I have been selected as a NMSF and have been looking at scholarship opportunities through NMSC. The schools I’m looking at apparently don’t offer anything extra to Finalists. I have tried reading about the corporate-sponsored scholarships, but I can’t find any actual information. What awards are available? How significant are the awards? I’m sure there is a list somewhere, so it would be awesome if somebody could post that for me!
Have you looked at this? http://www.nationalmerit.org/student_guide.pdf Most awards are $2500. For Corporate Sponsored awards:
In case you haven’t seen it: http://nmfscholarships.yolasite.com/
Almost ALL corporate NMF awards are for employees’ children. There are some RARE corporate awards that are for non-children, but they are for particular unique majors only.
The awards usually aren’t for very much …usually only a couple thousand per year.
Merit awards will get applied to “need” first. You can’t just apply that to “family contribution”.
Are your parents expecting you to get merit awards to bring down their costs? How much will they pay each year?
I need merit aid. My parents are both farmers with a lot of assets, so I won’t get any need-based aid. They can’t contribute to any of my college, either, because they need the assets for their work. That’s why I’ve been looking for schools/corporations that offer merit aid for NMF.
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The schools I’m looking at apparently don’t offer anything extra to Finalists.
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So, forget the corporate awards…you won’t get those, and they’re small amounts anyway.
So…you need to look for full rides or near-full rides. Stop looking at schools that won’t be affordable.
Are you going to apply to Alabama ?
What is your intended major??
Are you saying that your parents won’t give ONE CENT towards college? or what?
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I’m fairly confident that I could receive a full ride to an in-state public school,
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Which state school would give you a free ride? Is it a school that you want to go to? If not, then that’s not a safety.
Since @gandalf78 already posted the NMF listing, here is another scholarship listing for you to review:
http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/
I would most likely get a full ride to University of Nebraska–Lincoln and any of the other in-state public schools. But no, I don’t want to go to any of those schools. And I have no clue about what I want to major in.
@racer33 UN-L wouldn’t give you a “free ride”. They would give you free tuition plus $2000 per year for being NMF.
As for possible majors…what are your favorite subjects?
I said I could probably get a full ride. I’m not just basing it off of National Merit. And my favorite class depends on the year and teacher. I like science, English, and social studies, but only certain parts of them (i.e. I like chemistry, but hate biology). I have thought about engineering, but I don’t like math. I’ve thought about law, but my mom worked for a lawyer and said that every lawyer she ever met hated his/her job.
Lets approach this another way…what type of schools are you looking at? Sadly, many of us have had children that have walked in your shoes. It may mean altering your dream list a bit, but there are lot of good schools that grant very large awards to NMF students.
@racer33, my son was a NM corporate winner and was sponsored by his dad’s company.
DS did not like the NM full-ride schools since these schools were mostly: OOS, and in what you would call farmland.
USC guaranteed half tuition, but couldn’t guarantee other scholarships, so that meant we’d pay: the other half of his tuition ($20k) and R&B ($20k). It wasn’t his first choice so we opted not to go with that unaffordable option.
DS receives $2500 per year (not semester) at his school which has tons of NM winners at this non NM school.
So your options would be to find schools, that like your stats and where you wouldn’t mind attending, that will give you close to a full ride.
OP, If you are looking for full merit scholarships you are going to have to cast a wide net and consider colleges that at first glance may appear to be too far from home.
There ARE colleges and U’s in the US that will PAY you to go to college.
what is your UW GPA, Stats, EC’s.
Have you looked at any colleges so far?
We can help identify colleges that you should apply to.
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probably get a full ride>>>>
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Well, since your parents won’t pay and you won’t qualify for aid, you need to have safeties where you know FOR SURE that you will get a LOT of merit/aid…so that you’ll know that you have all costs covered.
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I like science, English, and social studies, but only certain parts of them (i.e. I like chemistry, but hate biology). I have thought about engineering, but I don’t like math. I’ve thought about law, but my mom worked for a lawyer and said that every lawyer she ever met hated his/her job.
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There’s too many lawyers, so that’s not a good idea unless you’re interested in patent law. Otherwise you could end with a bunch of law school debt with just an “ok-paying” job.
What about Management Information Systems? It doesn’t require the amount of math that eng’g or CS
I would like a LAC with a conservative mindset on campus. I also want to continue my baseball career into college and am looking for a school with a DII or DIII program. I have been researching Gettysburg, but I could only glean $25k from them at the most.
As for my stats and ECs:
-4.0 GPA (my school doesn’t offer AP classes)
-Class Valedictorian
-33 ACT
*30 Math
*32 Science
*34 Reading
*35 English
-National Honor Society President
-Play Production (and many acting awards)
-Speech/Forensics (state champ and national quarterfinalist)
-American Legion Boy’s State (and Boy’s Nation Nominee)
-American Legion Baseball (Team Captain and three-time all-star)
-Varsity Golf
-Quiz Bowl (Team Captain, district champs, state qualifiers, and national qualifiers)
I think that’s all the important ones. I also volunteer quite a bit and am involved in various other school/community activities. This summer I worked for the state government as a public speaker, as well.
Management Information Systems doesn’t really pique my interest. I’m not really interested in software or programming, but I have fixed a few iPhones and Playstations with hardware problems, which was pretty fun.
@Racer33: Harding University in Arkansas.
Please check out the NMF website, which has now been provided to you twice.
I have looked at it many times. I was specifically asking for corporate-sponsored scholarships and whether or not I could receive any.
^ Your post @ #4: “I’ve been looking for schools/corporations that offer merit aid for NMF.” A fair reading of that comment is that you are looking for not just corporate-sponsored scholarships but also ones offered by schools. Hence, the link to NMF scholarships offered by schools.