<p>You can’t generalize in this manner, that students who recieve full tuition will reject it for other schools. It comes down to personal circumstances/preferences. I’m sure people who get accepted into an ivy or MIT, and Stanford are more inclined to go there instead of NEU. I know of atleast one person who chose NEU over an Ivy and they did not recieve full tution.</p>
<p>let me repeat : it says you have to declare neu ur first choice before they offer the scholarship</p>
<p>is your point that by stating a school as your first choice that is somehow binding? Think not.</p>
<p>it doesnt seem like you even read the link</p>
<p>so lets make it easy for you</p>
<p>National Merit Finalists Scholarships
Admitted freshman applicants who are designated National Merit Finalists are eligible to receive a full tuition scholarship. <strong>Finalists must designate Northeastern University as their first choice institution and present a copy of their National Merit finalist certificate by March 1</strong>*. National Merit Finalists may also be considered for Northeasterns Trustee Scholarship. </p>
<p>that sounds pretty binding to me.</p>
<p>As the mom of a National Merit NEU full tuition scholarship winner for Fall 2009, let me explain what we learned about this process.</p>
<p>Yes, as far as getting any money from the National Merit people, the school you designate as your first choice is binding…IF you want to receive their award $$. If you later decide to attend another school, you are certainly free to do so, but you won’t get any $$ from Natl Merit unless you go to the school you designated as your first choice. </p>
<p>The fact that you declare a certain school as your first choice is between you and Natl Merit…the declaration is not between you and the school.</p>
<p>So the National Merit people award $2500 but only if the student attends the school that has been listed as their top choice.
As far as the full-tuition scholarship provided by NEU to the National Merit winners, there is no binding agreement that the student accept.</p>
<p>Is that correct?</p>
<p>And by the way congratulations to your student!</p>
<p>The amount from National Merit is UP TO $2500, but yes they only get it if they attend the school they designated as their first choice. The student can choose to attend NEU and take advantage of the full tuition scholarship in addition to what Natl Merit gives, or they can go elsewhere. The only way to get any money from the National Merit program OR any of the sponsoring colleges is to attend the first choice school. You don’t have to go there, but if you don’t then all of the money connected to the National Merit program (whether direct from them or from a college) is no longer on the table.</p>
<p>And THANKS! It truly feels like winning the lottery! 
We are very proud. We are also beyond happy with what we’ve experienced with all the people we’ve met with from NEU.</p>
<p>Plus if you win a Trustee scholarship, how in the world are they going to require a binding agreement that Northeastern is your top choice? Obviously you need to show that it is, but you can be completely honest or lying through your teeth. They can check to see where else you’ve applied, but if they didn’t give any scholarships to people who applied to schools typically ranked higher, it’d be a pretty poor decision.</p>
<p>^^…how do they know where you applied? doesnt that breach a privacy policy? lol or something that shouldnt affect any decision they make</p>
<p>I imagine they could check <em>shrug</em>. Most schools ask what other schools you applied to, but I can’t imagine it would be hard to find out. But the point was that where you apply DOESNT matter, because applying to other schools doesn’t mean Northeastern is your first choice or last choice. You could be applying to Harvard because you’ve always wanted to go, or because your parents made you, so it won’t affect whether or not Northeastern feels you want to go here-- only how you act towards Northeastern (visiting, emailing, EA, applying on time, etc) will affect it.</p>
<p>There seems to be some confusion here about NM scholarships. There are 3 different kinds: </p>
<p>(1) NMSC-sponsored scholarships. These are one-time only $2500 grants (given directly by NMSC) and they can be used at ANY accredited university.</p>
<p>(2) Corporate-sponsored scholarships. These are sponsored by individual companies and usually have very restrictive eligibility requirements – children of employees, or students from a particular geographic area where the company is located, or students studying a particular major that relates to the company’s business, etc. The amount of these scholarships varies (depending on what each company wants to give out) and they may be renewable for up to 3 more years. These corporate scholarships can also be used at ANY accredited university.</p>
<p>(3) College-sponsored scholarships. These are given out by individual colleges and can be used ONLY AT THAT PARTICULAR COLLEGE. These scholarships are usually renewable for another 3 years, but sometimes there is a minimum GPA or other requirements you have to meet in order to do so. To be eligible for one of these scholarships, you have to have designated that school as your #1 choice. (NMSC then notifies that school that you have made that designation, so you are eligible for its scholarship.) Making that designation brings absolutely NO obligation to attend that school, but if you don’t, you obviously are walking away from that potential money.</p>
<p>You can only receive ONE NM Scholarship, regardless of type. So if you are looking at two schools that sponsor NM scholarships, you’ll have to pick just one as your #1 choice and that’s the only one you would get NM money from (although the other school might offer you other, non-NM scholarships). That’s why many students wait until April before designating their top choice.</p>
<p>Also note that your NM “#1 Choice” may not necessarily be your true top choice, as it only really applies to schools that offer NM scholarships. If you would prefer Harvard over Northeastern, there’s no point in saying Harvard is your top choice, since Harvard does not sponsor any NM scholarships.</p>
<p>^good tips bout #3. do you know if there would be a list of schools that have nm sponsorships?</p>
<p>There’s a list on pages 18-19 of the PSAT/NMSQT Student Guide. Look here:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.nationalmerit.org/student_guide.pdf[/url]”>http://www.nationalmerit.org/student_guide.pdf</a></p>
<p>Does anyone know any finalists who have been denied the scholarship? Or is it granted to all enrolled finalists?</p>
<p>Do you know if Northeastern gives any scholarship money for Commended students?</p>
<p>^I don’t believe so. I got Commended, but I didn’t see any opportunities for $ :(</p>
<p>Nope, they don’t.</p>
<p>soo…quick question
If I recieved the $17,000 per year Dean Scholarship when applying can that be combined with a NMF full-tuition scholarship to pay for room and board expenses?</p>
<p>If you already received Dean’s and become a NMF, NEU will automatically consider combine the two but there’s no guarantee that you will end up with a full ride, according to an admissions officer…</p>
<p>thanks collegeproject, so they will combine them for the top students then? any idea what percentage?</p>