Does UChicago offer any scholarships to National Merit Finalists? The deadline for selecting a first choice school is earlier than the admissions notifications will come out, so wondering if it would be better for my son to list a school he already got into. He was deferred EA, is waiting on RD.
Last year it was $4k/year for NMF granted by the University. I’m not finding it easily on their website so maybe they discontinued it? I would suggest you call FA.
@xmj9597, yes they still do. It’s under UChicago scholarships on their website and it is listed as $2,000 per year. What is the deadline for selecting first choice?
As I understand it, on March 1 if you have a school listed, NM sends that school your finalist status. But, depending on the college, you may have until April 1 or later. You really have to look at each school’s policies. My son updated his application for each school but has kept his top choice as U Chicago. He too was deferred EA and hopes that shows them that he is serious. Also, none of the other schools he applied to gives NM money.
I believe the award for NMF can vary from 4K to 20+K or I thought I read that a student reported getting more than 4K for NMF in their package.
Specific info on NMF scholarship, which was guaranteed, used to be on this page: https://collegeadmissions.uchicago.edu/page/merit-scholarships. The page now is vague without dollar amounts and it’s not clear to me that it is guaranteed for NMF.
I believe UChicago used to offer $5K/year for NMF. Within the last few years, that decreased to $4K/year. Additionally, IIRC, it was a bit confusing last year in that there was some websites that stated $4k/year and others that were less clear. DD contacted Admissions about this and they clarified it was $4K/year, and indeed that is what she is receiving.
Now I’m thinking that they no longer feel the need to entice NMF and may be working towards getting out of the business of supporting NMF with merit money. For 2015, it looks like UChicago sponsored 207 students http://www.nationalmerit.org/s/1758/images/gid2/editor_documents/annual_report.pdf (p.30) so that’d come to $800+K/year. Not an insignificant amount of money.
@goingnutsmom Is this the page you’re referring to? http://promise.uchicago.edu/students/scholarships.shtml. If so, the ‘promise’ program only applies to applicants from Chicago. I could not find any other website that stated that but would be interested to see it.
@Dolemite I believe UChicago has only had a set amount for NMF. Certainly it could be part of a larger merit package.
Doesn’t UChicago guarantee $4,000/year anymore? we haven’t checked this in a while but D17 was just accepted ED II so I guess it’s time to call the school . . .
I emailed an AO last year (1/2016) and asked if a student could get the $4K NMF and $4K National Hispanic Recognition Program awards listed on the old page and was told that yes they would receive $8K if s/he was both NMF and NHRP. Later in the year while visiting I asked a different AO and was told the student could only get 1 or the other for $4K. Now no amount is listed and I swear I saw that it could be up to 20K somewhere.
My D has applied RD and based on the projected admit rate for RD I don’t think it really matters to us any longer 
I just called Admissions and the very nice student didn’t really have a clue. She did seem to find something that said $2,000. That’s very different from last year. We definitely looked into this right before D17 was named NMSF. Seems they changed the game for NMF at the same time they changed the admission options.
@ihs76 I wouldn’t recommend calling FA office - spoke to them as well and they told me that NM scholarships are an admissions question.
The National Merit Scholarship Corp. was set up by the College Board to certify students that achieve a certain proficiency on the PSAT when compared to other students that took the same test in their state. But all the funds given by scholarship come from participating schools. Ivies don’t participate. The amounts, I believe, can vary depending on the institution though most are uniform. I hear NMF get a truly great deal on tuition (free, maybe?) at Texas A&M. UChicago gives its set amount (not sure exact) … but if you receive National Merit AND receive other merit aid from UChicago, then my understanding is you only receive the larger. You don’t get to add the two together.
I am a little skeptical about NM awards. I think they are created to entice/force kids with no need to take the SAT, to take the SAT merely to “validate” their PSAT score. It is a multiple choice test and yet it takes them forever to decide what the cutoff is to become a semi-finalist? Come on! That is a ruse. As a result everyone has to take the SAT, whether or not they have a perfect ACT score already. It is a device to keep the SAT going which costs the College Board nothing because it is funding by participating schools. But congratulations to those that qualified and are able to apply the award to their school of choice! It can be a very good deal if you have done well or were going to take the SAT anyway.
@JBStillFlying The merit scholarship site recs contacting the Regional Admissions Counselor re info. I don’t think I would go by what a student working in the Admissions office tells you. I actually don’t remember who DD contacted last year as she did the footwork. I am guessing they have, or are in the process of changing, the award for NMF with the increasingly non-committal verbiage on websites.
@Sam-I-Am National Merit SC actually directly awards 2500 one time scholarships of $2500 each to the tune of $6.25million every year. There are additional 5500 scholarships that are sponsored by universities and corporations. In fact, I was hoping DD would not be chosen as an NMSC scholar, with the $2,500 one time award, so that she could instead receive the $4K/year UChicago award last year for total of $16K/4 years. The one time where the consolation prize is better than the actual ‘winning.’ Also, there are only about 15,000 semifinalists. I expect most of those kids would have been planning to take the SAT at least once if they are headed to competitive colleges, or aiming for one of the big guaranteed scholarships. In the latter case, having to take the SAT once is a pretty good investment. And the score needed to continue to finalist stage is pretty low (<2100) so for these kids, not much prep needed.
NMSC also predates PSATs.
I agree @ihs76! Trying that next. I was surprised to find that they don’t have a person in charge of the national merit kids but if they are transitioning out of sponsorship then perhaps that makes sense. It’s too bad because UChicago was the kind of place that national merit kids gravitated to. I hope they still do.
@ihs76, see below- (from their website)
National Merit Finalists:
National Merit Finalists are granted awards from one of three sources: the National Merit Corporation, a sponsoring corporation, or from the University of Chicago. If you are a finalist in this competition, simply report to the National Merit Scholarship Corporation that the University of Chicago is your first-choice school. If your award is sponsored by the University of Chicago, it will be in the amount of $2,000 and is renewable for four years.
This seems pretty clear to me that they offer $2000 each year.
@Dolemite, my D was also both a National Merit Finalist and a National Hispanic Recognition Program scholar. And no the scholarships did not stack. Sorry to give you the bad news. She directly talked to her UChicago admissions person and he made it clear that they could give her both but the amount would stay the same.
BTW, the National Merit scholarship was $4,000 last year. It sure does look like they changed the amount.
@goingnutsmom - they have. Not pleased to learn this as we had checked right around the time that D17 was named a semi-finalist. They must have changed it sometime in the fall - or later. Losing $8,000 in scholarship money won’t break our bank, thankfully, but it’s still disappointing to learn. UChicago must not be trying to attract NMF’s so much anymore.
I would say that they are lining up more and more with the Ivies and what they do.
Last year it was $2000 from the NMSC organization and $2000 directly from UChicago, adding up to $4000. Sounds like it may be the same this year.
@Mindlife I thought it was that UChicago guaranteed $4,000 and anything that NMSC gave you they would provide the rest - if NMSC gave you nothing then UChicago gave you the full amount. How do you know that the NMF still gets $4,000?