<p>So I was notified that I am a National Merit Finalist and the colleges I applied to that are part of the sponsor colleges are USC, University of Chicago, and Northwestern. Right now I have USC listed as my first choice because it offers a lot more that the other 2, but I was thinking of changing it to undecided because I would rather go to the other 2 if I am accepted, but I know I have less of a chance at those 2 than USC.</p>
<p>I had thought that I had to decided by March 1 but it seems like that is only for the corporate sponsor scholarship. I DO know that I have to eventually list by May 31 any college choice to get 1 of the 3 scholarships they offer.</p>
<p>From what I know the National Merit Corporation notifies Finalists of which scholarship they get in the order of the one-time $2500, corporate sponsored, then college sponsored. I would rather get the college sponsored on because it is renewable rather than the one-time $2500, and was worried that there would be higher chance of getting the $2500 if I put "undecided" as my college choice until I find out if I am accepted to the colleges. AND a lower chance of getting a college sponsored scholarship (because according to the National Merit Corporation, "A Finalist who has reported a sponsor college as first choice by March 1 will be included int he first group referred to that institution for scholarship consideration.")
Does anyone know if this is true?</p>
<p>There’s a good thread about this in the National Merit forum. The short answer to your question is, no, it doesn’t matter.</p>
<p>The $2500 winners have already been decided, the notices have just not been sent yet, so what college you have listed now or 1 March has no relevance.</p>
<p>If you get the $2500 NMSC award, it will have no effect on USC, as their half tuition scholarship is not an official NMF award, those are all in the $500-$2000/year range.</p>
<p>The order in which awards are made is: corporate first (awards get mailed out in late March), college institutions second, and NMSC scholarships last. </p>
<p>National Merit Scholarship Corp sends list of potential recipients to colleges in batches. You need to consider NMSC’s deadlines as well as the deadlines of your individual colleges - they are probably not the same. It is quite a game of strategy sometimes to figure out what college should be the #1 choice and when it should be declared.</p>
<p>From what I’ve seen ‘Undecided’ is a safe bet until you are decided. You can go to the NMSC website, they have a very detailed description of the process.</p>
<p>I don’t know how all the corporate sponsors are handled, but I know that we submitted paperwork to my husband’s employer last February for a potential corporate award. If you were able to take advantage of that type of award I think you would’ve had to have gotten the paperwork in a long time ago.</p>
<p>wait… but I still have to list USC as my college choice right? And if I do that but get the one-time $2500 scholarship I can still get the half tuition renewable because I listed USC as my college choice? But it’s not guaranteed that I will get the half tuition one for sure?</p>
<p>I called NMSC as BobWallace reported a different understanding of the award sequence. I was advised that Finalists are considered for the $2500 Scholar award and the corporate awards at the same time, and if the corporate award is more beneficial, that is what the Finalist will receive.</p>
<p>I just read through the timeline again, and I think you need to be careful if you think you might not go to USC. While NMSC begins mailing awards May 1, they are probably made in advance of May 1. So if you think you might want to designate a different college, I would stick with Undecided until you are sure. Having checked the college deadline for notification of first choice college, that is.</p>
<p>Remember that there is the official award from 1)the corporation itself, 2)other corporate sponsors, and then 3)sponsoring colleges. These awards are generally in the neighborhood of $1-5K, often renewable, sometimes not (as in the case of the NMSC $2500 award). Over and above, and separate from those, are awards from certain colleges that give scholarships to National Merit Finalists (and sometimes Semi-Finalists) that are not part of the official NMSC program - they are the colleges own way to encourage NMFs to come to their school, as in the case of USC. BobWallace called these awards ‘unofficial’, as good a name as any. You MUST meet the college deadline for this type of award.</p>
<p>I just googled USC and National Merit and found a page that says award notification for National Merit Finalist of the 1/2 tuition are made April 1. This would suggest a different time table than the schools I’ve been dealing with.</p>
<p>You need to call USC’s financial aid office and ask them when you need to make USC your first choice at NMSC for you to get this scholarship. Don’t wait! Once you know what USC needs, check the other schools and you can figure out what makes sense.</p>
<p>Sorry this was so long. I just wanted to make sure you understand the different types of awards and deadlines, and it is confusing!</p>
<p>A related question regarding changing college choice, thinking only of “unofficial” college awards, such as full tuition for NMFs. What if College A says that it won’t consider awarding that full tuition until it receives confirmation from NMSC that the student has named College A as the first choice? Can the student later change choice to College B? Has anyone successfully changed college choices? Thanks.</p>
<p>The USC forums on this website are full of information about this - just do a search or look through the first few pages of threads. I think the consensus is that in order to get the Presidential Scholarship, you need to be accepted to the university (not a given) and designate USC as your first choice on the NMF forms. However, I believe they said you have until May 1 or so to do this, time enough to make your final decision on which college to attend.</p>