OK. Do you think I should wait the week or so that I think it will be before we find out from his 1st choice school?
Thanks!
No harm in making a call and getting the process clarified. My conversation with NMSC helped me make good decisions. Better to hear from the horse’s mouth.
We got a corporate scholarship award letter a couple of days back. They offered a minimum of $500 for 4 years ( and maybe more after reviewing of CSS profile by NMSC starting in May) but the deadline to accepted the offer is 3/20!!. so we ended up calling NM office to clarify and according to the lady we spoke the college we are waiting on for the offer (USC half tuition if accepted) will still be valid even after accepting the corporate offer. We accepted the corporate offer but keeping our fingers crossed and hope we didn’t make mistake by doing so (we hope USC NMF offer will still be valid if it comes thru)
@liecdre I think you are fine, but call NM now to ease your mind. They told me that only the correspondance from the NM office themselves announcing your school sponsored reward is considered final (and this won’t be sent out until May 1st). It doesn’t matter if a school offers you something earlier or what they call it. You can still switch your first choice school until May 1st. Just be sure your new school choice doesn’t have their own earlier deadline that they want to to choose them as a first choice.
@liecdre just for confirmation, that is exactly what NM told me as well. From NM perspective, nothing is official until 1-May. And, as you rightly point out, individual universities may have deadlines earlier than 1-May you need to consider.
Thank you, Thank you!
I guess it was a moot point because he just got notice of the Full Ride Scholarship from his 1st choice. We are extremely excited!
congrats!
If there is an envelope from National Merit in our mail today, is that likely a scholarship offer? Or is something else being mailed at this time of year? My S won’t be home for 3 hours…
Most likely a scholarship!!
@momcatof4 exciting! Congrats! Look how similar our user name is!
It was a scholarship – corporate. 
Nice counterpart to the MIT rejection (fully expected, but still…)
Congratulations on the scholarship!
Sorry if this is too nosy but wondering how much corporate scholarships are.
@5Dis – it totally depends on the corporation, and varies from between $500 and $10,000 per year, for up to 4 years, or a one time award of between $2,500 and $5,000.
There is really no use pondering it, though, because, depending on where parents work, you either eligible to compete for 0, 1, or 2 of them at most, and the only ones that matter are those, and the only way to find out how much they are is to ask the companies directly. If you are not eligible to even be considered for them, does it matter how much they are, or how much @mathmomvt’s company’s scholarship was?
A $40,000 corporate National Merit Scholarship that could be used anywhere would certainly be a super sweet deal, but NMSC doesn’t publish which companies offer it, because that information is irrelevant to 99.99% of us. The only way to find out if, and how much, a corporate sponsored award is to to have an association with the company and then to ask them how much the award is and how to apply for it.
Well, for our family, having our S19 pursue NMF schools was our main game plan. He did throw his hat in the ring for competitive merit as well but one only came thru with a $12,000/yr scholarship and the other looked like an even a bigger long shot. So we happily had S19 put down deposits at Alabama - which he absolutely loves! But, in the end the long shot came thru and he was just named a Eugene du Pont Distinguished Scholar at the University of Delaware with a full ride plus. So while we were all set to Roll Tide, we will now join the Blue Hen family (obviously the fiercest mascot of all! ?)
So my question is - should he put UD down as his first choice even though they are not a NMF sponser school?
@mountainmomof3 I don’t see how putting a non-sponsor college as first choice would be of benefit. I believe they want that data for determining whether a finalist will receive a college-sponsored Nat’l Merit Scholarship. If they do not attend a sponsor college, and if they also do not receive one of about 1,000 corporate-sponsored scholarships, they are then eligible for one of the ‘2500 single-payment that are given out on a state representational basis.’ (loosely quoted from the letter.) So, they could end up with only the privilege of being named a Finalist in the competition, which still adds value.
My son had Duke as first choice, but since he was rejected in the ED round, he changed that to Uncertain until he sees which sponsor colleges he gets into. It’s my understanding that finalists have until May 31st to then report which college/university is their first choice. I don’t believe any college sponsor is able to see which college a finalist has listed as their first choice, though I could be wrong.
(And, congratulations to your son on the full ride award at UD - that’s gotta feel wonderful!!!)
@mountainmomof3 Congratulations to your S19! Sounds like we had the same game plan. I was pretty certain my son would end up at Bama or UF because of NMF, but then his competitive scholarship came through this week. He was named a Chancellor’s Scholar at his favorite school, which is full tuition (not as good as the NMF options for us, but it was a perfect fit for him), so he is now a TCU Horned Frog . . . also a fierce mascot. 
I think my daughter did list her non-NMF sponsor school two years ago. We saw that as letting them know she was not getting a college-sponsored scholarship. I don’t know if that was the “right” thing to do, but she did end up receiving the $2500 NM scholarship. However, I think you should make sure directly with NMSC to be safe.
@gamom2023 congratulations to your son! TCU is a great school!
Funny how things work out. Would not have changed a thing about how he applied as it was so nice to have some sure things to keep the stress away.
But I will have him take off Alabama as his first choice with NMSC just in case it matters.
@mountainmomof3 Thanks! Yes, we’re excited for him, and we have no doubt it’s the perfect school for him. The whole weekend we were there for the interview was amazing. The hard part for me is to not let my second-guessing rear its ugly head. There’s definitely a difference in full ride over full tuition, and I keep trying not to focus on that. In addition, it’s a lot further away for us. But we are very thankful for the opportunity for him and think he will thrive there.
Funny thing is I wondered if our boys were going to meet at Bama some day. Guess not. I know your son will have a very exciting road ahead of him. Congrats again!