It’s also just useful to master public transit in one city – it helps you a lot when you get to others. And if UChicago kids are typically coming from the burbs it’s probably a new skill for many and a good context In which to develop it.
@JBStillFlying Just wondering if that $2000 a year notice was the first scholarship update your daughter received on her National Merit portal? I had originally been offered the $2500 one time scholarship from NMSC and already accepted so I’m wondering if that means I am not eligible for/will not be offered the $2000/year?
@azure342 - that is correct. You are only allowed to receive one NMSC scholarship. Not sure about this but guessing timing is so close on these that if you decline one you may well not be offered another. You most likely did the right thing to accept the one-time $2500. Congrats!
@azure342 - just to clarify, my daughter did not receive a notice for the one-time $2500. Her first and only notice was concerning the $2000 / yr. college-sponsored. Not sure how they determine who gets what but one method might be that those kids whose first-choice college does NOT sponsor a renewable scholarship through NMSC are the first to be considered for the one-time scholarship. Because my daughter’s first-choice college DOES, indeed, sponsor the renewable amount, we weren’t surprised that she wasn’t offered anything else (though we were by no means thinking the renewable one was a guarantee). Approximately 50% of NMF’s don’t receive anything at all, but they don’t publish the criteria they follow for administering scholarships so it’s a bit of a mystery.
Based on information which I have received from UC and NMSC, not all Finalists will receive an award. At this point, if you have not heard, there will be no award.
“Approximately 50% of NMF’s don’t receive anything at all”
THATS because they enroll at colleges that DONT sponsor NMSF [ like HYPS, etc, etc OR their parents dont wprk at a company that sponsors NMNSF OR they did not receive one of the $2500 scholarships given directly by NMSF to students regardless of where they enroll.
All colleges , and companies that sponsor NM are listed on their annual report which can be fond under the Sponsors link in the middle of the page…
http://www.nationalmerit.org/s/1758/start.aspx?gid=2&pgid=61
go to “Sponsors” , then download the Annual Report PDF .The list of all sponsors starts on page 8 of the pdf.
Chicago DOES sponsor NMSF.
Enrolled freshman who notify NMSF that Chicago is their first choice by Mid May, WILL receive the $2000/ yr scholarship.
@menloparkmom not sure that’s true. University of Chicago changed it’s criteria but did not publish any details so it’s not clear at all that all NMFs who enroll there receive the same $2000 scholarship (although it is hoped, of course).
Also, many colleges attach financial need or other additional criteria to their college sponsored scholarships. University of Wisconsin at Madison for instance only gives out a few college sponsored scholarships per year even though they enroll several NMFs every year. Not all NMFs enrolled at the University of Minnesota will receive the college sponsored national merit scholarship, although they are given priority for significant merit aid directly from the university.
Totally agree that if you enroll at a college or university which does not sponsor a scholarship your chances are automatically lower for receiving one simply because you have removed a category from consideration. Clearly some of the 1/2 who don’t receive anything at all are at least in part doing so by choice.
@menloparkmom I had hoped that all Finalists who named UC as their first choice by the deadline would receive the $2,000 but UC says that all awards have been made and at least one Finalist did not receive an award. I hope the UC person I spoke with was wrong but that is what I was told.
did that finalist list Chicago as his FINAL first choice with NM ? AFTER he was accepted?
If he failed to do that, or did not check or confirm that NM showed that Chicago was his first choice , then Chicago would have no obligation to award the scholarship.
this sometimes happens when students change their first choices numerous times.
The absolute best thing any NMF can do is to NOT decide on a first choice UNTIL they know where they will be enrolling. THEN they notify NM as to their final first choice.
All colleges go by the list of final first choices that NM sends them. Some may still be being processed as the deadline is this month.
A significant percentage of the entering class consists of ED and EDII with early commitment dates well before that May deadline. Also, as mentioned earlier, UChicago didn’t even advertise that they had changed their scholarship policy - pretty much everyone thought it was still $4,000 / year guaranteed (as long as you specified your first choice by the deadline). Why would anyone leave $16,000 on the table? Seems to me that most if not all of those kids would have specified by the earliest deadline - 3/1. Depending on how many NMF’s there were on that earliest list, it’s quite possible that all awards have been allocated by now.
Edit/update to #69 ^^: According to the latest NMSC annual report, UChicago-sponsored scholarships were distributed to 185 of the 277 NMF’s entering fall 2016. That’s probably a decent indicator of availability (quite possible that the other 92 received another type of NMSC scholarship, of course).
Update to #67: A $2,000 award was made so I don’t know of any Finalists who did not receive an award.
glad to hear it.