<p>has anyone recieved the college sponsored national merit scholarship yet? i thought it would be sent by april 20</p>
<p>I believe college sponsored are the last ones announced. According to NM Website at <a href="http://www.nationalmerit.org/press_releases.php%5B/url%5D">http://www.nationalmerit.org/press_releases.php</a>
the press release dates are:
April 20, 2005 Corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship® Winners<br>
May 4, 2005 National Merit® $2500 Scholarship Winners<br>
May 25, 2005 College-sponsored Merit Scholarship® Winners<br>
However, many people are reporting hearing form NM prior to press release dates.</p>
<p>Some colleges tell you you get the college sponsored awards automatically (so long as you don't receive the NMSC sponsored ones). I know I will be getting an award from my school (a measly $750 a year) if I don't get the NMSC award but I've obviously still hoping for the $2,500 from NMSC.</p>
<p>yeah i got mine in april, half tuition paid for by the school</p>
<p>The dates quoted above are when NMSC puts out its national press releases with the winners' names. The winners themselves have been notified by letter from NMSC about a month PRIOR to each of those dates.</p>
<p>For example, the corporate-sponsored award letters went to the winners starting about March 9 - through the end of March...press release was last week.</p>
<p>A large portion of the college-sponsored award winners were already notified when they got their financial aid offers from the schools in early-mid April...the awards were listed as part of the total package.</p>
<p>Does anyone know my chances of being a Nat'l Achievement commended scholar wit a psat selection index of 172?</p>
<p>A couple of questions:</p>
<p>If you get one of these school sponsored merit scholarships are you considered a National Merit Scholar
If you reject (as I plan to do) one of these are you considered at National Merit Scholar, and if not why not?
Finally, is there anyother sort of scholarship possibility once you have rejected a school sponsored offer.</p>
<p>I stuck down our local state school since it was the school that gave the most money for National Merit. However, I am getting a better deal elsewhere and thus won't be taking advantage of the scholarship.</p>
<p>Oh, sorry to not have addressed this above </p>
<p>I know for NMS it is like a 200 or 201 - 172 seems a bit low (Achievement would be somewhere in the 180s wouldn't it...</p>
<p>But what do I know</p>
<ol>
<li><p>If you are offered a college sponsored scholarship and decline, it won't be replaced with another one, sorry.</p></li>
<li><p>You're not supposed to say whether you got a college sponsored award until the informaiton is released to the press on May 25th</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Actually, Dima, you're getting a better deal with the $750 per year, because my impression is that the $2500 is a one time award. You'd be getting $3000 over 4 years. </p>
<p>~*~</p>
<p>Oh, and E1A, if you get a college sponsored, corporate, or National Merit award, you are considered a National Merit Scholar.</p>
<p>Really, Tegan, I thought the $2,500 from NMSC was renewable!?!</p>
<p>Maybe I should be praising W&L then...</p>
<p>EDIT:</p>
<p>"National Merit® $2500 Scholarships
Every Finalist competes for these single payment scholarships, which are awarded on a state representational basis. Winners are selected without consideration of family financial circumstances, college choice, or major and career plans."</p>
<p>I guess you're right, I'm better off this way, getting $3,000 over four years then getting the $2,500 now. I just need to maintain a 3.0 GPA.</p>
<p>Tegan,</p>
<p>That's not true. The only National Merit Scholars are those who won the $2500 awards from NMSC. The college- and corporate-sponsored awards are Merit Scholarships, not National Merit Scholarships.</p>
<p>Check their web page.</p>
<p>From their website:</p>
<p>Winner Selection</p>
<p>All winners of Merit Scholarship® awards (Merit Scholar® designees) are chosen from the Finalist group, based on their abilities, skills, and accomplishmentswithout regard to gender, race, ethnic origin, or religious preference. </p>
<p>Merit Scholar® Designees</p>
<p>Beginning in March and continuing to mid-June, NMSC notifies approximately 8,200 Finalists that they have been selected to receive a Merit Scholarship® award. Merit Scholarship awards are of three types:</p>
<p>National Merit $2500 Scholarships
Corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship Awards
College-sponsored Merit Scholarship Awards</p>
<p>So from their website it looks like all three are considered National Merit Scholars.</p>
<p>~*~</p>
<p>No, read what you just posted. There are Merit Scholarships (corporate and college) and there are National Merit Scholarships. Notice that, on their website (or, for that matter, the excerpt that you just posted), they specifically do not refer to college or corporate scholarships as National Merit Scholarships; they save that distinction for the 2500, $2500 scholarships given out by NMSC. It may be semantic, but corporate and college-sponsored scholars are not National Merit Scholars.</p>
<p>I couldn't take it anymore so I called the office and had a 15 minute conversation with one of their service people, here's the deal.</p>
<p>First, out of the Finalists approx 8200 Scholarships are awarded, these consist of the 2500, school and corporate scholarships.</p>
<p>THE $2500 recipients are selected by a committee and will become National Merit Scholars upon accepting the award</p>
<p>The Corporate sponsored ones are only open to certain finalists, if you are eligible and a finalist, your name is sent to the company and they decide whether or not they want to offer you a scholarship - if they do and you accept (you presumably would) you become a National Merit Scholar</p>
<p>The rest of the 8200 are school sponsored. You all know about the first choice deal and what not so I'll cut to the chase. First, you will not be given any other offer from National Merit. They give your name to your "first choice" and that school decides whether or not to give you a scholarship. If they do that is your offer and according to this woman the money comes from the school.
If you accept the school sponsored scholarship you become a NMS, but if you don't then you only have the distinction of a finalist. THis is a travesty in my opinion because the whole first choice shcool thing is confusing enough as is. THe way to avoid getting a school offer until later is to mark undecided - which seems obvious now. Otherwise you will recieve an offer and that is it - accept become a scholar - or deny and stay a finalist. THis seems wierd to me. The deadline to Change 1st choice was 4/19 - but of course some schools hadn't sent some people aid packages yet -- so the way to go was undecided.</p>
<p>Immensely frustrating and pointless, but hope this cleared some things up</p>
<p>Thanks for clearing that up-- there's probably a lot of us on here who weren't really clear on the semantics, and it's nice to know what we can put on our transcripts. </p>
<p>~*~</p>
<p>E1A: My daughter put down UChicago as her first choice school, and when she received the acceptance, they put down a NMF scholarship for her. She turned down the school early on to accept another school. I telephoned the NM office in early April to determine if she could switch her first choice school to another (the school she did accept). The woman with whom I spoke said we had until April 20 to make that change (in writing). I explained that Chicago had accepted her, and NMF scholarship was in the financial aid package. She said that did not matter, and that since my daughter was not accepting the offer, she had until the 20th, as I said, to switch the 1st choice school. I actually clarified that with her a couple of times, and she assured me this was the case. But it sounds like you were told something completely different.</p>
<p>E1A: I will also add here, that the woman who spoke to me from the NM office said that whether or not the school has made the offer does not matter--in fact--is not "official" until NM sends out the award letter. Consequently, she said, we had until the 20th to make that switch (again, regardless of whether the original "1st choice" school had already made the offer). That's what we were told, so now I'm really confused.</p>
<p>Sorry, should have been clearer - you are correct in what you're saying. The issue is for people who were unclear, but committed blindly or for those who didn't take action before the 20th. (Letters sent out on 20th, so she said 19th...)</p>