S19 received a $2500 scholarship! Not sure how his school (Delaware) will handle since he just received a full ride there. But definitely an honor!
Can you see it in the parent portal?
No, it doesn’t appear in the parent portal. It only appears in the student’s portal.
Thank you @endora75.
So if there is nothing in the portal, that means the student did not receive a scholarship?
@Tea4two it means the student did not win the national merit sponsored scholarship. If the student is attending a national merit sponsoring college, those don’t come out until May
@catmomof3 Thanks for your response. I found this on the website and I am confused. There are three different types of awards. So are you saying the first one listed, the National Merit $2500 scholarship, comes out first? And then the others follow? Otherwise why would this take until mid-June to wrap up? I’m not being argumentative, I’m just confused. o_O
"Beginning in March and continuing to mid-June, NMSC notifies approximately 7,500 Finalists at their home addresses that they have been selected to receive a Merit Scholarship® award.https://www.nationalmerit.org/s/1758/interior.aspx?sid=1758&gid=2&pgid=424
@Tea4Two I called this past week. Of the 3 different types, the corporate, the national merit sponsored and the college sponsored, all of the national merit sponsored (which I think there are about 2,000 winners) have already been chosen. Those are the one time 2,500 scholarships. I think most of the corporate scholarships have been awarded as well. You mostly only qualify for those if you have a parent who works at the corporation. The remaining scholarships are awarded by the sponsor schools. They are awarded if you have the sponsor school listed as your first choice school. They will be awarded into May or June. This was my understanding.
You can not stack these awards. So if you are attending a sponsor school that gives 2,000 a year, then you wouldn’t want to win the one time 2,500 payment.
Catmomof3 Thank you so much for the clarification. So, if a student got a $20K/year merit scholarship from a university, no more will be awarded, IIUC, for being a NMF?
@tea4Two that depends on the school. If they are considering that to be their award for National Merit Scholars. Sometimes the school has that as a separate package, and they will also supply national Merit organization with a list of their NMF to be awarded through NM. Was the 20,000 award based on being a NMF?? If not, you could still get more if the school is listed as first choice
@catmomof3 Thank you again for responding. I don’t think it is considered an award for NM. She did list the school as her first choice as her other choice doesn’t participate.
I’m having trouble understanding the awards. Can someone help?
If a student is offered the $2500 NMF scholarship where the decision is due by April 3rd according to the letter, but has offers of school-sponsored NMF scholarships already based on school indicated on finalist application as first choice, or possible offers from schools that won’t release decisions until April 1st and financial aid later than that possibly, will he lose the school sponsored offers by taking the $2500 by April 3rd?
S19 indicated School A on his finalist application. School A has offered a renewable for 4 years generous school sponsored NMF scholarship on his financial aid / scholarship award.
School B is currently his first choice. He wasn’t sure he’d get in when he filled out the finalist application.School B does not offer a school sponsored NMF scholarship so if he goes there he would use the $2500 and they would reduce his loan or work-study option.
Schools C & D haven’t released decisions or financial aid awards yet. And may not until mid-April. One offers no NMF scholarships and the other offers one smaller than School A but still more than $2500 one time.
Schools C&D are not out of the question if he gets in and they end up within the parameters of affordable that we’ve set, although affordable would likely include a NMF scholarship at one.
So should he accept the $2500 by April 3rd? Does that put him out of the running for any of the school sponsored ones when he makes his final decision? If he ends up going to School A would they replace the one they offered with the one-time $2500 one if he accepts that?
@“one+two” You should call NMSC and ask these questions. They are so helpful and patient!
@“one+two” If you received Natl Merit Award at School A, you’re not eligible for any other National Merit Award. If you want one of the schools C or D (you didn’t say which offered National Merit Award) to consider you for National Merit Award, part of the qualifying conditions usually (maybe always) says the awarding school has to be named as first choice. You can’t change your first choice school AFTER having received a National Merit Award - I don’t think you will get anything at all, beyond the earned-privilege to say you’re a National Merit Finalist, if you don’t attend School A at this point.
From the letter of Finalist notification:
“If NMSC receives notification of a change in college choice from a Finalist AFTER mailing a college-sponsored Merit Scholarship offer to that student the change in college choice will not be processed and the Finalist CANNOT be offered another college-sponsored Merit Scholarship award. This applies even if the new choice of college is one that also sponsors Merit Scholarship awards. Therefore, a Finalist who has previously reported a sponsor colelge as first choice, but is uncertain about it may choose to notify NMSC that he or she is now “undecided” to prevent being made an offer from a school he or she is uncertain about attending: such notification must be submitted online at osa.nationalmerit.org BEFORE MAY 1. The Finalist can subsequently report a firm college choice that NMSC receives by May 31.”
(I used ALL CAPS where the letter had words in bolded italics.)
I agree you should call NMSC 847-866-5100.
As far as strategy, my S notified NMSC he was “undecided” after being rejected by his ED school. Then as decisions came in, he changed to the one remaining sponsor college that offered the highest award on the off-chance that having named them his first choice (which they actually are at this point!) might help push this poor kid into a YES pile, which would be cause for some intense celebration in this house, I have to say!
One sponsor school where he’s admitted but really is not at all happy to attend, has already offered him a nice merit scholarship and we’re not sure they’d add NMSC to it, but he can always change them to his first choice school after hearing from the current first choice school.
(I can not wait for this to be over!)
Ok S called NM and according to what he understood the amount he’s offered at School A is money School A offers to students who are NMF and list School A as first choice but is NOT a school sponsored scholarship from NM. They said NM school sponsored only go up to $2000/year. So our guess is that there are OTHER “school sponsored” (using the one of the 3 categories) NM scholarships that School A offers but those won’t be offered until after May 1st NMF school choice deadline. And not to S19 because he’s accepting the $2500 and their own NMF Award they’ve already offered.
He didn’t ask about School D if and when he’s accepted and would they be able to offer a NMF Award of their own if he switches his first-choice school to them before May 1st.
So he will accept the $2500 and switch his first choice school to School B or C or D when/if he decides to go there. He’s also going to call School A and confirm the information about them. Also whether he could use the $2500 along with their own NMF award or do they replace it.
LOL that it takes a NMF to be able to figure out the award process.
Excellent information!
My kid’s college does not sponsor NM, we don’t work for a corporation which sponsors NM, and, as awesome as my kid’s accomplishments are, her purely academic achievements fall a bit short of those that I’ve seen that NM scholars have. So she is almost certainly out of the running for NM scholar status, but is quite happy to be an NMF.
Huge congratulations for all of you who are getting your well earned recognition and scholarships. It is an amazing achievement, and does not receive nearly the attention that it deserves.
Can someone please explain to me with the following example:
If kid got the $2500 award and is undecided and has to decide by April 3rd.
example: if Purdue and GaTech are top choice schools. Purdue is a national merit scholarship sponsor ($500/yr) and GaTech is not a national merit scholarship sponsor.
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If Purdue is mentioned as first choice, which scholarship will be given in this case? will it be "Purdue national merit scholarship ($500/yr) " or “one time $2500 National Merit scholarship”? since $2500 is more than Purdue’s scholarship of $500/yr, can student choose $2500 award?
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If GaTech is mentioned as first choice, then will “one time $2500 National Merit scholarship” be awarded?
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what happens if college choice is left undecided on or after April 3rd?
edited typo.
DS19 got the letter in the mail today notifying him the award. He only needs to reply YES or NO. He has till 5/31 to notify NM if he changes his school choice (from the current one or undecided to another school).