<p>Hello,
Does anyone have experience with NM scholarships at A&M...or any idea of what might be finally offered to a NMF? Also...and maybe most importantly, how realistic is it to keep a 3.5 GPA in engineering to keep the scholarship/s? If one is lost...are they all? If all were lost tuition would convert back to OOS tuition for us, which would not be possible to maintain. Thanks!</p>
<p>Yikes, I actually don’t know, but I think you’d pay OOS tuition :(</p>
<p>I personally dropped two classes because I was too stressed out about losing it (and I’m not even in engineering)</p>
<p>Maybe this will help, the scholarships are offered to students on an individual basis beyond the NMF one. You compete against everyone for the other scholarships; they have their own terms both for getting the scholarship & maintaining them. Although mine are not NMFs, they do have merit scholarships. You have to maintain a specified GPA for each scholarship and some have other requirements (like honors or a certain major). The scholarship will state if it is eligible for the tuition waiver or not. There is a semester probation period should you not meet the GPA requirement. So basically, you need to fail at attaining the GPA for two semesters to lose your scholarship. If you lose it, yes you convert back to OOS. There are many very good students at this school, the admission numbers are somewhat deceptive due to the top 10% rule in TX (in my opinion). We do know some who have lost their scholarships, but not many at all. The NMFs we know have a huge range of scholarships : from just the stated minimum to full ride +. It depends on what your student brings to the table, what major, what background they have that a donor has on their qualification list, etc… There isn’t a trend or chart. The bonus item a NMF gets is the guaranteed scholarship package upfront, everyone else competes for all their merit scholarships. You won’t get your individual scholarship offers all at once, they notify you as you get them. Good luck!</p>
<p>My S is first semester in engineering. Its hard but do-able. So far (knock on wood) looks like he’ll hit the 3.5 mark. Regarding OOS, my S is also in the Corps and the first thing they said to him (without knowing he was a NMF) was that the Corps can easily get him OOS waiver. So even if he were to lose his NMF, he has another source of OOS waiver. The other thing about the Corps is that they have an absolutely FANTASTIC mentoring/academic guidance program. All the fish cadets have mandatory tutoring, each one has 3 academic advisors just in the Corps, and academics are very high priority. They will keep you on track for a GPA where you can keep your scholarships. Just something to think about…</p>
<p>My D received an honors scholarship (not an NMF) her first year and got the OOS waiver. Her soph year she dipped below the 3.5 and was put on probation. She stayed below the following semester and lost that scholarship, however she had received other scholarships for the year with lower gpa requirements that allowed her to keep the waiver. When she pulled her gpa back up the following semester, she was able to apply for reinstatement of her honors scholarship and received it (they were very happy to give it back to her). We found out after the fact that she probably could have written a letter to the honors board and kept it that one semester, but we didn’t know that. It all worked out. She is a biochem major and the 3.5 was a challenge, but she has kept it the rest of her years and will graduate in may with a 3.7! In my opinion the continuing scholarships that A&M offers are great. With those on top of the waiver, D’s quality oos education has cost us very little! Great to hear about the corps academics. My S (HS jr) is planning on attending and is really interested in the corps.</p>