<p>My child is a finalist who will not progress to Scholar unless he receives one of the few one-time awards, because the school where he was accepted Early Action does not sponsor National Merit Scholars. However, if he should be one of those lucky few, the $2500 would replace the campus job in the financial aid package his freshman year.</p>
<p>This is a school that gives no merit aid, but they will apply outside scholarships to the student earnings portion of the financial aid package. Some other schools might just reduce the financial aid award from the school's own funds by $2500, and it would be a wash, but this school's policy releases students from their work obligation, if they can cover the amount through outside scholarship funds.</p>
<p>Another benefit to the NMS program was the peace of mind it brought our family during this application year. When son did well on the SAT last spring, confirming the PSAT score, we realized that there could be some full-ride or near full-ride opportunities opening up for him. This fall we visted one of the schools with an excellent NM Scholarship award, almost a full ride, and he was quite satisfied that he could attend and be happy there, if his preferred college did not accept him or offer sufficient financial aid. It was a great relief to know that he had that financial safety school option.</p>
<p>Since there seems to be an impression that the NMS will be useless to students applying to schools that give only need-based aid, I visted the Harvard finaid web site for an example. True, they do not sponsor National Merit Scholars. Harvard financial aid awards from their own institutional funds are need-based. However, if the student receives one of the $2500 awards from NMSC, the NMS scholarship can eliminate the student work requirement.</p>
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<p>How are outside awards treated for students already receiving need-based aid?</p>
<p>Outside awards are used first to reduce or replace the term-time work portion of the award. Currently there are 700 students who are not expected to work as a result.</p>
<p>Outside awards may also be used to replace the student summer earnings contribution but not the parent contribution.</p>
<p>To the extent that outside awards may exceed the term-time work and summer earnings portion of the award, the Harvard Scholarship is then reduced.</p>
<p>^and many schools will treat an outside award as Harvard does. Even some schools that you'd think gave no merit aid quietly sweeten the pot for NMSFs with small awards:</p>
<p>
[quote]
For students who do not demonstrate financial need…</p>
<pre><code>* Finalists selected as recipients of $2500 National Merit scholarships in the first year receive a $1000 recognition award from Bowdoin in the upper-class years.
<p>That is correct. The college gives the student nothing at all for NMF. If the student gets one of the corporate scholarships ( a parent works for a participating corporation) or the one time $2500 award directly from NM, the student of course can bring that money with them. I think the conversation here is more about the level of benefit from NMF status. The impression that is incorrect is that it assures a student of a full-ride. While there are excellent institutions that do offer large scholarships to NMFs, the awards are lessening as are the number of colleges participating in the program.</p>
<p>But isn't Bowdoin listed as a participating college?</p>
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My son is one of many finalists who didn't get a penny.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Mine too.</p>
<p>And me too.</p>
<p>My observation is that it's one of those things that if you DID get it you realize that you are unlikely to get money and say it isn't much, and if you DIDN'T get it you are ticked and say it isn't much.</p>
<p>the award/title is worth it; it's up to you whether or not you use the opportunity to get money-you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink-those ivy-league kids are all just turning down other opportunities-let them b/c they go where they want to, but they shouldn't complain</p>
<p>For kids who become NMF but opt to attend "no merit aid" schools, NMF offers a financial alternative they don't need. But for kids who do need a full ride or substantial scholarships, it can be a godsend. And for a kid like mine whose dream school -- tops in his major, super honors college program -- offers a 50% tuition break plus a bit to NMF, it's a very big deal indeed.</p>
<p>Yeah I mean, I was a NMF too, and it's more of a status thing than anything. However, even when it comes to status, it only means so much -- i.e. I didn't see a good correlation between the people I thought were really smart in my school and who got the designation.</p>
<p>I know at least one program that required to be semi-finalist to apply and finalist to be accepted. Based on that I cannot say that it is overrated. D got into similar program at different school (thanks God!), but could not apply to that one because she was not semi-finalist. She had all other stats (like graduating #1 and high scores...) and was accepted to extremely selective program that had only 10 spots for incoming freshmen.</p>
<p>mathboy, interesting observation. When looking at last year's list of NMSF/NMF, the val isn't on there and lots of people I wouldn't expect to be on the list were.</p>
<p>MiamiDAP, that program strikes me as really odd. ONLY NMFs were worthy? One test keeps you out of the program, no matter what you have going for you?</p>
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When looking at last year's list of NMSF/NMF, the val isn't on there and lots of people I wouldn't expect to be on the list were.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Our likley Val and Sal (they've been swapping back 1 & 2 since freshman year) aren't NMSFs...No. 3 is. There's a top 20 guy who is. Then there's the girl where everyone's like "Really? Her?" Don't know her class rank, but it's not super high. I actualy think being a NMF is fantastic for a girl like that....no huge awards or ECs, not a super high class rank, but 3 schools within a 3 hour drive willing to give her a free ride. Not bad for one test!</p>
<p>My son received a substantial bump in merit aid at an excellent (but not elite) school for his NMF status. For our family, it made the cost of attendance possible and for our son meant he could go out of state to a private U rather than attend the state U.</p>
<p>Once upon a time, a long, long time ago, National Merit Scholarships were wonderful. I was a finalist at a time when college tuitions were about $3000. That $2500 scholarship was a big deal as I MADE MONEY my first year in college with all of the outside scholarships, financial aid and merit awards I got. THis is not allowed anymore. You can't double dip since the awards are integrated. Also as the tuitions and college costs increased, the National Merit Awards remained at the same level. So although they are a great honor to receive and $2500 is very nice to get, if you kid is looking at a $50K+ school that does not largely supplement the designation (and I don't know too many that do), it is not going to be a financial windfall.</p>
<p>However, there are schools that do offer full or generous awards to NMSF students. If your student goes to any of those, they have hit the scholarship bonanza. It's just that there aren't as many schools that offer a free or nearly free ride just based on that designation.</p>
<p>
[quote]
the award/title is worth it; it's up to you whether or not you use the opportunity to get money-you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink-those ivy-league kids are all just turning down other opportunities-let them b/c they go where they want to, but they shouldn't complain
[/quote]
</p>
<p>You're absolutely right: S should have turned down a near full ride in scholarship money at Ivies and Ivy-equivalents in order to accept a $2,500 National Merit Scholarship somewhere or maybe Arizona State. :rolleyes:</p>
<p>Aren't you the kid who is interested in majoring in agriculture who has been making a big deal about how you "could have gone to Cornell" but chose a state school instead? If you are so happy with your choice, stop slamming others. The anti-Ivy protesters usually come with a strong whiff of sour grapes.</p>
<p>It's helpful. Every national honor and award is helpful, either with admissions or with merit money. Even though some schools do not participate in the NM program, I think most of them report how many NMF's they have, either to college ranking organizations or in their school statistics, so it has to factor in somewhere at most (not all) schools. Although the first qualification is the PSAT score, applicants do have to continue to perform well on the SAT and have decent grades to become a finalist. For my son, that two hour test plus his SAT scores and grades resulted in a scholarship worth more than $160,000.00 and he is at a top thirty school that he loves. After the financial tsunami hit in 2008, I have to say the scholarship is very much appreciated in our family. I suppose the best thing about being a NMSF is that it gives kids more options. If a kid needs either money or admission to a school that values NMF's, then that kid has more options than the applicant who is not a NMF. It was definitely valuable for our family and it unexpectedly helped us when we needed it.</p>
<p>The PSAT score and the other academic aspects that go into becoming a Finalist represent an achievement that can be worth $100,000+ if used to get a free ride, or near free ride. What other achievement of a HS junior can you think of that has that value?</p>
<p>For a student who wants to (or must) provide himself with his own college education, it has to be a life changing achievement.</p>
<p>In my situation, my S chose a LAC that provided very substantial merit money, including $2,000 per year for 4 years for being a Finalist. That's $8000 more that did not go to the college. That can be closer to $12,000 in pre-tax income for a parent who has made a monetary commitment to the student's education.</p>
<p>For those who make Finalist and get the monetary benefit, it isn't overrated.</p>
<p>I am grateful for the $80,000 pre-tax $ that S got for being a NMF at the school he's attending; made it much more affordable for him & us. Without the NMF, I'm not sure whether he'd have been admitted, much less gotten a scholarship. He's doing great there.</p>