Just been declared semifinalist.. need help.

Paying for College National Merit Aid
1

<p>I'm a high school senior in Florida and I've just found out through the local newspaper that I'm a semifinalist. Aside from recognition in the papers, I haven't received any letters, packages, or any notification from my school. Should I go ahead and talk to my counselor about it? I don't want to miss any deadlines because of a communications error.</p>

<p>And also, I'm aware that about half of all semifinalists achieve finalist status. How is this determined? My grades are.. pretty bad because of some slacking off towards the early end of my high school career (3.53 unweighted/3.9 weighted). I've never had any discipline problems in school and I've had good relationships with almost all of my teachers.</p>

<p>Do EC's matter at all? I'm planning on playing varsity basketball this season. I'm also VP of NTHS, and a member of NHS and DECA at my school. And I took the SAT last year and got 680 reading, 740 math and 650 writing. I will be retaking it regardless, but will that be good enough to "confirm" my PSAT score (216)?</p>

<p>Thanks in advance.</p>

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<p>Scratch that. I’ve just gone on the NM website and read that 15,000 of the 16,000 become finalists. Now, for all the schools I’ve read about that give full rides to kids, are those given to these 15,000 or the 8,000 who actually get the NM scholarship?</p>

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<p>Congrats…</p>

<p>You need to contact your GC and find out why you haven’t been told yet. She may need to contact NMCorp.</p>

<p>I think your grades will be fine as long as you don’t have a bunch of C’s for semester grades.</p>

<p>The 8,XXX are the ones who…</p>

<p>got awarded the one time 2500 NMCorp scholarship
got awarded a corporate scholarship
got awarded a college scholarship.</p>

<p>Since some schools award the NMF scholarship to all NMFs that enroll, that 8,XXX number cannot be set in stone. </p>

<p>you don’t need to “confirm” your PSAT score with a SAT score that matches your PSAT.</p>

<p>You just have to have about a 2000+ (last year, a 1960 was high enough). Everyone has the same SAT req’t.</p>

<p>You need to send your SAT score to NMCorp…code #0085</p>

<p>Get the logon info from your GC so you don’t miss any deadlines.</p>

<p>ECs don’t matter.</p>

4

<p>Thanks so much!</p>

<p>So I think everything’s good for me right now. I will just have to fill out the forms and get everything straightened out and hopefully I’ll be named as a finalist.</p>

<p>Just out of curiosity, why is the cutoff so tiny from semifinalist to finalist? What decides that 1,000 or so kids don’t make it?</p>

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<p>Bad grades, disciplinary issues, terrible essay, poor SAT score (below 1960) and failure of student or school to complete application in a timely way can all prevent a semifinalist from becoming a finalist. But the vast majority of semifinalists have no trouble fulfilling these requirements and then go on to be named finalists.
Definitely talk to your guidance counselor as soon as possible and get the ball rolling on your application.
Start to research schools that give extra money to finalists. UCF is one.</p>

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<p>What do you all think about the online National Merit application? There is SO little room to put extracurricular activities and even less space for one-time honors and awards! And lots of things activities don’t work with the format. For example: Boys State elected office. It’s only 1 week long, but its all week. How does that fit into the “hours per week” format? Ugh.</p>

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<p>Just have a couple of questions I’d like to ask…</p>

<p>mom2collegekids, what’s the situation with cars at Bama? I’m pretty clueless when it comes to these things. I wouldn’t even know how to get it all the way up there.</p>

<p>Also, if I’m expected to be named NMF, when should I be applying to schools? And when do I have to name a “first choice” school?</p>

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<p>tommykirkpatrick, here is a reply to your second and third questions:</p>

<p>You can apply to colleges now and list that you are a NMSF. Colleges know that means you are likely to be a NMF. If you aren’t sure which school you want to attend, then you can wait and see what type of scholarships you are offered. Two years ago here on CC, there was a great discussion and great advice on playing the negotiating game. Some posters thought it best to wait until the last minute to designate your first choice school. My son was able to narrow it down to his top 2 schools, and the one offering less scholarship money agreed to match then top the other school. So waiting to designate his first choice worked well for him.</p>

<p>As to the deadline for naming your first choice school, here is something I copied from the NMSC website:</p>

<p>“Requirements and Instructions for Semifinalists in the 2012 National Merit® Scholarship Program.
Schedule specific to college-sponsored awards:
March 1 through May 31, 2012: A Finalist who has reported a sponsor college as first choice by
March 1 will be included in the first group referred to that institution for scholarship consideration.
Periodically NMSC will notify sponsors of additional Finalists who have reported (by May 31) the college
or university as their first choice.
April 25, 2012: NMSC will begin mailing college-sponsored Merit Scholarship offers.
NOTE: If NMSC receives notification of a change in college choice from a Finalist after
mailing a college-sponsored Merit Scholarship offer to that student, the Finalist cannot be
offered another college-sponsored Merit Scholarship award. This applies even if the new
choice of college is one that also sponsors Merit Scholarship awards. Therefore, a Finalist
who has previously reported a sponsor college as first choice but is uncertain about it may
choose to notify NMSC that he/she is now “undecided”; such notification must be received
at NMSC, via mail or by fax to (847) 866-5113, before April 25. The Finalist can subsequently
report a firm college choice that NMSC receives by May 31.
May 31, 2012: Deadline date for NMSC to receive reports of a sponsor college as first choice”</p>

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<p>You should apply to schools as soon as you are ready to do so. In any case, do not wait until you are named a National Merit Finalist. It is enough to put National Merit Semifinalist on a fall application; colleges know finalists will not be notified of their status until later. And you can always update your application with a friendly email to the admissions office notifying them of the Finalist designation.</p>

<p>A note of caution: check individual schools for scholarship deadlines which can vary among different schools. For example, the Univ. of Southern California requires applications be received by Dec. 1 for scholarship consideration, even for NMFs. (Their application deadline is not until later). USC guarantees a minimum of half tuition plus $1,000 a year to all accepted NMFs ( a package worth more than $90,000). So if you are at all interested in USC, the application needs to be in before Dec. 1. </p>

<p>So check deadlines for each school you are considering.</p>

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<p>mom2collegekids, what’s the situation with cars at Bama? I’m pretty clueless when it comes to these things. I wouldn’t even know how to get it all the way up there.</p>

<p>Frosh are allowed to have cars on campus. :slight_smile: What do you mean by: I wouldn’t even know how to get it all the way up there Do you mean how would you get your car to Bama? your stuff? what? </p>

<p>You’re in Florida, right? Not sure what part, but we’ve driven to Florida several times from Alabama (yea…WDW and cruise ship ports). Are you farther south than Tally, Orlando or Tampa??</p>

<p>If you live in the Panhandle, then it’s an easy drive. If you live in the Orlando area…then it’s going to take longer. If you live in southern Florida, then it depends on how south you are.</p>

<p>Frankly, Bama has students who’ve driven their cars from all over the country. I regularly see Calif, Ill, Colorado, NY, PA, Mass, Texas, VA, etc license plates in the Bama parking lots. I personally know one girl who drove her car from Calif with her dad, and then he flew back.</p>

<p>*Also, if I’m expected to be named NMF, when should I be applying to schools? And when do I have to name a “first choice” school? *</p>

<p>Apply ASAP…Bama has been accepting apps since July and many already have their acceptances in hand. The app is easy…just do it.</p>

<p>You don’t need to name a first choice until later. You can be undecided for now. That’s fine. Bama just says it needs to be named by May 1st.</p>

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<p>Thanks for everyone’s help. I really appreciate it. I was completely clueless when I first found out I was a semifinalist.</p>

<p>mom2, I live about 2 hours south of Orlando.</p>