<p>Does anyone know how OSU awards its NM scholarships? The website says all Finalists receive $1,000 and other Finalists receive full in-state tuition (Distinguished NM Scholarship). I was wondering how many of each are awarded and how they decide which Finalists receive which scholarship. It SOUNDS as though declaring OSU by March 1st & being in top 10% of class are the only differences.</p>
<p>National Merit Scholarship </p>
<p>Award amount: $1,000, or up to $2,000 with financial need ($4,000 to $8,000 four-year value)</p>
<p>Criteria: National Merit Finalists who designate to the National Merit Corporation that Ohio State is their first-choice institution are considered for this award. </p>
<p>Distinguished Scholarship for National Merit, National Achievement,
and National Hispanic Scholars </p>
<p>Award amount: Full in-state tuition; includes the value of the National Merit/Achievement Scholarship </p>
<p>Criteria: National Merit Finalists who rank in the top 10 percent of their graduating classes, and who designate to the National Merit Corporation by March 1, 2010, that Ohio State is their first-choice institution, are given priority consideration for this award. </p>
<p>The national merit award, given by NM is sponsored by Ohio State so it blends into the distinguished award…not in addition to. We argued for both as dd had originally won a Medalist Scholarship and then OSU replaced it with Distinguished award; but no go. Would have been a nice stipend for books; but at least it got her name in the paper again as a scholarship winner.</p>
<p>Aaah, the Distinguished scholarship was full tuition last year?? This year it’s only half. RAWR.</p>
<p>Here’s my question:
If you designate OSU with NM by March, can you still change your designation later if you decide to go somewhere else?
Since most other schools with NM scholarships seem to require only that you have them designated by sometime in April, is there a downside to designating OSU right now?</p>
<p>summerstorm…The downside may turn out to be more of a timing/logistics issue than anything else. If you have a college choice designated with NMSC by March 1, you will be in the first group of names referred to that university for school sponsored NM awards (usually the $1K-$2K per year for 4 years). If the school is going to offer you that award, I believe they then forward that info to NMSC who will begin mailing out those offers on April 27. If you change your designation after having been offered a scholarship from one university (basically after April 27) you cannot be offered another one. Prior to April 27 you can change your designation without penalty, but some universities may have offered their “limit” of scholarships to students who designated them early, so you could hurt your chances in that regard. I’m not sure how long it takes or how smoothly the process works getting your designated university changed, so you could risk a snafu with getting the change processed if you wait too long.</p>
<p>Thanks, Wolverine86–
If I understand you and what I’ve read on the NM website, then I should list Ohio State ONLY if I’m willing to give up opportunities for a NM scholarship anywhere else. As in, if I list OSU now and am offered the Distinguished scholarship, I can’t then change my designation to University of Cincinnati, for example, and get a NM scholarship (in their case, full tuition) from them. </p>
<p>BUT, if I’m offered a $2500 scholarship from NM Corp itself, I could theoretically still change schools after getting an offer from OSU and still keep /that/ award, provided I do so by April 27.</p>
<p>Is this right? This is all so complicated…thanks for bearing with me :)</p>
<p>^I believe you can only accept one “official” NMSC scholarship. That would be either a university sponsored award (i.e. OSU’s Distinguished which includes the value of their $1K-$2K per year), the one-time $2500 scholarship, or a corporate sponsored scholarship. Since the $2500 offers go out around March 24 it is possible that NMSC could offer you that award even if they were in possession of an offer to you from OSU that wouldn’t be sent out until April 27, but I’m not sure how they’d handle that. I’ve heard of students being offered both and having to choose between the two, but whether or not NMSC was aware of a university sponsored offer prior to sending out the $2500 offer…who knows? In any case, even if you change designations late in the game after receiving a $2500 offer and then get a university sponsored offer from your new designee you’d still have to decide between those two offers since they’re both considered “official” NMSC scholarships. Generally, your best bet is usually to designate the school you stand to potentially get the best offer from (assuming you plan to attend there if the offer comes through) and change designees if things fall through with school #1. If you changed to Cincy after NMSC sent out an offer from OSU you might still be able to get an offer from them if time allowed. You’re only allowed to “accept” one, but they might send out more than one university sponsored if they receive more than one notification from sponsor schools. Not sure about the semantics of OSU’s scholarship either. It says you’re “given priority consideration” for their award if you designate them by March 1, not that you’re guaranteed that money. Could just be my pessimistic side reading too much into it. It is all definitely confusing though. We’re going through a lot of the same gyrations with D1 as she’s looking to finalize her decision.</p>
<p>^And just in case you’re not confused enough let me throw in one more “it depends”. I’m not familiar with Cincy’s tuition scholarship offer, but if it’s a stand-alone scholarship (i.e. not offered through NMSC) you could receive both the tuition scholarship and another scholarship from NMSC. As an example, U of Minnesota has a $10K per year for 4 years scholarship it offers as a stand-alone for NMF’s who designate them by March 1. This is guaranteed regardless on whether or not NMSC offers something else. They also have the $1K-$2K per year that they usually forward to NMSC to offer to those same students. But in the event those students get offered a $2500 or a corporate sponsored scholarship from NMSC instead, they still get the $10K per year in addition to whatever NMSC offers. So even though all the scholarships are dependent on designating a university, “it depends” on whether the scholarship is an official NMSC offer or strictly through the university.</p>
<p>Oh wow. Sounds like maybe I should call and talk to NMSC about this directly?
It makes me sad, because I really really like OSU, but in truth this seems like too much risk for too little gain. If I designate I might not even get the scholarship, and if I do, unless I get more aid on top it won’t be enough to make it affordable (in my case). And by that point I might have lost options for NM scholarships elsewhere by listing too early. As you say, the logistics are very complicated.
Thanks very much for all your help…I might well be back with more questions!</p>
<p>I know someone who called NM and changed their designation after May 1st and got their corporate money transferred to their new school. strong armed school to offer scholarship promised also.</p>
<p>My son is thinking about swimming for Ohio State but would need some Merit Scholorship. He just recived a letter for being a National merit Semi finalist. Does any one know what he should expect from Ohio state other thent he 1K to 2K a year?</p>
<p>About 5 years ago, I was told that they had about 100 or so OSU NM scholarships to give out and received more “qualified” applicants than that. I suppose they have halved the award so that they can give out more awards. Many of the better state schools that offered very generous NM school-sponsored awards have cut back their awards in recent years.</p>
<p>Texasdaddy…Ohio State was one of the schools that our D1 applied to last year as an NMSF. They offered her the Maximus Scholarship ($3K per year), the National Buckeye ($8700 per year), was accepted into the Honors Program, and she would’ve had the $1K per year National Merit scholarship. We thought she had competitive stats to get invited to the Scholarship Weekend to interview for the Presidential or Medalist packages (3.99UW/4.15W, 36 ACT, 2400 SAT, solid EC’s) but she didn’t get invited.</p>
<p>$12,700 per year was definitely nothing to sneeze at, but it didn’t put nearly enough of a dent into the COA for an OOS student (around $34K per year tuition+room/board) so she looked to schools with better scholarship offers.</p>
<p>Wow that is sad that she did not get invited with those Stats. My guess is they only want in state kids then. Well I guess we wil have to see what the swim team can do. But not encouraged so far.</p>
<p>^Don’t know…I’m sure they had a lot of kids with outstanding stats. Not sure what criteria they used, but I have no doubt all the invitees were deserving as well. If his swimming ability can add additional scholarship money on top of whatever merit scholarships he receives then maybe OSU becomes more affordable for you? Good Luck!!</p>
<p>Texasdaddy-it sounds like your son would also qualify for the National Buckeye Scholarship which pays for the out of state tuition surcharge. I have a sophmore at OSU now who has a lot of merit scholarships. I just checked the OSU website and itt looks like they have reduced the amount of money awarded for the same merit scholarships from a few years ago. Let’s hope the swim money will make up that difference.</p>
<p>I currently am a NMF and go to OSU. Here’s what I can tell ya - I selected OSU as my number one school, am an out-of-state student, and received $3857 for the Distinguished Merit Scholar (for choosing them before March) and another $1000 for National Merit. Now, it isn’t much, but there are many more scholarships within the school. Getting into the Medalist/Presidential Scholarship is definitely a difficult thing too. I was not invited, and consider myself a very well rounded, well-tested student/athlete/musician/person. But then again, just remember, you can’t put a price on comfort and happiness in College.</p>
RAWR.</p>