<p>somewhere in the CC archives is a thread listing of NMF schools
also you can google NMScholarship + college and see what comes up.</p>
<p>opie,</p>
<p>I surrender! :-)</p>
<p>I see a lot of misinformation ( miscommunication? ) about the National Merit Program. First of all, the goal of the program is to reach Finalist status. That's it. If you are a Finalist, you made it! In addition, there are a few small one time awards which are given to a small group of students from:
1.- the National Merit Foundation
2.- a sponsoring college.
3.- a sponsoring corporation.</p>
<p>Because the funding from the Foundation is very limited, they will give a few awards and then try to match the other students with corporate awards and college sponsored awards. Some universities try to "lure" NM students with huge awards ( public universities for the most part ) as a way of boosting the university's reputation ( ie: "We have 1000 NMF in our 2011 class )</p>
<p>Also, by the time a college sends an offer of acceptance, most students are still on Semifinalist status ( especially those applying ED or EA ). I believe that the Merit recognition, ends up being more helpful than the overall financial aspect of it in most cases.</p>
<p>Again, the goal of the program is to reach Finalist status. You are awarded a National Merit Scholar Certificate at that point. ( nothing to do with the small amount of money given )</p>
<p>nationalmeritmom,</p>
<p>there are public and private colleges that award merit aid that can range from partial or full tuition to full ride. </p>
<p>your d can contact the directors of admissions offices and the heads of the honors programs/colleges and inform them of her psat score, her home state, her class rank and her gpa. ask them what merit aid opportunities for nm semi-finalists and nm finalists are a possibility at their school? you'll want to know their admission deadlines and scholarship deadlines. you'll also want to know if stacking of scholarships is allowed. </p>
<p>along with searching for the national merit threads, please also search on "merit aid" as there as those threads would also be helpful to you. some colleges may have a merit aid calculator at their websites which would be a helpful resource. </p>
<p>best of luck to your d and congratulations to her on the psat score :)</p>
<p>Based on her PSAT score, she will start getting mail from some of the universities and colleges that do offer merit aid to NMS. ASU is really up and coming.</p>
<p>Schools will come knocking for kids once they reach NMS semi-finalist status. Once they are finalists, it is too late to start looking for the schools that offer the big$$$$ D got letters from lots of schools that she would never have dreamed of applying to.....U of Oklahoma probably sent 10 letter saying "you don't even need to fill out an application."</p>
<p>As a semi-finalist, D got offered 1/2 ride at USC, full ride at American but selected Tufts and as a recipient of a NMS, got a whoppin' $1,000 per semester. Many schools do not participate and unless you have a hook with one of the private organizations, you are left with a small shot at the NMFoundation money. </p>
<p>So, if you are looking for $$$$$ and you start getting letters from schools that promise full rides, take a serious look...............They want your kid and are willing to pay.</p>
<p>frazzled, you are correct. I was typing without thinking in an earlier post. Vanderbilt's national merit awards are 5K/yr without regard to financial need status. They are reduced if the student receives another significant merit award, however. In my son's case, VU awarded him full tuition and fees, so they reduced the national merit to 2K/yr. We are not complaining.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Son got tremendous merit scholarship opportunities at a # of top schools including Duke and Swarthmore. I assume his NMF played some part in this although it was never singled out from the "whole package."
[/quote]
</p>
<p>sax, perhaps you are correct that the NMF status played a role in improving the "whole package" in your student's case. However, I do not believe it was significant in my son's situation. Vanderbilt's literature on merit-based scholarships (that is, non-need based) states that the awards are determined by SAT scores, success in a "rigorous academic program" in high school and strong leadership and/or exceptional talent outside the classroom. Not a word about PSAT scores or national merit standing.</p>
<p>To here for list of NM free ride site (current two years ago). Probably still good info for the most part:
<a href="http://homepage.mac.com/l_j/secondhome/National_Merit.html%5B/url%5D">http://homepage.mac.com/l_j/secondhome/National_Merit.html</a></p>
<p>Geomom</p>
<p>My son is going into college to study engineering this fall. He was a NMF and had some great offers. We did not get too wrapped up in the ranking and looked at engineering at more of a regional hiring thing. Son had no interest in small colleges and wanted a lot of choice in engineering majors. The following top 50 engineering schools all were very generous with scholarship offers.</p>
<p>Texas A&M
Arizona state
Arizona
University of Southern California</p>
<p>Other with good programs who offered big $$ included
Washington State
Univ of Utah
Colorado School of Mines
University of Oklahoma</p>
<p>he is attending USC this fall.</p>
<p>"opie,</p>
<p>I surrender! :-)"</p>
<p>I will take no heads today... but hey, it's hard to argue against free money. </p>
<p>All I know is we are grateful schools compete for this type of student. It opened educational doors for both kids that unless we scored lotto dollars, wasn't going to happen. They ended up at places where tuition was 35-45k a year. We're a basic middle class family. Trying to come up with 70 to 90k a year for school wasn't going to happen without NM. That would have almost been 80% of our income before bills. So to us, it's mana from heaven, a way for our kids to move up the ladder and take their place several rungs income wise above us. </p>
<p>Do you understand now?</p>
<p>"lure" NM students with huge awards ( public universities for the most part ):</p>
<p>No privates, are right in there too. Schools are competing for these kids. It's a nice position to be in.</p>
<p>I do understand the other side as we "sweated out" medical school this spring. The pressure is something else, I do know how it feels to watch your kid get rejected without explaination even though their scores and grades are considerably higher the the prior year's averages. Thank God, he made it, and to the schools that summilary dismissed him without even a word as to why or a conversation .... "may your ankles be twisted so we can recognize you by your gait walking on the road. "</p>
<p>Bitter? Na.</p>
<p>In addition to the schools listed by drizzit, for engineering hopefuls looking for merit money (not necessarily NM money), look at Rice, WashU, Georgia Tech, RPI. I know some of these schools are very selective and they don't give out a ton of these scholarships, but a few students will get very nice packages, including full tuition and full rides.</p>
<p>opie, </p>
<p>I understood from the beginning, but some of your later posts shed more light on your thinking. </p>
<p>Matching a kid and a school is a very personal thing that depends a great deal on the kid and the school. But it is generally true that the big money merit scholarships (as opposed to those 1/3 of tuition offers that are often jsut discounting, and part of revenue management) are generally targeted at kids that will be at the top of the ability distribution at that school. For some kids, being an academic top dog is a great position to be in. For others, it may not be. It all depends on the kid (and maybe some on the social environment of the school.)</p>
<p>Take my own D for instance. She turned down a full ride at a big 10 U for her current school. We as a family are much poorer as a result, but she has done superbly in her current environment and could not be happier. I am quite certain she would be far less happy at the other place, and probably would not have done as well to boot. But heck, your mileage will vary.</p>
<p>And, I certainly understand how the equation changes when you have two kids to put through school! We are thoroughly tapped out with one.</p>
<p>Good luck to the med schoo bound one.</p>
<p>NMF can also sweeten the need-based financial aid pot at some schools, (e.g. replace loans with grants, etc.) Also, some schools offer big scholarships to finalists, but do not actually name these schols as "NM scholarships". If you hunt around on the college websites, you will find some.</p>
<p>Opie - great comments. I often encourage kids who are very bright (very bright!) to think of taking the PSAT as a sophomore. I am not trying to elevate the SAT's beyond what they should be - but if, as a sophomore, a kid scores close to the cutoff for semi-finalist in their state, then it would pay to spend some time the summer before junior year doing some practice tests - especially in writing and math which can improve significantly with familiarity and practice. Now - you are not going to turn a high average kid into a semi-finalist, but if you are close (or even a little better than the cutoff) why not put a little time into it. </p>
<p>To the original poster - people have done a great job of explaining the process. It is complicated and most people don't understand it. But it is important to understand that being a finalist will not guarantee money from the National Merit or their corporate sponsors, but being named a semi-finalist will increase the mail to your home. Just get a file for all schools that talk about $$. </p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>"Matching a kid and a school is a very personal thing that depends a great deal on the kid and the school"</p>
<p>absolutely. There has to be a match. It wasn't take the best offer or else. It was look, record and list pros and cons. Take the offer that works for you. The advantage we gained by the NM status was who was doing the asking. It was like going from asking someone for a date, to being asked for a date. One gets to accept or reject. It's much nicer to be in that position. </p>
<p>Also schools "find" ways to compete for these nm kids... who cares if the extra scholarship that appears says nm or not, it appeared because the kid had NM in their application. Some schools really went an extra distance to match other schools. Some like UA and ASU outright just say we'll pick it all up, others find a way. Some offers contained seven scholarships to get to the full ride aspect. Didn't matter to me if it was one or ten.</p>
<p>The advantage the NM status creates is choice. It gives the student a choice. They certainly don't have to take scholarship dollars from what they preceive as a lesser school, but at least they get a choice to say yes or no. Having gone through an undergrad wealth of college offers and then latter trying to figure out why med schools do what they do and the stress it creates, I'd much rather be waist deep in scholarship gold than the rejection quicksand. </p>
<p>But it does come down to happiness, but it also comes down to being realistic about things. People lose objectivity if they desire something too much. The big house, the big car, the big wedding, the perfect school.....
no price is too much.</p>
<p>Hi, NationalMeritMom, </p>
<p>You and the other readers of this thread with students in future high school graduating classes owe it to yourselves to take a look at a study </p>
<p><a href="http://www.economics.harvard.edu/faculty/hoxby/papers/aidpaper.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://www.economics.harvard.edu/faculty/hoxby/papers/aidpaper.pdf</a> </p>
<p>by two professors of economics of how parents respond to financial aid awards. Frequently, the response is irrational by any reasonable definition of seeking best value for the dollar. Ponder that information as you decide which combined offer of admission and financial aid offers best value to your child next year.</p>
<p>NM Finalist get nothing unless the school or a corporation offers an award based on NMF. NM Scholars (chosen from finalist in each state) get $2000 toward the school of their choice. Most corporations restrict their awards to the children of their employees.</p>
<p>"You and the other readers of this thread with students in future high school graduating classes owe it to yourselves to take a look at a study "</p>
<p>I read it, my god......., 47 pages to basically say make a T chart and list the pros and cons of each choice to make your decision from.....</p>
<p>Sometimes folks are just waaay toooo smart. ;) </p>
<p>Did they get paid by the page?</p>
<p>"NM Finalist get nothing unless the school or a corporation offers an award based on NMF"</p>
<p>and that's bad because? </p>
<p>I don't know if you're pro or con by your statement. But basically as long as the offer isn't from a columbian drug lord, most folks don't care if somebody wants to give them money.</p>