<p>So received a letter yesterday ... I am a NM finalist.</p>
<p>Is there any value in sending an email to all my chosen schools letting them know this? I realize they would have been notified ... but still ... any value?</p>
<p>Also, NM only allows you to put down one school and the counselor asked all in the class to chose Vanderbilt (??). All this happened way before we decided on the list of schools. Yes, Vanderbilt is one of the schools that we applied to ... but I would have liked to have put down a school that offers better rewards.</p>
<p>Here are the schools I applied to:</p>
<p>Georgia Tech
Emory
Duke
Vanderbilt
Harvard
Brandeis
USC - California
Rice
Wash U. St. L
Tulane
UNC Chapel Hill
Cal Tech</p>
<p>Can I change the preferred school for the National Merit ... or is it too late. If its still possible ... which school offers the most $$ for finalists?</p>
<p>Although you can certainly update colleges of your status, 14,999 other students were also named finalists. I imagine many of them applied to the colleges on your list, so it’s unlikely that notifying colleges of your finalist status will increase your chances.</p>
<p>@vulcanman , I know USC gives half tuition scholarship to all their admitted NMF… Again no harm sending the info to all the schools NMSC does not update colleges after NMSF. You have until March 1st to name a college as first choice in the first round of offers that go out and until May 31st for any change.</p>
<p>Schedule specific to college-sponsored awards:</p>
<p>March 1 through May 31, 2014: A Finalist who has reported a sponsor college as first choice by
March 1 will be included in the first group referred to that institution for scholarship consideration.
Periodically NMSC will notify sponsors of additional Finalists who have reported (by May 31) the college or university as their first choice.</p>
<p>May 1, 2014: NMSC will begin mailing college-sponsored Merit Scholarship offers.
NOTE: 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 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 college as first choice but is uncertain about it may choose to notify NMSC that he/she is now “undecided”; 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.
May 31, 2014: Deadline date for NMSC to receive reports of a sponsor college as first choice. Because it is necessary to end the competition in a timely manner, only college choice reports that NMSC receives by May 31 will be used to identify the final group of candidates to a college or university that sponsors awards </p>
<p>I don’t know why but this still has me confused. Say, for example, my girls applied to both USC and UofMiami. On March 1st they still don’t know if they will be accepted at USC nor do they know which school they would go to. What is the drawback of stating undecided and then changing in mid-April when they know more? Would they still be eligible for USC half tuition or Miami $1K/yr on top of their current scholarship offer?</p>
<p>@3tallblonds, Yes you can name USC as your first choice March 1st and then in the case that you are not admitted or decide not to attend USC can change it to U Miami or any other college by the May date and still get the NMF offer at that college. I know Vanderbilt emailed that they have a $5k for NMF if admitted and named as 1st choice. So @vulcanman you can go through your list of colleges and see what best suits your fin. situation.</p>
<p>@3tallblonds, I think the NMSC website says after May 31st you can’t change …so I think that means till that date you can change. I guess there is still some ambiguity but I am sure come May 1st our kids would have chosen where to go and we will have some fin. aid info from the school so at that point its best to have the college choice also set up with NMSC…if that makes any sense.</p>
<p>It would have been so much easier if NMSC worked in the way that we send our info to all the schools we applied to NMSC and the school of admittance/choice then gives the NMF reward/award!</p>
<p>But it also says…
March 1 through May 31, 2014: A Finalist who has reported a sponsor college as first choice by
March 1 will be included in the first group referred to that institution for scholarship consideration.
Periodically NMSC will notify sponsors of additional Finalists who have reported (by May 31) the college or university as their first choice.</p>
<p>So if one is already accepted to a school that is listed as your first choice (i.e. Miami), then I’m concerned there is no turning back.</p>
<p>March 1 through May 31, 2014: A Finalist who has reported a sponsor college as first choice by
March 1 will be included in the first group referred to that institution for scholarship consideration.
Periodically NMSC will notify sponsors of additional Finalists who have reported (by May 31) the college or university as their first choice.</p>
<p>May 31, 2014: Deadline date for NMSC to receive reports of a sponsor college as first choice. Because it is necessary to end the competition in a timely manner, only college choice reports that NMSC receives by May 31 will be used to identify the final group of candidates to a college or university that sponsors awards.</p>
<p>So I understand this as the 1st of March is for the 1st round of offers that will go out ( so the student may or may not list a college as 1st choice and wait for enrollment) - so given that it is more advantageous to just list out a college that the student may attend upon admittance , why not choose a college on March 1st and then change it if doesn’t work out but May 31st is the last date any student can make any changes for 1st choice of college.</p>
<p>Our counselor that helps NM and NA kids told us that she would suggest that we check every single school we applied to and see how much they offer Finalist and by what date we need to name them as finalist and write that information down…
Then, take the one with the earliest date and name it as finalist. Go through the dates and the amounts of all the schools with our parents because it might need to be really considered when we hear back from schools about financial aid (which a lot of times is not as much as people think they will get and then they start realizing what a great deal some of the Finalist scholarships are).
At the end of April, after we have visited all schools, name the school we are going to attend as first choice, no matter what amount it gives. Whatever school we will go to should be named first choice by May 1. She waiting until later is a bad idea because exams and graduation hit and people forget about it and don’t change it by the NM corp. date.
Does this sound right??</p>
<p>3tallblonds: Whether a college has accepted you or not is totally irrelevant to the NMSC process for their college-sponsored scholarships. The only thing that constitutes an official offer of the NMSC college-sponsored award that cannot then be changed is whether they (meaning NMSC) have put the offer in the mail. NMSC will not mail ANY college-sponsored awards until May 1st.</p>
<p>S1 is also a finalist. Cal-Tech is on his list too (shocker, I know). No National Merit money there either. If memory serves, many on your list do little or nothing for national merit in terms of money. Since 90+% of NMSF make finalist, it is unlikely to make that much difference simply in terms of admission.</p>
<p>Most of S1’s other choices are far less selective and are essentially there for him as a way to get a good education for the best value.</p>
<p>But even if the college you go to gives 0 to Finalist you have to name it as first choice to get the $2500 if you are awarded that by NM, right?</p>
<p>Yes hsgrad. For the $2500 or for a corporate-sponsored scholarship, you should list your college choice as soon as you have made your final decision so that the NMSC can verify that you are enrolled in an accredited college and they know where to send the money. I can’t find where they specify an actual date for this, but I think it would be no later than the May 31st deadline listed for first choice for sponsoring colleges.</p>
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