<p>just got the letter
w00t! =D</p>
<p>Before anyone turns down the NM scholarship, call the school you plan to attend. I thought that my daughter would have to turn it down to receive part of her college scholarship that totaled $4000 over four years, a $1500 increase from the NM scholarship, but I was wrong. Instead the first year, instead of receiving an extra $1000 from her college, she will receive the full $2500 (1000 from the school and 1500 from NM). She will still receive her extra 1000 stipend from the school for years 2-4. Once again, I urge you to call your intended school’s admission office!!</p>
<p>@proudmom
Wondering if I could get the same deal, I did call our proposed school and was told something very different. They said they could only give “their” NM scholarship money to names that were on the list sent to them by the NMSC. </p>
<p>And if a student accepted the $2500 scholarship, I assume that student’s name would not be referred to the college by NMSC for one of the college’s scholarships.</p>
<p>This ambiguity makes it hard to make an informed decision. Just to be clear, proudmom, is the $4000 you are talking about part of the college’s “official” NM scholarship?</p>
<p>Yes, the $4000 is part of the NMF scholarship from the school. It is paid out evenly over 4 years. Admissions clarified that the first year the NM award would be given in lieu of the 1000 for the first year, so the award really means an extra 1500, not 2500, but that the 1000 stipend would be paid out each of the three remaining years. The letter from NM specified that the scholarship money would be sent directly to her school in September and it did name her first choice school, which is where she is attending. She was adamantly advised by her college to accept the scholarship offer.</p>
<p>Skyhook: I still plan to call NM tomorrow and the school again so I am sure that everyone is on the same page. I hate to accept some money and end up losing a lot more, but as I said before, the scholarship adviser was very adamant that my daughter should accept the offer. I will re-post after I speak to everyone.</p>
<p>How about the corporate awards – is there a choice there as well?</p>
<p>Is it good being a National Merit Scholar? I am not exactly sure. Is it good enough that we should notify colleges about it?</p>
<p>Anyone know what happens if you decide to take a gap year?</p>
<p>GTalum: Call NMSC and ask them directly. They will be able to give you the answer.</p>
<p>lawyer101: Are you (or your child) junior or a senior? </p>
<p>Is it good to be a national merit finalist. Yes, there are advantages including good financial aid from some schools. It is considered an honor and an achievement. Is it on the same level as say winning the Intel or some prestigious art competition. No, but it adds with everything else. </p>
<p>Should you notify colleges depends upon where you are in the admission process. If you are already admitted, then at this stage it does not really matter much. But you still need to notify the school you are going to, especially in case you are looking for scholarships and want to get the ball rolling. In fact NMSC will notify them directly if you choose the college and notify NMSC. Colleges want that official notification from NMSC. So notify NMSC definitely. You can depending on the circumstances notify the college directly i.e. if you want to jump start the process of getting National Merit Scholarships or you want to explore which college will give you better aid. In that case hold off on notifying NMSC till you decide on the college.</p>
<p>If you are a senior and have not applied or are applying to colleges now (which is very late), you should mention your NM standing.</p>
<p>Hope this helps</p>
<p>2bornot2bivy–not sure what you are asking about the corporate awards. However, if a student gets a corporate award they are not considered for the NMSC $2500 award. The corporate awards vary greatly, but it seems as though most of them are for four years (DD’s is $1000 x 4), so they are usually more than the NMSC award. Call your child’s school to ask the details on what the student can accept. It seems as though they are all different. My daughter’s merit scholarship is not tied to her NM status at all, so her check comes in some time after her room and board have been paid and the college just sends her a check.</p>
<p>Lawyer 101–National Merit status would go into academic awards and should be included in applications. 90 percent of semi-finalists make finalist, so if you indicated semi-finalist, it is not necessary to update. Colleges keep track of how many NMF they enroll, but it is probably done through NMSC and not by students self-identifying.</p>
<p>Received one yesterday! Quite unexpected, to say the least. Only 2,500 awards out of 15,000 finalists? Ouch.</p>
<p>D received a NMSC single $2500 award but know the corporate award she would be eligible for would be $2500 x 4 – was wondering if we could ask for that one instead???</p>
<p>2bornot2bivy: No harm in asking for that, no one can fault you for asking NMSC that question.</p>
<p>My son received the $2500 award. I called NMSC since his first choice school offers 4X$1000 to National Merit Finalists. I thought that we should just decline the award and accept the school award. I was told that because he has been offered the $2500 award, NMSC would not send his name to the school as a winner of the college sponsored award. He can only get one award from NMSC and for him that is the $2500 award and the title of National Merit Scholar. </p>
<p>The message here is to call NMSC & your first choice college with your questions and make sure you understand the process. It seems that there are very few reasons why anyone would decline the $2500 award. I am contacting the university to see if they will give my son some of their funds to make up the difference between the $2500 and $4000. It is a very nice honor, but I hope that we don’t end up paying $1500 for it.</p>
<p>I called the NMSC today to get several questions answered. BTW, they are very nice and helpful without any wait times on the phone. First, there is no need to declare your first choice school until you have a firm decision. They said my D can wait till May 1st. Also, you can use the $2500 after a gap year as long as the college you committed to says it’s OK.</p>
<p>3gr8boys: I am not sure which school your son will be attending, but we found out at Auburn, a school that also offers 4x$1000, that the $2500 only replaces the first year’s $1000, not the remaining three years. Therefore, the $2500 from NM is actually worth $1500 the first year at Auburn, but that is $1500 more than one would have received without it. After fours years the 4X$1000 will actually be 4X$1000+($1500).</p>
<p>proudmom: Thanks for the info. We’ve heard that from UNC also. When I spoke to the NM people today, they said the extra money is outside of the NM first choice college award. They did think it is a great idea what Auburn and UNC are doing.</p>
<p>My daughter received a corporate scholarship from NMSP in 2008, and I was similarly confused. It was an energy company and she wanted to study engineering at MIT; apparently, such students can get matched up with corporations. It was for 2500., just like the regular NM scholarships, and was sent directly to MIT her freshman year, and deducted from her tuition bill.</p>
<p>so i had named UF my top choice school because i know NMF are automatically accepted and i would not have gotten in otherwise. but UF was just my safety school and i am actually going to the school of the art institute of chicago next year. however when i got into UF there was a national merit thing included in my financial letter, even though i notified NMSC that SAIC was now my top choice instead of UF</p>
<p>basically what i am asking is, did I just receive a college award for a college i’m not going to? if so, that blows</p>