<p>From their website, Texas A&M says that Finalists are likely to get at least a total of 40k. Has anyone here every gotten the National Merit Scholarship from Texas A&M? How much money did you get?</p>
<p>Also, I need help picking a first choice school to put down for National Merit. I've already sent in the application, but left my first choice school blank. I'm looking for a school that offers full ride or close to full ride. Are there any other schools not on the list at the National</a> Merit that do that?</p>
<p>I’m a NM semi-finalist and I got an e-mail from Texas A&M today about scholarships: </p>
<p>If you are named a Finalist in the National Merit Scholarship Competition and designate Texas A&M as your first choice institution within National Merit Scholarship Corporation guidelines, you will be guaranteed a $34,000 package. Additional scholarship opportunities are available to make a total scholarship package that may cover much of the cost of four full years of tuition, fees, room, and board at Texas A&M. If you are an out-of-state resident, these scholarships have an added value of approximately $63,000 or more to cover the out-of-state portion of tuition for four years.</p>
<p>To be considered for all scholarship opportunities, we strongly encourage you to complete the scholarship and admission application online at <a href=“https://www.applytexas.org%5B/url%5D”>https://www.applytexas.org</a> by December 1, 2010. Mr. Scott McDonald, Director of Admissions, and his staff are available to assist you through this process and the National Merit Scholarship Competition. You can contact them at 979-458-0950 or at <a href=“mailto:nationalmerit@tamu.edu”>nationalmerit@tamu.edu</a>.</p>
<p>Hope that helps!</p>
<p>You don’t need to name a first choice yet.</p>
<p>You can put down undecided for now.</p>
<p>Smartboy: I have a child who is a NM Scholar and attending A&M this year as a freshman. A&M stacks their scholarships & all of my child’s scholarships are academic and not need-based. He has his entire cost of attendance covered for four years (room, board, tution, books, university fees, parking pass, sports pass, etc.). Included in that cost of attendance is a stipend for travel and for living expenses each month. He also has a study abroad stipend and a $1000 stipend for his last semester to cover expenses for grad school/job hunting. His scholarship $ actually exceeds the cost of attendance; so he is issued a refund check each semester. He is putting that money aside for graduate school. He loves A&M, and Mom & Dad are thrilled because EVERYTHING is paid for…YEAH! :)</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>Did your son receive some outside scholarships as well? I didn’t think the A&M NMF and honors scholarships (even when stacked) covered everything. It sounds like your son got some other (maybe private or dept) scholarships as well.</p>
<p>Or, does it only cover all costs if you’re an “instate” student. We had looked as OOS, and all costs weren’t covered.</p>
<p>Mom2Collegekids: To answer your question, no not really. He got $1K from a department. In addition to what is listed on the website for NMFs, S. got an additional $40K in academic endowed scholarship from the university itself. All of his COA is covered by A&M. He got some small outside scholarship, but not much. It helps to apply early and to apply to other schools offering big NMFs scholarship money. A&M states at their National Scholars’ Day events that they would like the opportunity to match or beat any competing offers. If you are a NMF, the in-state or out-of-state does not matter. If you get at least 1,000 in scholarships from the Honors Department (any NMF) and are out-of-state, you automatically get the in-state tuition rate/status. A&M heavily recruits NMFs and has no limit to the number they will accept. :)</p>
<p>^bringbackpluto, are you OOS? Do you think OOS applicants get even more merit money than IS? It seems like everybody I’ve heard about with the kind of merit package your son got is OOS. Do you happen to know any IS students with similar packages? (I have heard TAMU is very generous for top academic students, whether IS or OOS, but all the HUGE packages I’ve heard about – like your son’s – seem to be OOS.)
Comments? :)</p>
<p>Simple Life: It doesn’t matter if you are in-state; if you are out-of-state and are a NMF, you are considered in-state for tuition purposes. No, S. is an in-state resident, and we didn’t not submit the FAFSA; therefore, A&M did not have any information about the state of our finances before awarding his merit scholarships. We didn’t file the FAFSA because we did our homework and know that being in the very average middle-class range, we would not qualify. No, S. didn’t get a 2400,have some great athletic ability, or win the national science fair. He had great grades, scores, and class ranking like most of the kids in the honors program. The best advice I can give you would be to research which school gives the absolute most NMF $ in your child’s intended major. Then, regardless of whether or not he/she intends to go there or not, apply to that school asap. The reason I am telling you this is because A&M makes a point of stating in their NM Scholars’ Day presentation that they would like the opportunity to match or beat any other legitimate offers that a student receives. You need to apply early to the other schoool, so it gives you time to get a written offer from that school. You then contact A&M (Casey Ricketts)and send them a copy of that offer letter. It will take them awhile, but you will get a counter-offer. This is what my S. did, and it was the best $100 investment (application fee for school X) we ever made. The original TAMU offer was the amount listed on their website for NMF plus a small departmental amount. Because we sent in the other offer letter, A&M countered with an addition of two more university endowed scholarships each worth an $5k a year for 4 years…total additional amount $40K. These two scholarships also require a lower gpa to maintain…much lower than the ones tied to NM status. I hope this helps. Let me know if I can give you any other information. P. S. We know of other in-state NMFs who got similar offers. :)</p>
<p>“…they would like the opportunity to match or beat any other legitimate offers that a student receives. You need to apply early to the other schoool, so it gives you time to get a written offer from that school.”</p>
<p>So…just, any other school? Are you referring to those that offer “free rides” like Bama, OU, Arizona State, etc.?</p>
<p>Givings: Yes, any school; however, this is merit aid and not financial aid. Not all schools give the same amount in financial aid. The schools which give the big NM $ will probably be your best bet. A&M wants to see that your out-of-pocket amount will be less by attending the other school, so they can try and make a better offer. Keep in mind, it needs to be an actual offer letter and not just the usual college mass mailing. They want to see that the student has actually applied and been accepted by the other school. Hope this helps. :)</p>
<p>^Wow. Excellent information, bringbackpluto! Very handy to know. I knew your son got an amazing scholarship package. I think I’m remembering you from last year on CC. He was considering SMU as well, as I recall. Right? Sounds like you guys really did your homework!
Thanks again for sharing! :)</p>
<p>Bringbackpluto:
Can you share on this thread which other schools offer big NM money? And congratulations to your son! A&M is an excellent school. I am especially interested in the name of the school that gave the offer you could present to A&M to get your son a stronger offer.<br>
Thanks!</p>
<p>SimpleLife: Yes, he considered SMU and decided not to interview for the President’s Scholarship. He also considered a few others; however, he says he is 100 percent certain he choose the right school for him. He was choosen for the A&M honors seminar in Italy along with about 30 other incoming freshmen, had a fantastic time, and started off his school year with 30 instant friends. :)</p>
<p>odyssey: As SimpleLife said, check the list on CC. Find the school that offers the most $ that has your child’s intended major and take it from there. It will be different for everyone. :)</p>
<p>Thank you for the link to the list. That’s an incredible number of schools to look through. My son is considering engineering, so hopefully something will work out for him.</p>
<p>^It is an incredible number of schools. Aren’t we lucky? :)</p>
<p>My son is interested in engineering as well. He decided he wants a 4-year degree in a particular type of engineering, versus a 3-2 program or any program that simply has an “engineering emphasis” or “general” engineering degree. Out of necessity, we’re mostly interested in the schools that offer huge financial aid packages. After several college visits, my son discovered he prefers a medium-sized school, which eliminated several on the NMF list. He’s passionate about a certain extracurricular activity that he wants to continue in college, so his college must have that activity. And so on.</p>
<p>When your son narrows his preferences in his college search, you may find, as we did, that the list conveniently narrows as well, and you’ll be left with a much smaller subset of schools to research.</p>
<p>Thanks for the information here which is very informative despite I found this a year later. I just have a question about the practicality here. All, if not most, schools granting NMF scholarship required the student to pick them as the 1st choice to further the process. How is it possible to have two schools to offer their best scholarship offering at the same time? Unless A&M loosen this requirement, or the other one doesn’t require the 1st choice which is kind of rare. I’d be very appreciated for the details.</p>
<p>If you apply to 2 or more schools that give EVERY NMF student as scholarship, then once you’re named a NMF, then you’ll often be notified that you’ll get their scholarship, but you have to name them as first choice by May 1st of senior year. So, long before May 1st, you’d get the offers with the caveat that you must then name them as first choice and accept to attend.</p>
<p>My son had several schools offer him a NMF scholarship, but to actually “get one”, my son had to accept enrollment and name a school by May 1st.</p>
<p>Ah, so the naming school is not required until much later and schools’ scholarship will be offered first under the conditions to name them the 1st choice later. That’s really the best of both worlds for the NMFs. I mistakenly thought you have to name the school first before they grant you the scholarships.</p>
<p>With A&M’s IS COA running about $20K per year, their NMF offering of $34K total is not enough to be considered as full ride. The additions will help greatly. Thank you very much for the information!</p>