<p>Hi,
So a bunch of stuff happened today that left me quite perplexed.
So I'm a senior in High School, Vietnamese Male from Canada.
My best friend is a half Hispanic Male. We both grew up together and went to the same school. Here's the overview.
Me:
13/437 Class Rank
3.8 GPA
First Team All-District Football Player
National Merit SF
2150 SAT
Tri-Lingual
Bunch of Volunteers
Some Club
Middle Class Income</p>
<p>My Bestfriend ( He doesn't mind me showing this )
40/437
3.5 GPA
All-District Wrestler
National Hispanic
1870 SAT
Similar Volunteer
Similar amount of club.
Wealthy Income</p>
<p>As you can see, were fairly similar in stats,
And I know these are facts since I've helped him apply in everything, write his essay
(School and Financial) since he's really disorganized.
Now we've both got admitted into Texas A&U, I got into UT Austin, but he's still waiting since he wasn't auto-admit.</p>
<p>Here comes the part I wonder about,
Today he received as $1X,000 Scholarship for his academics, he showed it to me, and to celebrate I took him out to dinner at a nice restaurant. I am really really happy for him , and am excited we might get to go to the same school.
But then.. I haven't got a single cent yet.
Why is that, I mean I KNOW he hasn't sent the school anything that would blow me out of the water in terms of worthiness/merit. </p>
<p>Is this from Tex A&M for being National Hispanic? If so, then you should get similar awards for being National Merit. A&M gives generous NMF scholarships. </p>
<p>Or did you not become a finalist??? If not, why?</p>
<p>Right…but the OP is a National merit student, so unless he didn’t make finalist (letter should have been received within the last few days), then he should get the same award.</p>
<p>Look and see if there are any awards for National Merit Scholars, and if there are no guaranteed awards listed, call Admissions and ask specifically about them, whether they have received notification (if they are listed to get notification) and how to give them such notification.</p>
<p>I don’t know what T A&M’s policies are for any of these things, but I can tell you that unless there are policies in place that the awards are automatic or guaranteed upon achievement of any specific honors, test score/gpa/class rank cut offs, schools do not necessarily give out scholarships in any specific discernible order. It’s not a fair process when policy does not dictate certain specifics. You can get zip whereas someone else is decidedly below you in every measurable thing. It can be as simple as his application got picked up, examined, accepted, and awarded before yours and got the last of the money, and when it came to you, too bad. Or there may be some attribute such a URM status or major or particular in a reference that makes him a notch above you in whatever point system a college might use to make these awards. The money is limited, and the way it is distributed is not necessarily fair.</p>
<p>You say you’re from Canada. Are you a U.S. citizen? What about your friend? The National Merit scholarship programs are only open to U.S. citizens.</p>
<p>National Merit is open to people who are legal permanent residents (green card status) and people who are in the process of becoming legal permanent residents. To get the money, they need to indicate that they intend to become citizens “at the earliest opportunity allowed by law”, and to provide documentation of the date they will be eligible to do so.</p>
<p>The best thing you can do for yourself is be concerned about YOURSELF. Don’t compare what others get to what you hope you will get. That is a pointless exercise.</p>
<p>However, make sure that if you are eligible, that you have ALL required submissions accurately sent to the colleges. I say this because my son inadvertently misentered his social security number on one college application. We heard about a good friend, same major, with slightly lower SATs and grades who got a rather large scholarship. We called the school to inquire, and they told us the SS numbers didn’t match. We sent in the correction…and poof,the scholarship came.</p>
<p>Alright, thank you all for your insight ,I’ll check back with the school to see.
I didn’t make it as a finalist
I am indeed a Legal Permanent Resident planning to apply for a citizenship ASAP.
Haha well this makes me wish they had a National Asian Merit or a National Canadian Merit. :P</p>
<p>A tale of two scholarship programs. UT no longer offers a NMF Scholarship. The other does. He apparently did his homework and chose the better NMF scholarship program. What’s the problem?</p>
<p>They’re both accepted to TAMU. His friend did make National Hispanic. If the OP had made Nat’l Merit Finalist, then he’d have gotten the same award.</p>
<p>The problem is that the OP didn’t move on from NMSF to NMF. Since he has a good SAT and he got into UT being the top 8%, then that only leaves a few reasons for not making finalist…a C or two, a discipline problem, etc.</p>
<p>Okay, so after contacting the school, turns out I was lucky enough to get 2K from A&M. I’ll just pray that I get some other form of Aid or Scholarship.
My question has been answered, thanks for the help!
Also, Yes I didn’t make Finalist because of my grades. There’s no excuse, I simply chose to focus on Football toward the end of the year ( we were making our first run in the playoff in 40+ years) and my grade dropped.</p>
<p>With a 2150 SAT, I’d think that TAMU would offer more than that. What was your Math + CR?</p>
<p>What is your GPA? </p>
<p>Have your parents submitted fAFSA? If not, have you run the NPC’s on TAMU’s and UT’s websites? UT seems to be better with need based aid, but you have to have need.</p>
<p>My M+CR is 730+720 respectively. Yes I have filed for a FAFSA all of my schools said they received it too. I reworked my unweighted GPA to a
3.8/4.0 now.
I was kinda hoping I would get something for the SAT or GPA , but I guess things just won’t work out that way.</p>