<p>My son will potentially qualify for a NM corporate scholarship (huge multi-national his Dad works for gives 20 in US--no idea how they decide who to award). NMSC says son has to pick a #1 school in order to qualify for the award, though he can change it later. The person I spoke to said that March 1st they would send out first notification to colleges that they had been selected as student's #1 choice for corporate award . If you get corporate award, you can't get school award, but the NM person said it might send a positive message to the school selected. Six of my son's colleges give NM awards, suggesting they value this. He's only so far been admitted to one of these schools. I'm sure there must be a strategy here, but this is the most confusing thing that we've yet encountered in the college search process. Any thoughts?</p>
<p>Just to clarify, son hasn't wanted to pick a #1 school until he knew where he was admitted. Should he pick the one that's most selective, the one that seems to value NM most highly? But what if he doesn't get into the school he picks as #1 now and doesn't get the corporate award? Has he then offended the other colleges?</p>
<p>If he needs to pick a school by March 1 in order to qualify for the corporate award, he should pick one. If he doesn't get the corporate award, he can switch his first choice up til sometime towards the end of April. (There is a very specific date that you have to do this by.) He will not offend his other schools because they will not know that he has made a first choice.</p>
<p>I don't think there's much strategy to worry about here. For the really highly selective schools, being notified that a student has selected them as a No.1 choice for NM scholarship probably barely registers since thousands of applicants are doing the same. He should just designate the college he truly considers his first choice. If he gets in and gets the scholarship, all is well. If he doesn't get in and gets the scholarship, there is time to change the paperwork to send the money to where he is attending. A corporate NM scholarship follows the student wherever he/she is admitted. </p>
<p>Honestly, I don't think college adcoms pay much attention to whether an applicant has indicated that college as a first choice. There are first-choice indicators who won't get in and non-first choice indicators who will. S1 did not get admitted to his first choice so he just changed the NM paperwork to send the scholarship to his second choice, which did admit him. He was admitted to eight other colleges even though he did not put them down as a first choice for the scholarship. It doesn't seem to matter.</p>
<p>Since for corporate scholarships it doesn't matter if the school "participates" or not, my d put down one of her more selective schools which does track interest but does not give its own NM money. (She didn't make SF anyway, only commended.)</p>