<p>How does the National Merit Corporation decide who is part of the final 8,200 who receive a scholarship, whether it is from themselves, a corporate sponsor or from a college?</p>
<p>I cannot the full question, but let me try. The college sponsor is essentially self selection, you notify NMSC which college is your first choice and the college decides if you get an college sponsored award (most colleges will give it to all those who choose that college, but colleges could have limit to the number).</p>
<p>Now the corporate scholarships and the NMSC scholarships are decided by NMSC staff. Now corporate scholarships are decided based on those who meet the elegibility criteria and number of scholarships for that sponsor. In the case of Boeing, any one who becomes a finalist and is the child of a Boeing employee automatically gets the Boeing Scholarship. In case of The Acushnet Company, Inc, they give only 3 awards and so if there are more than 3 employees children who make the finalist cut, the NMSC staff will use some criteria ( includes abilities, skills, and accomplishments) and choose only 3 for Acushnet award.</p>
<p>For the NMSC one time award of $2500, a committee of college admission officers and high school counselors make the decision and it is based on a state representational basis basis and takes into account a host of factors. </p>
<p>From a timing perspective, corporate awards come first and the NMSC awards. School awards can happen only after the schools are notified and the first notification happens I believe in March. What I am not clear about is how do they handle conflicts. If a student is selected for both the corporate and NMSC award, is the student given a choice or the NMSC decides that for them? Similarly, if a student gets all three (corporate, NMSC and school) when do they decide? A student can get only one, so the question is how does that process work?</p>
<p>This link gives the details, </p>
<p><a href=“http://www.nationalmerit.org/student_guide.pdf[/url]”>http://www.nationalmerit.org/student_guide.pdf</a></p>
<p>hope this helps</p>
<p>Now the corporate scholarships and the NMSC scholarships are decided by NMSC staff.</p>
<p>Typically, corporate scholarships are given to the children of the employees of those corporations (usually, the corporations require this). So, if your parent works for a corporate sponsor, you have a good chance of getting one. So, it’s not really true that NMCorp decides who gets them. NMCorp can’t just give them to anyone they want. </p>
<p>Often, for a child to be considered for a corporate scholarship, a parent must fill out paperwork around the fall of junior year. </p>
<p>So…your chances of getting one of the 8200 (or so) NM scholarships is increased by your situation. The number of 8200 is not set in stone, because some colleges will award NMF scholarships to EVERY NMF that goes to their school - no matter how many kids make that choice.</p>
<p>Oh, and if you receive two scholarships officially from NM, you get to pick one of them. There are tons of stories about people who were offered both a full-ride at some college and a $1000 scholarship and they usually opted for the full-ride. However, this doesn’t apply to the scholarships that colleges give you just for being NMF since those aren’t sponsored by the National Merit Corporation itself.</p>
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<p>I don’t remember filling out any special paperwork for my son last year. My employer info was entered in application for finalist. However, I called NM Corp last week to make sure that they have associated my son with my employer. People who answer the phones at NM Corp are very friendly and helpful.</p>
<p>mom2collegekids you said.</p>
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<p>As I had clarified in the post, every corporate sponsor has criteria and the criteria usually is that the students parent/s should work for that sponsor. So that is a given, to the get the scholarship from Boeing a parent needs to work for Boeing, for the Acushnet scholarship, parent/s need to work from Acushnet etc.</p>
<p>What happens is that NMSC staff first ensure that the student meets the criteria. If the number of students who meet the criteria are less than or equal to the number of awards, then everyone gets an award. If the number of students who meet the criteria are more than the number of awards, the NMSC staff decide who gets it. So NMSC staff make the decision on who gets the scholarship among those who meet criteria, they do not set the criteria, which is set by the sponsor. In case of Boeing, there is no decision, everyone gets its if the student’s parent works for Boeing or its subsidiaries. For some other sponsors there could be a decision. Hope this clarifies my statement. </p>
<p>If you look at the table on page 7 of the student guide, you will see that it clearly states that NMSC make the decision. Link given below to the student guide.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.nationalmerit.org/student_guide.pdf[/url]”>http://www.nationalmerit.org/student_guide.pdf</a></p>
<p>I don’t remember filling out any special paperwork for my son last year.</p>
<p>Not every corporation requires this, but many do. This can be upsetting for parents who didn’t know this.</p>
<p>Maze…
Oops…I don’t know how I missed that part of your post where you clarified corporate $…sorry…</p>
<p>*In case of Boeing, there is no decision, everyone gets its if the student’s parent works for Boeing or its subsidiaries. In case of Boeing, there is no decision, everyone gets its if the student’s parent works for Boeing or its subsidiaries. *
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<p>However, according to a Boeing employee, not every child gets a scholarship. Supposedly, Boeing is one of the companies that requires parents to fill out paperwork in the fall of junior year. Many parents don’t have the NMF on their radar during fall of junior year, so they miss the sign up date. If the paperwork isn’t submitted on time, then that Boeing child doesn’t get the scholarship (according to this employee). We’re not Boeing employees (anymore…LOL), but that’s what another Boeing parent of a NMF told me.</p>
<p>mom2collegekids
Ah, I did not know that Boeing had that additional condition (criteria). The only reason I picked Boeing for my example is that student guide says:</p>
<p>The Boeing Company–Every Finalist who is the child of an employee of the company or a subsidiary will be offered an award.</p>
<p>I assumed that everyone who gets to the finalist stage gets it, did not know that there were additional conditions. So that is a good point to parents. If your company is on this list, then it is important you find out what the conditions are in advance and plan for it, not wait till the last moment. My employer is not on the list of sponsors, so my son is more or less out of the race for corporate awards unless he is considered for something like the CACI International Inc award which is offered to (I am not sure what particular fields are but this what the student guide says)</p>
<p>CACI International Inc–5 awards—3 awards for children of employees of the company and its subsidiaries; 2 awards for Finalists who are planning to major in certain technological and mathematical fields.</p>
<p>Thank you all very much for your answers!</p>
<p>Because they specified that only 8,200 finalists would get a scholarship, I was under the impression that they selected 50% of finalists to offer scholarships to. Why do the other 6,800 not get scholarships? Is it just because they pick a college that gives limited National Merit Scholarships?</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>Yes, it is because the colleges the pick do not give merit scholarships on their own. Harvard for example has one of the highest number of finalists attending there but all those who get an award and attend Harvard either get a corporate sponsor award or NMSC award, not an award from Harvard. I am sure there NMF in Harvard who do not get an award. </p>
<p>You also have to remember that not corporate scholarships are actually given. If a sponsor has 10 scholarships, not all 10 may be awarded if their are not enough candidates. Again there is nothing like limited National Merit scholarship. You get it or you don’t. A corporate sponsor may have give $1000 a year, another may give a one time award of $2000, in the eyes of NMSC you have got an award. Similarly some colleges give $2000 a year, others tack on tuition scholarships, they all are national merit award winners. The 6800 do not get any award. The 8200 get financial awards, the amount depending upon the sponsor. So it is not a objective process of determining the ones who get the award.</p>
<p>*Because they specified that only 8,200 finalists would get a scholarship, I was under the impression that they selected 50% of finalists to offer scholarships to. </p>
<p>Why do the other 6,800 not get scholarships? Is it just because they pick a college that gives limited National Merit Scholarships?*</p>
<p>Usually, it’s because they pick a college that doesn’t give any NMF money, and they don’t have a parent who works for a corporation that gives a NMF scholarship. Yes, some pick schools that don’t give every NMF a scholarship, but I wonder how many NMFs end up going to those schools.</p>
<p>NMCorp has limited funds of its own, which is why it can only give 2500 one-time scholarships of $2500 (which is still more than $6M a year! )</p>