National Merit Scholarship Finalist - Should Yale be my "first choice"

<p>You know Yale is not need blind ALL THE TIME??
I have proof!</p>

<p>what is your proof bluewhitebulldog?</p>

<p>When determining which schools to put down for NM, there are two things to take into consideration:</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Does the college give merit scholarships for NM? And I don’t mean the 2.5k that the NM gives and which can be used at ANY college. </p></li>
<li><p>Does the college care about students showing interest? Y and many other selective colleges don’t keep track of interest as they have such high yields every year. Emory and WUSTL are examples of colleges that do track interest and may use it as a factor in admissions decisions.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>My son is also a junior who received the NMSC letter stating he could send his PSAT to two colleges.</p>

<p>The guidance counselor said there was no benefit in sending it to colleges that don’t offer merit scholarships for NM. Emory, Duke and UNC-Chapel are on my son’s short list of schools. Duke doesn’t offer NM scholarship $$ but Emory and UNC-Chapel do, so she suggested sending to those schools.</p>

<p>The amount of a NMS scholarship at Pomona would be added to the ‘Family Contribution’ in assessment of financial aid. So, unless you are not planning on receiving financial aid because you are wealthy, it is really not worth anything and the Yale package is better. Why? I do not believe Pomona has a no-loan policy like Yale. So, you have a choice - Do you want to graduate from Pomona with loan debt, or from Yale without any?</p>

<p>This thread was started over two years ago and the OP has not posted since. Then the thread was revived last year by another member and their question was answered.</p>

<p>Please use old threads for information only, don’t reply to the OP and revive the thread.</p>