<p>zebes, if I were you, I would call that school and ask, and make sure the person you are speaking to sounds confident that he/she knows the answer. I've never heard of this, and we did not encounter it when my son was negotiating this terrain. Perhaps it is something new in the "how to pressure applicants" game.</p>
<p>zebes, all NMF can only get one scholarship in the name of National Merit. The schools can only give you a National Merit scholarship through NM if you name them the first choice school. But you have normally until April 2008 to make that choice. The school will most likely offer you a scholarship and when you decide sometime next year, April or before, that that school is the first choice and indicate so with NM, then the school will offer you more scholarship base on that.</p>
<p>Thanks, folks. I will double check with the school because the difference in national merit aid is significant.</p>
<p>zebes</p>
<p>Just for your information, schools have different cut off dates as to when you need to indicate to the National Merit Corp, that they are your first choice. For Ohio State (full tuition plus $4500.00/year), you had to pick them as your first choice by March 1st. When we sent in our preference card in early Feb., I called NMC to make sure that they had received it, and than I also called OSU a few weeks later to make sure that they had received the information from the NMC. Evan though we had not made a final choice of colleges, the other schools gave no merit aid or very little so it was not worthwhile to chose them as a first choice even if she ultimately decided to go somewhere else.</p>
<p>This is an important factor to weigh. In my dd's case, she did not apply to any schools with early NMF deadlines, since she didn't like them that much and didn't want to get locked in because of the aid. </p>
<p>By the way, you can fax the form indicating top choice rather than mailing it.</p>