcee mentioned, it is a wonderful opportunity and you should definitely look into it if you haven't already.</p>

<p>But you do have to notify NMSC that ASU is your first choice so that they put you on the eligibility list. That is absolutely critical. Without that, you won't get it, so do it right away if ASU is where you want to go. </p>

<p>It does seem odd though that ASU hasn't at least mentioned the availability of the scholarship to you. Did you just get accepted recently? It sometimes takes another week or two before they get specific financial aid info out. You might want to contact the Financial Aid office just to make sure they know you are a NM Finalist and are interested in the scholarship, because it's a nice chunk of money.</p>

<p>I was accepted by ASU maybe a month ago, and got NMF notification a couple weeks ago I believe. I would definitely do Barret if I go, but I haven't applied to it, I thought it was automatic to get in if you are NMF. Can I get a letter from ASU offering the schoalrship before I change my first choice with NMSC to ASU? I might put USC instead because they give some money too. ASU isn't my first choice school to go to, but a official offer would be nice. I am probably going to visit there next month.</p>

<p>D got a nice scholarship from ASU, but it didn't show up until about two or three weeks after the acceptance.</p>

<p>Hey, even though it's now March 7th and past the March 1st "deadline", will I still be considered for an institutional merit scholarship if i mail in my card soon with my "first choice" now officially "chosen"? </p>

<p>Is it pointless to put a non-sponsor college as my first choice? I'm asking because I'm putting down my 3rd choice as my "first choice" on the card because that's the only sponsor college out of all the colleges I've applied to. </p>

<p>Also, do you guys know how the winners of the $2.5K non-institutional/non-commercial scholarships are awarded? I know that the college choice does not affect this, but how hard is it get this if it's on a state-representational basis?</p>

<p>Mmmk, here's the deal, from someone in-state who's getting ASU NMF money: 1st, you had to apply. If you applied late, like last month or january, then EVERYTHING is backed up. If you've got notification of the availability yet, definitely contact ASU (if you can, their bureacracy is a mess), but be patient. So long as you've been accepted to ASU, you won't actually see any of the scholarship money until fall when you enter.</p>

<p>HOWEVER, if you have NOT put ASU as your first-choice college, then they won't give you your money. I put ASU as my first choice right from the get-go, so they've gotten crap from NMSC, so I don't know what steps you'll have to go through, besides mailing that card to NMSC telling them you're changing colleges SOON.</p>

<p>As to giving your third choice as your first choice: that's what I'm doing, sort of. Olin's my other major choice, but they don't give merit-based aid, so unless I actually decide to go to Olin, I'm keeping ASU as my "first choice." However, nice thing about ASU: it doesn't "officially" give you scholarships from the NMSC. Those scholarships, like the ones given by Mudd, are worth only about 2k/year. However, with ASU, NMSC has offered me a corporate scholarship for 1k/year because NMSC doesn't count asu's scholarship as a national merit scholarship. So, if you want a chance at scholarships from the actual NMSC, you'll have a chance to get them if your 1st choice school with NMSC isn't one that gives scholarships THROUGH NMSC. </p>

<p>But, if your 1st choice is one that does go through NMSC, then you'll likely get a bigger NM scholarship (like 2k, rather than 1k or less) by putting them as your first choice.</p>