<p>This is a bit of a gray area… Let me explain…</p>
<p>You can only accept one “official” NM scholarship from NMCorp, a company, or a college. However, some colleges have “unofficial portions” to their NM scholarships.</p>
<p>the NMCorp scholarship is a one-time $2500 scholarship given to 2500 of the 15000 NMFs (so, very hard to get).</p>
<p>But, if you do luckily get one, then you can still take the “unofficial” portion of a college NMF scholarship. However, often the official portion of a college NMF scholarship is larger than the one time $2500. </p>
<p>For instance…</p>
<p>My son accepted the $2500 per year official NM scholarship from my H’s company (worth $10k)</p>
<p>He was also able to accept the “unofficial” portion of the Bama NMF scholarship - which is the tuition, housing, laptop and study-abroad. All he had to “give up” was the official NMF part from Bama - which is $1000 per year. Since $10k is more than $4k, it was an easy decision.</p>
<p>however, it would have made no sense for my son to accept the one time $2500 from NMCorp since it would have meant giving up $4k from Bama.</p>
<p>It doesn’t matter where you get your scholarship from…if you get one, you’re a National Merit Scholar.</p>
<p>As a home schooler, we just received the certificate and letter from NMSC today. It is interesting that they sent them at the same time in two separate envelopes.</p>
<p>S got his letter today! Question about this line…</p>
<p>…
Every Merit Scholarship award must be used for full-time attendance at a college or university in the United States that holds accredited status with a regional accrediting commission on higher education. Therefore, a Finalist ‘cannot be offered’ an award until he or she has reported such a choice to NMSC. Our records show that as of January 31, 2010, you are ‘undecided’ and have not reported your first-choice college.
…</p>
<p>S will most likely be offered a corporate scholarship from dad’s company which is worth $3,000 - $8,000. </p>
<p>Question 1 - will they not even offer a scholarship until we put a college in there? Not even a corporate one?</p>
<p>Question 2 - Will putting a relative selective first choice college that you have not heard back from for acceptance as your first choice bump your chances at getting accepted to that college? The corporate award can be tranferred to different colleges.</p>
<p>Q1 - Yes, name a college so that they know that your child intends on going to college in the fall (he wouldn’t be eligible if he took a gap year).</p>
<p>Q2 - I doubt it. I don’t think the colleges who don’t offer NM scholarships would be told that you put a college as first choice. For instance, if your child puts Harvard, I doubt Harvard would even be told. Why would they be since they aren’t a participating college. I’m not even sure when the participating colleges are told, because “first choice” selections get changed a lot. I can’t imagine that NMCorp is spending time sending 15,000 notifications for each kid’s latest “first choice” designation.</p>
<p>Thanks. Seems like if they designate by March 1 then they will be included in the first group referred to that institution for scholarship consideration. Periodically they will notify sponsors of additional finalists who have reported after that. </p>
<p>It just seems confusing to list a first choice when you don’t even know if you will be admitted there.</p>
<p>Stockmom, if you still have the yellow information sheet with deadlines that came with the NM packet that you received when Semifinalist standing was announced, it says that you can change your college choice any time before May 31, but they have to receive notification by that date.</p>
<p>I think it’s implied that if you don’t get into the first-choice school you already reported, you can change your mind if you let them know by May 31, since most people will know where they are matriculating by then.</p>
<h2>I too am looking at this line from the letter:</h2>
<h2>Therefore, a Finalist ‘cannot be offered’ an award until he or she has reported such a choice to NMSC. Our records show that as of January 31, 2010, you are ‘undecided’ and have not reported your first-choice college.</h2>
<p>So, if the $2500 NMSC scholarship is BETTER than the official NMF scholarship offered by the school you plan to matriculate to, you STILL have to put down your 1st choice in order to be eligible for either of them. Does that mean that the minute NMSC sees that your 1st choice college is a participant, they will exclude you for consideration of their $2500 scholarship? (That would probably make sense from NMSC’s standpoint.)</p>
<p>Is the requirement to name a 1st choice college PRIOR to award of the $2500 scholarships a new provision this year? I could swear in previous years veterans had said you could delay making that 1st choice college disclosure until after the $2500 awards were made. Am I wrong on this?</p>
<p>I am homeschooled as well and we got both notices the same day, but in separate envelopes also. Question for everyone: does anyone know the percentage of NMF’s that are also Eagle Scouts?</p>
<p>*So, if the $2500 NMSC scholarship is BETTER than the official NMF scholarship offered by the school you plan to matriculate to, you STILL have to put down your 1st choice in order to be eligible for either of them. Does that mean that the minute NMSC sees that your 1st choice college is a participant, they will exclude you for consideration of their $2500 scholarship? (That would probably make sense from NMSC’s standpoint.)</p>
<p>Is the requirement to name a 1st choice college PRIOR to award of the $2500 scholarships a new provision this year? I could swear in previous years veterans had said you could delay making that 1st choice college disclosure until after the $2500 awards were made. Am I wrong on this?*</p>
<p>Why would you want to do this? </p>
<p>Are you thinking that you’re increasing your chances of getting the one-time $2500 award by not choosing a college until afterwards? </p>
<p>Why would you want a one-time $2500 award instead of a larger award from a college???</p>
<p>If there has been a change in the req’d dates then maybe the above is the reason. If people were delaying their choices in hopes of getting the one-time award, and then after winning one, declining once they realized that their college was going to give them a bigger one, then that may have been a reason to change date req’ts.</p>
<p>Interesting, we got a letter from National Merit today asking S to…please name the college you are tentatively planning to attend and FAX the form immediately… You may notify us later if your college choice changes. </p>
<p>I guess he just needs to pick one whether he has been accepted or not.</p>
<p>Even if your child will be going to a school that doesn’t give a NMF scholarship, NMCorp needs to know that your child intends to go to college “somewhere.” NMCorp doesn’t award corporate or its own scholarships to students who aren’t going to college in the fall.</p>
<p>My son is homeschooled, and we also got 2 different letters today— HOORAY!!! The one to the parent contained the certificate designating him as finalist, and the one to my son contained the letter with the details. </p>
<p>Problem: his first choice college says they’ll notify of admission by April 15th, and am assuming it will be later than THAT before we know if they offer him the full ride. However, his second choice college, which has already accepted him, wants to be designated as the #1 choice by March 1st to offer the full ride. </p>
<p>Anyone know how likely it is that U of WA (his first choice) would NOT accept a Nat’l Merit Finalist? </p>
<p>15000 finalists were selected but only 8200 will receive Merit Scholarship awards.–Who decide and how which "finalists” will become part of the 8200?</p>
<p>My daughter finally received her NMF certificate at school today. She still hasn’t received her letter at home yet, but with the weather and the occasional problems our mail carrier has with getting the mail to the right house, I am not totally surprised. In any case, I have already purchased a nice frame and mat and the certificate proudly sits above her desk.</p>