<p>Does anyone know if when you are a NMS semifinalist you should put a top school choice which actually gives merit scholarships or if you should put your actual first choice school which may not be a school with merit scholarships?</p>
<p>As far as I can tell, most colleges don't care who you put down unless they give merit scholarships. Put down the school with the best deal.</p>
<p>Check what each school offers for NM and choose according to that and the preferred school. A friend that is a semi finalist is waivering between 2 schools and they both offer high scholarships if you list them as first choice.</p>
<p>You don't HAVE to list any school until you're SURE which school you will be attending, tho some schools DO require you to list them if you want to get their merit scholarships by a deadline (Boston U told us it was Feb 1), while others like USC, UAz, AzSU say as long as you name them as your 1st choice by the NM deadline, it's fine & you'll get their scholarship.
My S chose to wait until he got his acceptances & was SURE which school he really wanted to attend & listed that school sometime in April. He got a nice merit scholarship & is very happy.</p>
<p>On the other hand, if you decide to list a school, you can always change your mind to undecided or another U before 4/1 deadline (double-check the date with NMS). Be sure you do make any changes before the deadline because if you miss it, you will NOT be able to get a scholarship from any other school.</p>