@gmc0508 I tried to send you a message but apparently I can’t figure it out. I believe I private messaged someone else. You can call admissions at A&M and ask for the nmscholars recruiter phone #, unless you can tell me how to private message someone.lol!!
@gmc0508 Got some help! Sent you a message in your inbox.
@rosegeo I found out just now, after doing more researching, according to NMSC, technically the first choice school choices can be changed up until May 31st so long as the school of choice has not made their awards yet or depends on the school’s requirements. So ultimately, it’s the schools decision. I am hoping TAMU would still offer NMF scholarship. @Momtaro suggested I contact TAMU directly and I just did. I’ll post their reply. Thanks again!
Does anyone know whether the Brown scholarship requires that a student take more than 12 hours per semester?
I just want to share for future students who may be in the same situation. My son’s a NMF and has declared TAMU as his first choice school only recently (last April 1 to be exact).
As was advised here, we reached out to TAMU last Monday to inquire. They just got back to us today, Friday, and they have confirmed that my son will still receive the National Merit package of $10,500/year plus a non-resident tuition waiver to cover the difference between in-state and out-of-state tuition. So in effect, he gets full tuition scholarship. They also added that once they get the most recent NMF roster (should be next week), they will update his scholarship awards. We are so happy for this great news. Thanks!!!
@bctnln1059 Yes. 15 hrs. per semester
@Momtaro, Ok, thanks! I noticed that they are required to be accepted to the Honors Program; do you know if they have to stay in the Honors Program the whole time?
I don’t know. I know you’re required to be in Honors because they want you living in the Honors dorm your freshman year. After that I’m not sure.
@bctnln1059 I am fairly confident they do not have to stay in University Honors program to receive their scholarships. We are actually attending the Honors brunch tomorrow morning so will try to remember to ask.
When we talked with current students during our visits, I remember many of the Engineering students saying they stayed in the Honors and or Engineering Honors for a few years to receive the benefits (especially early registration) but most of them weren’t completing the Capstone or thesis projects to actually earn the Honors on their diplomas. My daughter is planning to start in both University Honors and Engineering Honors and then keep talking to other students and advisor and decide.
Are any of your students going on the July trip to Italy? My daughter heard lots about it from someone at our church and applied and was accepted. She is looking forward to it.
@HoustonTXmom My son decided not to apply for the Italy trip. It sounds like a great opportunity it’s though? Congrats on your daughter getting accepted!
My son asked someone from the Brown Foundation about having to live in the honors dorms and she did not say that they needed to. He is going to do engineering honors but I don’t think will live in the engineering honors dorms.
Does the National Merit Scholarship also require that a student take 15 hours/semester?
@bctnln1059 Yes.
@rosegeo @HoustonTXmom Figured it out! Brown requires you to be in Univ. Honors (may be different for Engr.) and it’s Univ Honors that requires you to live in the Honors dorms freshman year. Did you find out any helpful info at the breakfast @HoustonTXmom ? My daughter chose not to apply for the trip too.
Yes, I can’t remember who told us but remember someone saying NM scholarship requiring 15 hrs per semester.
If anyone will be at 14 hrs and still on track for required courses, remember that there are 1 hour courses. For anyone playing an instrument for instance, they have 1 hour band courses that are about 4 - 5 hours per week and don’t require practice, and I think have either 1-2 performances reach semester so not a big commitment. My daughter is planning to do that.
I also want to mention that one other significant benefit of the Honors program is that the professors actually get to know the students more personally. After even a semester course, you are more likely to have one that will write a more personal letter of recommendation, etc. Having even one class per semester with 25 students instead of 200 facilitates that.
My daughter keeps talking to different Honors students every time we visit A&M and likes what they say about the program. And for anyone in Engineering, because of the size of the Engineering school, they say close to half the (University) Honors students are in engineering.
I have heard though that you can take Honors courses without being in Honors. Haven’t verified that though. Might be worth asking for anyone not in Honors.
It’s starting to get Real!!
Now that I have more time, here’s a little more,
- They emphasized that lots of study groups are formed in the Honors dorms. Very good place to be as a freshman regardless of major.
- The students mentioned there are higher grades given in the Honors courses. They said it is a little more work for those specific classes but only need one per semester and much more enriching and better interactions with the profs. We keep asking all students about grade distribution and they say that they didn't grade on typical curve like other non honors classes. They said you can look at the grade distributions of classes to confirm. I saw that link but when I looked at the classes, I couldn't tell which class sections/profs were Honors. I don't know if there is a way to tell that?
We had seen reports on CC that some Honors profs still give tough grades so you could end up with a B in Honors course when likely would have gotten A in regular course, and with less work. They said that should not happen or at least rare.
Ok that’s what my daughter and I remember for now. Hope that helps.
@HoustonTXmom I will be attending the Italy trip this summer also and I am excited to be a part of it. I am also going to be in the University honors program and engineering honors. Just to confirm, you are able to take honors classes even if you yourself are not in honors. With university honors you must also participate in some honors specific events. At the brunch they told me that honors classes have higher grades because of more one-on-one time due to the smaller classes, but they won’t be that much more difficult, just more enriched. The university honors is more lenient with the 3.5 GPA requirement than the engineering honors, but I don’t think there are any “capstone projects” that need to be completed for the engineering honors.
I have been debating whether to do both or just engineering honors for awhile because I would like to have a say in a roommate, but today I chose to participate in university honors also because of all the opportunities that I will have.
I was at the Honors brunch too- it was fun! I’m also planning on going on the Italy trip, which I’m very excited about.
@HoustonTXmom One way I can think of to see which professors were teaching honors classes would be to look up the class schedule for that semester on Howdy. The Honors sections will be marked HNR and they are usually listed first.
@gmc0508 and anyone else. In case you don’t follow the 2017 NM finalist thread, I wanted to share this post from yesterday:
College sponsored scholarships are now live on NMSC’s portal. Scholarship notification will be updated in waves depending on when students specified their first choice college.
My daughter also didn’t update her Top college choice with NM until end of March so we missed the initial wave of NM scholarship awards. All of the Scholarships that TAMU had told her she would receive as part of NM had been in the TAMU financial aid scholarships portal, except $2K. When we checked her NMSC portal today, it indicated a $500 per year = $2K scholarship award. This seems to be the “missing” $2K in the TAMU portal. I had just been waiting to see if it showed up before calling to ask and sure enough it did, so just wanted to share with you and others in case in similar situation.