MT and National Merit scholarships

College Majors Musical Theater Major
1

<p>I am a long-time lurker and today is my first day of posting!</p>

<p>My daughter is only a freshman, but she got a 192 on the PSAT selection index with zero preparation. We are in New Orleans and the cut off selection index for National Merit Semi-Finalists in LA has been 207, 208, 209 over the last 3 years, so we feel this score is within her reach by her junior year.</p>

<p>She wants to major in MT, but stay in the south so we are looking at FSU and UCF. She attends a public high school but has been in local & school musicals since 4th grade, been dancing since 3, can sing, play clarinet, etc. (She also was accepted to NO Center for Creative Arts -NOCCA a performing arts high school- but we are not sure how this will work with her academic schedule.) We are considering FSU and UCF as "stretch" schools as we realize they are VERY selective. Her safety schools are Southern Miss and Ole Miss which do not require auditions for MT admissions.</p>

<p>However, the only way she can attend an out-of-state school is to get a full scholarship. Luckily, she has a 4.0 GPA, is/will continue to take honors & AP courses, and tests very well on standardized tests. She also just took the ACT with zero prep and got a 26 composite.</p>

<p>In order to get a NM scholarship from ANY school, that school has to be listed as her first choice school by March 1. Do incoming freshmen know by then whether or not they are selected at FSU and UCF, or any other MT schools that are in the south that we are not considering???</p>

<p>I know I'm starting this early, but I have a son who's a freshman in college and I wish I would have started things earlier with him. He's attending a state school and majoring in engineering so things were easier for him. But for my daughter, only one public school in LA has MT and its only a BA and not particularly good.. and she doesn't want to go to Tulane.</p>

<p>Is anyone familiar with NM and MT??? I also posted this in the NM, UCF, and FSU threads...but they are not as "busy" as this one!</p>

<p>Any info would be much appreciated!</p>

2

<p>mom2them - The March 1 date does not lock in the choice. <a href=“http://www.nationalmerit.org/Merit_R&I_Leaflet.pdf[/url]”>http://www.nationalmerit.org/Merit_R&I_Leaflet.pdf&lt;/a&gt; See page 3. As I read it, you have until almost the end of April to finalize a choice, and even then it looks like there is flexibility until the end of May. I find the whole thing confusing, but my D is a NMF and she didn’t choose her school (Tulane, lol) until after that March 1 date. I am pretty sure she put undecided before that.</p>

<p>I assume you mean FSU and UCF are VERY selective for the MT program. I imagine most schools that have a program like that are. It is kind of a shame she is not interested in Tulane because if she gets the kind of test scores as a junior she is no doubt capable of, combined with her grades and talent she would most likely get a good scholarship, although full tuition is always tough to get. Anyway, moot point. My strong suggestion for her is to look at Arizona State University. If she makes it as a NMF, they give OOS more than full tuition. For example, last year OOS tuition was about $18K and the NMF scholarship was $23K, I think it was. So it even covered part of room and board. With her grades and hopeful test scores, she could get into Barrett Honors College, which is really nice. It is like having a smaller liberal arts university right on the campus of a large research university with all it’s resources. Barrett students have their own section of campus with their own dorm, dining hall, some classrooms, a gym, and maybe some other amenities. It is a great deal. Here are the two links you need to look into it. When the time comes you would need to contact ASU about their current scholarship levels, because they do vary depending on what year you are admitted for incoming freshmen, but then they are guaranteed for the 4 years as long as the student maintains grades, etc.</p>

<p>[Lyric</a> Opera Theatre | School of Music | ASU Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts](<a href=“http://music.asu.edu/lot/]Lyric”>http://music.asu.edu/lot/)</p>

<p>[Barrett</a> Honors](<a href=“http://barretthonors.asu.edu/home/]Barrett”>Barrett, The Honors College | Arizona State University)</p>

<p>Sounds like it would meet all her (and your) requirements. Great program, excellent academics, and affordable as long as she gets that NMF status. Well, it isn’t in the south, but Southwest flies cheap from Phoenix to New Orleans.</p>

3

<p>We are in a similar boat (although dd is a junior). Guidance said she will definitely make the selection index, and now we’re adding “schools that participate in National Merit” to the list of counfounding columns for choices. It’s frustrating, in that a student has to list a “first choice” school, and then, if accepted AND if that’s the one they said was first choice, AND the school chooses them, they could get the Merit $$$s. True, one can mark “undecided” (and that’s definitely what I will suggest kiddo do!) but if you continue reading, it does mention that at some schools, the dollars go quickly – the school may set aside National Merit monies for a certain number of students…then it’s first come, first served [so those who were quick to claim “dibs” are more likely to get the dollars]…but if you get accepted to another school that DOES offer the NM scholarship, but it wasn’t your first choice, well then, too bad – no National Merit dollars from the college. So…just another fun thing to try to figure out as this kid narrows her choices of places to audition next year!!</p>

4

<p>I know what you mean mommafrog. They make it awfully complicated for what is usually about $2,000 per year, sometimes less. Don’t get me wrong, someone offers me $2K no strings I take it, but it also is not all that much given the cost of college these days. There has to be a simpler way.</p>

5

<p>I would suggest going to look at the Oklahoma City U. thread – someone on there had said (maybe last year or 2 years ag??) that with National Merit, their child received a full ride…tuition, room, board, and book allowance. If that is still correct, I would say it would definitely be worth you looking at.</p>

6

<p>This does indeed seem to be the case:</p>

<p>[Oklahoma</a> City University National Merit](<a href=“http://www.okcu.edu/admission/nationalmerit/NMS.aspx]Oklahoma”>http://www.okcu.edu/admission/nationalmerit/NMS.aspx)</p>

<p>And here is the link to their music theater program</p>

<p>[Oklahoma</a> City University : Bass School of Music : Degree Programs: Music Theater](<a href=“http://www.okcu.edu/music/BM_theater.aspx]Oklahoma”>http://www.okcu.edu/music/BM_theater.aspx)</p>

7

<p>For anecdotal information regarding NM and OCU, I suggest you email mikksmom as, I believe, her daughter (now a junior) was a National Merit Finalist and attends OCU. Not sure if she still checks in to CC so email might be best.</p>

8

<p>I do not know about the musical theater aspect of your question, but I may be able to help with the NM part. My D was a National Merit Scholar (awarded one of the $2500 NM based scholarships) and we were told (by someone at NM) that she needed to have A - as in Any - school listed as her first choice by that first deadline, if she wanted to be “in the running” for this company based scholarship. If no college was listed, or undecided was listed, she would not even be considered for the National Merit Corporation’s award. </p>

<p>Her choice could change up until the end of April, if she hadn’t received NM Scholar, for consideration of any scholarships from the colleges themselves by notifying NM (by postcard) of the change.</p>

9

<p>I know a young lady well who wanted to be an MT major but she was awarded one of the most competitive and prestigious four year, completely paid academic scholarships in the country. She graduated with a BA in history and a minor in mt which she had to build herself because mt wasn’t offered. This girl was incredible, she worked in every local production she could while taking private dance and summer programs. This young lady has graduated and is now living and auditioning in NYC. She is recently off a tour and I expect her to be successful no matter what the odds! I have never seen anyone make use of her time the way she did. Of course she is very talented as well as bright.</p>