<p>I just got notified that I won a $2500 NM schiolarship and I have to accept or reject it by April 7. I am so confused. I am pretty certain I will be attending the school I listed as first choice that offers tuition plus 4K a $132K package. I called the school and they said there is no "official" part of the scholarship. That they would just keep the $2500 to offset the offer. This confused me. So now that I received the $2500 offer do I lose my full tuition scholarship? Do I need to reject the NM offer? Please advise I am confused.</p>
<p>Call NMCorporation…they will tell you what to do in order to get the most. </p>
<p>If your school offers an NMF scholarship and NONE of it is “official”…then you probably can take the 2500 …AND…take what the school offers you.</p>
<p>I would contact your school again. Perhaps the person you spoke to doesn’t really understand…email the scholarships director. Then KEEP the response.</p>
<p>NMSC only offers you one scholarship, so it’s best to accept it. The school may offer you additional money after you receive it.</p>
<p>I had a similar conversation with son’s future school - he has a full tuition (NOT NM) merit based scholarship. They told him (need to verify) that NM only covers tuition so that if we accept the scholarship, it would just save the school the $2,500 and we would not get the benefit. I have not yet called NM, but I believe others have told me that the NM money can be used for other school expenses (room and board, books and supplies, etc.).</p>
<p>Some colleges will reduce their aid by the amount of outside scholarships. In such a case, there may be no impact on you whether you accept or reject the outside scholarship. If you accept it, it saves your college money. If you reject it, presumably somebody else will get it.</p>
<p>I verified my son will be able to bank the $2,500 scholarship … he was honored to receive a full-ride tuition, room & board + a lap-top to Rose-Hulman-- a private engineering school ranked #1 by Newsweek for undergraduate engineering schools. He will can use the money for books.<br>
So I think it is school dependent … as was stated–check with the financial aid office … good luck</p>
<p>As advised before accept it. At the worst, the school will reduce your aid by $2500 but then you can say you are National Merit Scholarship winner. At the best case, you can keep it.</p>
<p>You loose nothing. Call the school however. You are required to inform them of outside scholarships and the NMSC will send the check to the college, not to you.</p>
<p>I was a Finalist, but did not receive any notification about this. Does this mean that I did not win the $2500 scholarship?</p>
<p>At this stage, I would assume that all letters have been mailed and should have been received.</p>
<p>Concentrate on college scholarships.</p>