<p>My son was a finalist and became a winner. After you are announced semi-finalist, then you move on to finalist which includes an essay and transcript of your grades from your gc. Then it's submitted and reviewed by NM along with all the other semi-finalists. Then you wait wait wait wait and your school notifies you if you advanced to Finalist status. Then once a finalist you just wait and do nothing. NM will then take the finalist and pick the winners from that pool. You can either win a corporate award, which can be any amount. The company determines the rules for the amount they award (if your parents work for a company that offers this) or you can win a one time award from NM for $2500 or you can win a college sponsored award. In your packet of when you become a semi-finalist there is a list of college sponsored schools. If you pick one of those schools as your first choice and you matriculate into that school they will award you whatever amount it is they award to NM Finalists (each schools awards different amounts). </p>
<p>Part of the requirements will be your SAT score. So if you haven't taken the SAT yet, you might as well sign up for it, prepare for it, and take it. They use the SAT score to validate your high PSAT score. </p>
<p>If you are not fully acquainted yet with your guidance counselor, now is a good time to start getting to know him/her. Your guidance counselor will probably be the one writing something in your behalf in the future as part of this NMF process. </p>
<p>If you don't have a personal resume yet (both academic and extracurricular), start doing a draft. Ask your guidance counselor for a template that the previous NMF's from your school used in the previous year. </p>
<p>Also, make sure to pay attention to some college mail that will offer you really good merit aid for being a potential NMF. Some of them might be a good deal for you, and could be a future consideration for you as financial safeties when you narrow down your list of schools. </p>
<p>And lastly, congratulate yourself on a high PSAT score. This opens up a new window of opportunities for you. :)</p>
<p>Out of the 16,000 semi-finalists, 15000 go on to become finalist, so don't worry too much--every year there are students on CC who are paranoid about becoming a finalist. You have to take the SAT and do well and you have to submit the application that will be given to you in September. It will ask for all of your grades--from every quarter. From what I know, a few C's don't matter. You write a short essay and answer questions about extra curriculars and awards. The students who don't go on usually fall into three catagories: They are not U.S. Citizens (which is required), they don't bother to fill out the form and submit it, or they do extremely bad on the SAT, which, I hear, is very rare. You will be offered many opportunities as a finalist, so you should feel very proud. I really feel that the Nat. Merit Corp, is not trying to weed out students or keep them from becoming finalists, but rather, just trying to verify a high PSAT score.</p>
<p>^^^It's not hard because you just sit around waiting, but it's not that common. Only about half of the 15000 get money and of that half, only 2500 are actually National Merit Winners/Scholars (not sure of the official term). The other people in that half are getting money from colleges or companies. I became a winner in mid-march when a letter came in the mail saying I got 2500. At first I assumed that everyone would have gotten this as so many people I know were semis and finalists, but no one I knew in the area got one. So it's just like any other scholarship work for it and just see what happens. Worry more about college applications than this. I know I did and it paid off :-)</p>
<p>As far as I know you can get only one award. UChicago (first choice) offered $1k/year early in March. NM didn't award S the $2.5k. If they had, UChicago would have reduced their offer by that amount. In that sense it worked out OK. However, if S decides to go to the school (not a participant school) that waitlisted him (he got in) he'll lose the money, so it would have been better to get the $2.5k and apply it anywhere he goes. You can't play dumb and not tell that you got two awards because NM sends letters for you to sign acknowledging which award you'll be accepting.</p>
<p>All of this is probably moot for schools that do not participate in the program since they could award you any kind of money regardless of you getting the $2.5k NM Scholar award.</p>
<p>Everyone who earns $ is a "winner" or scholar. You can win $ three ways. 1) $2500 on time award through NM 2) $ from a college sponsor, this amount varies from college to college. 3) $ from corporate sponsor, this amount also varies from corporation to corporation.</p>
<p>My son earned the corporate award and he won $2500/year for 4 years ($10,000 total) :)</p>
<p>NM winner/scholar can be earned by either of the above 3 ways. </p>
<p>You need a minimum of 2000 SAT score I believe and your GPA is good enough. It's not that hard to be selected as NMS from NMSF. 90% of kids are selected. The 10% probably forgot to do something with their applications.</p>
<p>I think Columbia is right. There's no formula that anyone can verify, but there is a widespread view that 2000+ SAT scores are needed. People might tell you 3.5 is too low for GPA, but I know someone who made NMF with a 3.4 in a very rigorous curriculum.</p>
<p>Well, I had a 2260 SAT, 4.0 unweighted GPA, valedictorian, student body president, varsity football captain, eagle scout, varsity baseball, and several other things including Latin Club President, and being very involved in politics and I managed not to win the award.</p>
<p>I was a finalist, but I wasn't selected for the actual monetary award. </p>
<p>I know people at my school with no EC's and much lower test scores who got the award though. :</p>
<p>^^^
Same Experience. 236 PSAT, 2330 SAT, 4.0, Valedictorian, Captain of Varsity Soccer, Captain of Quiz Bowl Team, 4 Gold Medals in National Latin Exam, etc. but... no $ awards. Oh well, life's lottery has been kind enough in other ways...</p>
<p>My (homeschooled) daughter had 230 PSAT, 2290 SAT, 4.0 gpa (both at home and in Post Secondary classes at U of Akron), 1st in her class of 1 - made it to Finalist, but did not win the $2500. She would have been awarded full tuition at Ohio State had she attended there - but she chose Kent State where they don't pay attention to National Merit. Nonetheless she has a full ride at Kent (so who knows how the National Merit Finalist status played into that?!).</p>
<p>Reading this, I'm sad to realize how little the amount of these awards has changed since I won one more than 25 years ago! It was $2000 then and it's $2500 now. If you factor in cost of living/inflation, the award is probably worth only a tiny fraction of what it used to be.</p>
<p>And that's w/o factoring in that college costs have risen exponentially. $2k 25 years ago went a lot farther to pay for college than $2.5k do today.</p>
<p>The main reward of the NMF scholarship from a monetary standpoint is coming from some of the schools that recruit NMF with full ride and more. Those scholarships are indeed very substantial.</p>
<p>NMF is not a money tree. Most of the corporate awards are restricted to children of employees. Very few $2500 awards. That leaves picking a school that gives decent awards on their own.</p>
<p>I suggest all NMF carefully consider the offers that come their way from many of the lower tier colleges. You might be surprised to find some good programs out there.</p>