National Merit Corp. Special Scholarships Notification

Are any of your kids still waiting to hear about a NM Corporate Scholarship award? I know from the FA subforum that some people heard several weeks ago, but a 2011 thread on the topic indicates students can find out as late as mid April. I do know that my older D had found out by this point for the same company, so I’m starting to lose hope. That said, does anyone know if the selection process for these awards is like that of the NM Semi-Finalist’s applying to be NM Finalists? In other words, once you’ve met the score cutoff for it, then everyone gets to the next stage so long as they fill out the application properly and have an SAT to confirm their score.

I think it varies by who is sponsoring the special scholarship. I’m sure different companies notify at different times. I may have been one on the 2011 thread waiting to hear until late. I don’t think my H’s company necessarily gave them to everyone, they had a set # of scholarships they give out, and there were some who didn’t get one, but I believe they were notified as well. So I think if you have heard nothing there may still be some hope.

@TheGFG, both my older two sons got Special Corporate NM Scholarships. We did not get the notification until late March/early April. Further, we did not know the exact amount until late April (since our Corporate NM Scholarship awards on a sliding scale based on income). Particularly for my oldest son, it made it very difficult when he had to choose a college without all the financial knowledge in place. Fortunately, it worked out beautifully because we are of moderate income, and both boys got the max amount ($6000 a year).

I think the selection is based on how many in the company are qualified, and yes, I think all NMSF are considered for the award. Ours is a large national company, so we were actually stunned to find out our second son not only was in the running (because, with a 215 PSAT in 2013/14, he was only Commended here in California, but apparently, there weren’t enough NMSF that year, so they added in the Commended for consideration), but that he won. I guess it was the first time that any one family had won two.

I hope you get your news soon! It was a huge blessing for our family, for sure!

I’m not a parent but I can answer this from my personal experience. I got the mail for the National Merit Scholarship three or four days ago indicating that I received the 2.5k private company scholarship – my first choice school did not offer their own National Merit Scholarship. But I agree with the parents here – it varies depending on what type of scholarship your child applied for.

Thanks to all! My older D had excellent PSAT’s, but not D2, so I found it odd that D2 managed to make it to the second round of the competition. She was not even a Commended Scholar, and in fact her scores did not come close to that level. So I was shocked when she received the letter that she was eligible to continue, but concluded that perhaps the other students whose parents work for the same company had even lower PSAT scores than she did. Or maybe for some companies the NMC reviews the applications of everyone who applies regardless of score? There are only 2 awards for this corporation, unlike some companies that have 25 scholarships, so it’s not as though they should have had to scrape the bottom of the barrel lol.

All of that is to say I am dying to know if she got it!