@lonetreegrad UCF’s National Merit Newsletter clearly states a student WILL receive the scholarship if they advance to finalist and name UCF their first choice.
https://admissions.ucf.edu/files/2015/08/1504ADM332-National-Merit-Newsletter-FOR-WEB-LR.pdf
Curious if this thread is right. It’s Oct 6 and I’m on the National Scholars Honor College page and it says 30k. Out-of-state National Scholars receive an award of $30,000 per academic year for four years plus a one-time $1,500 Study Abroad Award. Additionally, students who complete their undergraduate study in fewer than eight semesters are eligible to use remaining funds towards UA graduate study. udents are named National Scholars based on the PSAT test taken junior year of high school. Along with the financial award, incoming National Scholars are invited to a dinner with UA President Hart and faculty in September of their freshmen year. National Scholars include students designated as National Merit Finalists, National Hispanic Scholars, or National Achievement Scholars.
Are you sure this is right? Students are named National Scholars based on the PSAT test taken junior year of high school. Along with the financial award, incoming National Scholars are invited to a dinner with UA President Hart and faculty in September of their freshmen year. National Scholars include students designated as National Merit Finalists, National Hispanic Scholars, or National Achievement Scholars. Out-of-state National Scholars receive an award of $30,000 per academic year for four years plus a one-time $1,500 Study Abroad Award. Additionally, students who complete their undergraduate study in fewer than eight semesters are eligible to use remaining funds towards UA graduate study.
You are right. If you go to the honors page for national scholars is still has the $30,000/yr for OOS. If you go to their scholarship universe page, outside of honors, it says $18,000. I will try to call tomorrow because that is a school my D is very interested in. I’m wondering if they changed one page and not the other, or maybe there is additional money in the honors program.
It appears to me that the honors page has not been updated. I clicked on the more info button on the bottom of the page and was taken to 2014-2015 information. Again, I will try to call tomorrow but I’m not real hopeful.
I think some of the slightly vague language on the UCF website is designed to encourage parents and students to reach out to UCF NM scholarship coordinators/recruiters. They list that contact everywhere and tell you to email them for more information. I think it is still automatic for NMF, but the newsletter is last year’s, so color me 99% sure, and likely to email UCF since DD has it on her list for NMF.
Sorry, I posted that newsletter without noticing that it was last year’s. I have emailed UCF and asked them to update it. If I get a reply with notable information, I will get back to all of you and post it here.
Regarding the UCF scholarship, I emailed the contact person about the 2015-2016 newsletter, and here is the main part of his reply:
“The newsletter is indeed our recently updated newsletter for the 2015-2016 academic year. The timeframe indicated on the newsletter is for the current academic cycle and applies for students wanting to enroll for the Fall 2016 semester”
So the link is current and I will re-post:
https://admissions.ucf.edu/files/2015/08/1504ADM332-National-Merit-Newsletter-FOR-WEB-LR.pdf
I heard back from the UA, and they confirmed that the honors page was incorrect. They have updated it as well as the Arizona Excellence scholarship. Previously, it stated $13,000 and now is a range from $5000 to $17,500 plus the additional $5000 for NMF. So, prior year the amount was $30,000, for next year it will be $10,000 to $22,500.
We are a Texas family too, and we were briefly interested in ASU. Our middle income family needs a good NMF scholarship to support our ability to pay. I’m surprised that University of Alabama isn’t being mentioned more. @mom2collegekids is UA’s unofficial rep here at CC, she can give you great information about UA’s very generous NMF package. So you can trade one UA for another UA. 
FWIW - we were a little skeptical about UA, but after visiting (see my trip report: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-alabama/1789529-a-visit-to-the-university-of-alabama-cbh-and-honors-college.html#latest) I cannot say enough good things about Alabama’s various honor programs. Having a nearly free ABET undergraduate education will greatly benefit my son and our finances.
-psy
I’m also surprised that more people aren’t talking about the UT Dallas NMF scholarship, it puts COA at less than a $100 a semester covering tuition fees, Room and Board and books plus $6K for a semester abroad.
UT Dallas is a school in transition. I know numerous families that visited several years ago or longer and found it to be a commuter school. All of that has changed in the last few years. I did visit 3 years ago and it has a totally different vibe now. They have built dorm after dorm. Dining was an issue which they have addressed with a new dining hall and individual kiosks in the parking garages and buildings. Many of the facilities have been updated or completely renovated. In the outside areas, concrete has been replaced with grass, water features and gathering areas. It still is not perfect but they continue to try to improve it. And it does not have the large sports programs and has a decent but not fabulous rec center. It is a school that appeals to the nerd in me after all they have one of the best chess teams in the world.
@4kids2graduate Thank you for the information regarding UCF. So, full ride seems to be automatic.
FYI - I talked to UNM rep and he implied that D who has already been accepted will be getting the full ride. He also said that if a student gets admitted, become a finalist and name them as the college of choice, then most likely she/he will get the full ride, but he didn’t use the word automatic.
If a student can only attend a college if they get the big NMF scholarship money from the school…I don’t know how colleges can expect a student to put them down as 1st choice college without knowing for sure that they will get the scholarship. Will they find out prior to May 1st from those schools (whether or not they will get the scholarship from the school)? Also, it makes it difficult to decide about going to visit schools (the time, expense, etc.) if the student could potentially not get the scholarship. If they aren’t competitive, and they don’t advertise a “limited number” or “first come first served”…then I wish they would just say automatic!
We hope to visit a few schools in a 3 state area while visiting family…so at least it is not a totally separate trip. And, as far as I know, ALL of those schools have automatic scholarships for NMF.
@4kids2graduate I absolutely agree with you. Even after my call, I wasn’t 100% sure if the scholarship money is automatic or not. I guess he thinks that we have to wait until February in order to be 100% sure. I guess by not providing this information, then students will try to register for other colleges as well!!
Just found the link below. The article is from 2011, so things might have changed since then. It still says that they provide the full ride to all NM kids (which D is not). I think they are waiting to see how many NMF they are getting this year.
http://www.abqjournal.com/news/metro/04235325metro01-04-11.htm
I
Section 1 lists the large scholarships that are known to be automatic. You will not find many ironclad guarantees in the language provided by the colleges, however.
I assume the UNM Amigo is competitive just like the Regents. Right?
@4kids2graduate This is my understanding from posts here on CC: You don’t have to designate a school as your first choice before you have all the information and know where you’re going…by May 1st. You should have financial info back from all your schools by April at the latest (unless you apply late, in which case shame on you), including the ones where a NMF scholarship is competitive, but they have decided to offer it to you. So, in other words, you will know you are getting the NMF scholarship BEFORE you need to designate.
@lonetreegrad I wouldn’t trust any information that is more than 12 months old. Things seem to be changing by the minute when it comes to merit awards.
@2muchquan Definitely not appling late to any schools, so that will not be our issue. But financial feasibility is a huge issue here. We also do not have the means to visit every college on S’s list he will apply to, but definitely want to try and visit the ones that are near the top of the list (affordability wise). Only one school he “may” apply to is within driving distance, the rest are 1000-3000 miles away (airline tickets, etc.!) Most of those schools are the ones with NMF scholarships…but there is no way we can wait until April to decide to visit, but also don’t want to visit schools that are only a “maybe” for the NMF scholarships.
S16 is also applying to some schools that have minimal or no scholarships for NMF, but I do not know how those will come out financially. We have very “rough” estimates based on aid calculators and such…but our experience with D that is a sophomore in college is that it never comes out exactly like the calculators predict. Also, we can expect it to be more reasonable for a couple of years when we have two kids in college, but I do not want S16 to have a rude awakening his junior year (after D graduates from college) at which time our EFC will jump to who knows what amount. We fall in that “donut hole”…where we are expected to pay a fair amount as a middle class family, but realistically we are not willing to sell our cars, our house, and our belongings in order to pay what they think we can afford!