<p>UF probably offers a certain amount of money/year for NMF acceptances if you name them first choice school. That’s different than the $2500 merit money you can use anywhere.</p>
<p>Did you receive any other award (corporate or NMSC)? Does SAIC offer a NM award? If SAIC does not offer any award for NMF, then it will not matter. If they do, then it matters as NMSC may or may not allow you to take it. Call SAIC first and then NMSC if needed and then you can decide your options.</p>
<p>Curse you Princeton, with your absorbing my scholarship into the financial aid package. Even though that makes perfect logical sense.</p>
<p>christiansoldier: Many colleges do that, they factor outside scholarships into the aid package and hence reduce their aid accordingly. Some colleges use it to reduce the loans they expect you to take, others their own aid.</p>
<p>Does anyone know what UChicago’s policy for this is? I also want the 4x1000 but have already been offered the $2500. I reported Chicago as my first choice mid-march I believe.</p>
<p>You may need to talk to the financial aid office at U of Chicago. You should designate the school as the first choice and go from there if it is where you are going to join.</p>
<p>i didn’t get any national merit scholarship and i was a finalist. does it have anything to do with how much financial aid you receive and/or the college you decide to attend?</p>
<p>TP–evidently not. Though that doesn’t sound very fair.</p>
<p>My S got a $2500 from NM and ultimately decided to go to a school that paid full tuition and room for NMFs. He could have gone to a school that only offered a tuition break, but at the time he got the scholarship from NM he was indeed indicating the full ride school as his first choice.</p>
<p>So they didn’t take that into consideration and NOT award him the $2500.</p>
<p>TP…</p>
<p>It can depend on the college you choose if you’re talking about college-sponsored NMF scholarships. There are colleges - like USC, Alabama, Oklahoma, etc - that award NMF scholarships for all of their NMF students.</p>
<p>If you’re talking about the one time $2500 scholarship, then it doesn’t matter which school.</p>
<p>TP–I think the number of NMF who actually get money is around 8000 and they are considered National Merit Scholars.</p>
<p>NMSC scholarships are given to only 2500 of the 8000 odd award winners. I was told somewhere that corporate scholarships were about 1000 and the remaining were college scholarships. Again some colleges give $500 a year, some are very generous, not all the college winners give good scholarships. </p>
<p>TP hence, if you did not get the $2500 NMSC scholarship or a corporate scholarship, then it does depend upon the college you choose. So if you had chosen a college that gives NM scholarship, then you might have got one. None of the ivy leagues give NM scholarship for example, so if you went to a ivy league college, you have to get the scholarship from another source, not the college. Hope that explains it.</p>
<p>mazewanderer - i was accepted to Cornell University ED so I am going there. I guess that explains why i might not have gotten a scholarship. thanks for the information!</p>
<p>^^TP–no that doesn’t explain it. </p>
<p>The Ivies don’t give NM scholarships so you could get one from NM itself (the $2500 kind) or from a Corporation (I think they are for children of employees? This wouldn’t have worked for us so didn’t pay attention.)</p>
<p>I know one of the $2500 winners from our HS is going to Yale, so that shoots your Ivy theory.</p>
<p>To clarify again: There are three categories of sponsors of NMSC scholarships. First is 2500 scholarships from NMSC for $2500 i.e. NMSC themselves. Second is corporations and some non profits who mainly (but not all the time) give it to children of employees. The third is a college themselves i.e. colleges sponsor NMSC scholarships and some are very generous like University of Alabama, while others like University of Chicago are not.</p>
<p>The first two scholarship types can be used in any accredited college. So you can take either the NMSC or corporate scholarship and use it Chico State or Yale for example, there are no restrictions as long as the college is accredited and accepted by NMSC. The third category is for a specific college scholarship. Arizona State is not going to give you a scholarship to study at University of Alabama and so on. If you get a college sponsored scholarship, you have to go that college.</p>
<p>In TP971011’s case, he did not get the NMSC scholarship (which only about 16% of the NMF finalists get and is divided in a way that every state gets some winners, so a student from one state may not get it but another student with the same profile may get it in another state). He may not have been eligible for a corporate scholarship as his parents do not work for one of those corporations. And Cornell does not sponsor any college NM scholarships and hence he did not get anything for the college.</p>
<p>Everyone has to realize that NM scholarships do not depend just on your national standing but on other factors like your parents employer’s and the school you choose. So if you did not get a scholarship, it is not a reflection about your performance. You are still a NMF and that does not go away. You are still a winner.</p>
<p>Thank you for the lucid explanation, mazewanderer! It is amazing how complicated the NMF process is and how much misinformation is out there.</p>
<p>I have had people tell me my S couldn’t get a NMF scholarship if he got a college NMF scholarship. Not so. Son’s college says he can use the extra money for incidentals…books, a laptop, whatever.</p>
<p>NMSC scholarships are one time $2500 deal. College scholarships can be much more that that. Let us a college gives $2000 for 4 years plus tuition plus other goodies. Now you have to remember that $2000 for 4 years is the NMF component, while the rest are not really NM scholarships but add ons. So lest us say you get the $2500, but the school gives $8000 over 4 years. What some schools will do is take the $2500 first year and $2000 for the next three years, so you get $8500 instead of $8000.</p>
<p>So a lot depends on how the scholarship is structured.</p>
<p>All right, I think I got it now. Thanks for the info mazewanderer. I don’t feel as bad anymore for not receiving one now haha</p>
<p>Just as an update:</p>
<p>I decided to attend Auburn University where I as offered the Presidential (Full Tuition, Room & Board, Stipend, Study Abroad, Laptop) Scholarship. I’m not sure if I’ll still receive the $2,500 from NMF or if Auburn will keep it.</p>
<p>Scarlett.B: My daughter called Auburn regarding the $2500 NMF award and was advised to accept it and that it would be accredited to her total scholarship package. The only adjustment to Auburn’s NMF award would be during the first year. Part of the NMF award includes a $1000-$2000 (depending on need) stipend every year. The first year and only the first year the NMF award would replace this stipend. It is still a plus as $2500 is more than the stipend’s maximum amount. The last three years of the scholarship the stipend would be paid to the NMF.</p>