Our state’s cut-off went up 2 points this year so my son doesn’t qualify for NMSF. I’m wondering if most merit is allocated to NM or is there still merit available for strong academic students. My son has a 1540 SAT, 800 Math 2 SAT, 4.0 with dual enrollment courses through Calc 3. I’m wondering if he has a chance for Persident’s endowed and would that qualify for an out of state tuition waiver?
Yes, there are merit scholarships for non-NMF applicants. They are holistically given, so academics alone will not be sufficient. Your son has a chance for all scholarships (you’re not out of the running) but our experience was that more people got the waiver with the college specific scholarships ( meaning college of the major they applied for) that were OOS non-NMF without need. It is possible.
To be eligible for the waiver the scholarship has to be competitive, generated by the university & compete against in-state students. (Yes, presidential endowed counts) It sounds easy to obtain a waiver, but it really isn’t. The old amount was $1000 now it has been raised to $4000 – even the $1000 was very tough to obtain. There are not lots of high dollar scholarships here, many students pay full price - unlike other colleges which inflate the costs then give tons of scholarships. Many scholarships here are sponsored by individual donors & they write their own criteria for awarding the money which makes it tough to decipher a student’s chances. The university wide ones have criteria that are on a point scale, so again holistic review.
Just so you know, the scholarship offers are given separately from admission results here. Often it is months after your admission decision. Applying for honors (whether within your major or university wide) increases your chances as some scholarships are set aside for honors students only. Honors decisions are also made after the initial admission decisions are released. Best of luck!
Sorry to barge in on this thread… @AGmomx2 - do students have to apply for university and college specific scholarships separately? My son’s AIS has a green check by “Scholarship Received”, is that all he needs to do to apply?
@COMom09 - Your son’s scores are fantastic! Best wishes that he gets an OOS tuition waiver.
You do not have to apply separately, applications are automatically forwarded to each available scholarship. Another source of scholarships are the Corps. Again, checking the interest box on the application will put their name in that pool. FWIW, both of mine were offered Corps scholarships but neither one joined the corps ( actually my daughter never checked the box, she was contacted by phone anyhow - not sure if that still happens).
Thank you!
Thank you for all the helpful replies!