What would happen if I put college X as my first choice and then didn’t get in? Would I be able to change it to college Y, would I be given the standard $2500 instead, or would I lose my opportunity altogether?
I thought I saw a couple of posts on one of the NMF threads where people said they were attending the NMF day at UT Dallas last weekend. Anyone have a report back? My son will attend in a couple of weeks.
I am also interested in feedback on the UTD visit. UTD is on the outskirts of my son’s school choices and I am interested to know if this event is excellent enough to make it worth the time or if we should just try and setup an individualized visit. Thanks!
@kforty2 and @liecdre we went to the UTD event. The usual sales pitch presentations with talk about how they are focused on “buying” high stat students. Current NM students were on hand to chat with, and they escorted us around the campus. The kids were divided up into several smaller groups for the tours. It is a modern campus, looks more like an office complex I suppose, but we did like it. Son missed out on the academic presentation because his assigned professor was out sick. He ended up speaking with a student in the dept instead. Doesn’t seem like there is much to do in the immediate surrounding area. The NM dept/honors college did seem to want to support the students to be successful as possible. The students we spoke with seemed intelligent and engaged. They said the scholarship pretty much covered all their expenses and they never had to deal with bursar’s office. First year is most expensive due to cost of freshman housing and meal plan.
I think the main benefit of going to an NM preview day would be for the opportunity to see potential classmates and to chat with other parents. Also there are more current NM students on hand to speak with
@tabbychiro Thanks! I’ll talk with my son to decide if he wants to go. We went earlier in the year and he sort of liked it, but it was kind of an anybody event, so I don’t think he got the true feel. We did a more individualized visit at OU and he really liked it, but it’s like $10k per year even with NM scholarship. I would like to try UTD in a more intimate setting, but I also saw some advantage to a visit with other NMF type kids.
Thanks @tabbychiro! My son plans to study CS. What department was your son looking at?
@kforty2 he’s interested in animation, possible CS minor
@tabbychiro , my daughter has several friends attending UTD and they love it. nice school, academically focused and if engineering is your focus its top notch.
@Phlipper, that is good to hear. Doesn’t your daughter go to UCF? My son is trying to decide between UTD and UCF. Wants to pursue animation
@tabbychiro she loves UCF ! I know emerging media is a strong area for UCF, we fell in love with the campus on our visit and she hasn’t regretted her decision. Let me know if you have any questions ! My daughter is in the nursing program and just loves it.
@KCHS19 @ratsnotmice others tracking BU RG, no email / snailmail yet but some notices showing up on BearWeb. Good wishes!
Does anyone know how Northeastern’s honors and NMF scholarships compare?
@stressed2019 I’m not sure if this is still the case, but my D17 got honors and NMF award from Northeastern. NMF just bumped it to $30k scholarship. It did not stack $30k on top of what they already gave her. If it had, she probably would have chosen that, but without the stacking, it would still have been around $40k/yr. COA before it was all over. Not sure if that’s what you were looking for.
Thank you!
Hi! I was wondering if one can only get one of three scholarship options - 2.5k, corporate, or college sponsored. Is it possible to still get corporate and then later get a college sponsored scholarship? Or does it mean my college I listed as first choice rejected me and so I’m getting corporate?
@memelover123 – Yes, you can only get one of the three scholarships, but no, receiving a corporate does NOT mean that your first choice rejected you. NMSC considers the 2.5k and corporate scholarships more valuable than the college sponsored ones, because they are portable and can be used anywhere (e.g., they are not tied to a specific school).
In terms of the big money supplemental “National Merit” college scholarships, if that is what you are looking for, THOSE are in addition to any one of the three NMSC scholarships, and are not considered “college sponsored awards” because they are administered directly by the schools and have nothing to do with the “official” NMSC administered award, other than the fact that you need to receive an official award to be eligible to receive the supplemental, big money award. I know it seems convoluted, because it is!
As a result, receiving a corporate one does not mean you could not receive the big, supplemental scholarship from the school in addition. The NMSC administered college sponsored scholarships are all between $500 and $2000 per year, and are almost always less than the corporate awards, but even if they are more than the corporate awards, they are still considered less valuable because they are tied to one school whereas the corporate award can be used anywhere…
College admission decisions are totally separate from NMSC scholarship awards. You received the corporate award before even being considered for the college specific one because it is deemed to be more valuable by NMSC. This has nothing to do with whether or not you will be accepted by any particular school, including your first listed choice.
Hope this helps.
@NJDad00 thank you so much for your help! Just to clarify, you said it is possible to get the college supplemental scholarships still but that one can only get one of 3 types of NM scholarship. Does that mean the corporate and college sponsored one cannot stack?
@memelover123 – if you are asking about the small, “official” NMSC college-sponsored award, yes, it would not stack with any other “official” NMSC award. In fact, it will not even be offered, so there will be no opportunity for it to stack, or for you to choose it instead of the corporate award.
Directly quoted from NMSC instructions for Semifinalists:
Consideration for a college-sponsored Merit Scholarship award is limited to Semifinalists who qualify as Finalists and who also
- report to NMSC that a sponsor college is their first choice (see the list of college sponsors included in the “Competition Instructions” section of the OSA and at nationalmerit.org/resources);
- have applied for admission to the sponsor college; and
- have not been offered any other National Merit Scholarship (corporate-sponsored, National, or another
college-sponsored award). No student will receive more than one scholarship offer from NMSC.
I think I may have messed up my S19. He now has an offer from his 1st choice college that includes a National Merit award (only $750), but if he doesn’t get their full-ride offer (to be decided before April 1st), he can’t afford to go there. Does this mean that schools like UA and OU will not offer their packages to him if he changes to their school as 1st choice before May 1st? Or is only a small part of their package officially NM based? Hopefully my son gets the full ride scholarship to his 1st choice and this all become moot. Thanks for the feedback!
Call the NM office. They are super useful and give clear advise.