<p>Yea, you don't have to designate a 1st choice school until the NM deadline, whici is some time in April or May or beyond (as I recall). S decided to wait until he had all his replies from colleges before he designated the school he decided to attend as his 1st choice because honestly he couldn't decide among several schools.
One of the schools, Boston U said he had to have designated them by 2/1 to get any merit award from them. He ended up turning them down because they didn't offer him any merit $ because he never designated them. All of the other schools that accepted him said he just had to designate them before the deadline set by NMF & he'd get their merit awards which were all around $18K-$20K/year, renewable for 4 years & left a remaining cost of attendance between $0 and $25K, depending on the school he chose.</p>
<p>Can anyone verify that Grinnell gives a full ride or substantial merit aid to NMFs?</p>
<p>NATIONAL MERIT SCHOLARSHIP - GRINNELL SPONSORED</p>
<p>Awarded to National Merit finalists who list Grinnell as their first-choice on the National Merit Corporation's application, this $2,000 award is renewable for three additional years.</p>
<p>momof3sosns</p>
<p>That's what I thought. $8,000 over 4 years isn't nothing, but it's not what I'd call substatial either.</p>
<p>UF will give $5000 to instate students and $17 plus out of state tuition waver to OOS. That's a 77% decrease for instate, 55% OOS. UCF offers full tuition and room & board scholarships. Don't know if that's for FL residents or covers OOS too. You also get free weekly room cleaning in the honors dorm according to the email sent to D! USF offers full scholarships that cover tuition and R&B for OOS, with some extras for instate students..</p>
<p>I don't know about Grinnell, but some colleges will combine the $2,000 National Merit scholarship with another scholarship. For instance, the University of Rochester awards $15,000 a year to NMFs, which is a combination of NM and another source of funds.</p>
<p>My point is that even if the website says "$2,000," it might pay to poke around some more or send an e-mail to the college for more specifics.</p>
<p>University of Alabama in Huntsville offers full tuition to NMF (this is a stand alone campus in the UofA system.)</p>
<p>Rice has some fairly clear advice on their website about naming a first choice school (good advice for most any NM school, except sticklers like BU with early deadlines) and why it may be a good idea to remain officially undecided until the deadline, especially for students wait-listed during an early admissions round.</p>
<p>USoCal will give National Merit Scholars 1/2 tuition Presidential Scholarships if they name USC their #1 school by the NM deadline. They may also be awarded additional merit aid by USC. The scholarship is renewable for 4 years with a 3.0 GPA & maintaining satisfactory progress toward a degree (17 credits/semester). This year, this amounts to over $8K/semester or >$16K/year.
USC is also quite generous with need-based aid for students they want. Each school/program has merit aid to award. It's appears most of the merit aid is awarded to incoming freshmen & renewable.</p>
<p>University of Cincinnati: Everything except board for both NMF and NAF; $1.500 to off set cost of a computer or study abroad program. Engineering(great co-ops S graduated last year), College Conservatory of Music and DAAP (Design & Artch.) are standout programs. Campus is Urban and all new.</p>