<p>I think the essay prompt stays the same from year to year, so it should be safe to write the essay in the summer.</p>
<p>Our D's HS didn't bother to notify her of semi-finalist status until the day before the application was due--she did make finalist, so I guess the essay can't count too much against you--she wrote hers in about an hour.</p>
<p>Continuing in this stunning vein, at the NHS induction ceremony a couple days later, the principal proudly announced the students who'd made commended, but left out D, the only semi-finalist. It appeared to the audience that she had not made the commended cut. When I confronted him (nicely) after the ceremony, he replied that "if" she had done what I said, he'd apologize to her later. </p>
<p>Apparently the letter was sitting on his desk, and he hadn't got around to reading it.</p>
<p>The essay prompt is quite good, but I had a cow when I saw the amount of space they gave the students on the application. I finally did mine in size 8 font, used an exacto knife to whittle the edges and ended up fitting my entire essay on there. </p>
<p>The moral: milk the space for all it's worth.</p>
<p>garland: that is simply awful! what a disorganized man!</p>
<p>D justified both edges of her essay and it came out looking really nice. Used smaller font to make it fit. Basically, this is not the place for extra-flowery prose. </p>
<p>"Many thanks, ellemenope. Great name, by the way. Just caught on to it as I typed it." </p>
<p>I cannot take credit, but give it to Anthony Trollope (from the book, Barchester Towers). Another good name from the book--Omicron Pie</p>
<p>Don't they suggest a number of words for the essay - it's not just a matter of "filling the space". My son typed up the essay in a smaller font, but there was plenty of extra space.</p>
<p>It's theoretically possible to write a beautiful essay that explores the facets of your being, your activities and your passions in under 500 words, and I sincerely applaud those who can. Unfortunately, the majority of people need slightly more space (and words) to develop their writing. </p>
<p>And personally, I'm the type of person who likes to have a mini-book in 500 words, verbose and full of big words. :P</p>
<p>If I remember the structure of my D's NM essay:</p>
<p>Opening
Talk about passion 1, music (talk about involvement, accomplishments and leadership positions)
Talk about passion 2, science (talk about school and summer research project)
Talk about future plans re college and career
Ending</p>
<p>The only reason I remember the structure is that by having to write it, she got the idea of where she wanted her college app essays to go. Remembering that the idea of any college app essay is to flesh out for the adcom info about yourself besides SAT,GPA and a laundry list of ECs, she wanted to make sure that the total essay package for any school somehow covered those three areas. </p>
<p>[So filling out the NM package was of some use and she did snag one of those $2500 NM scholarships.]</p>
<p>A note to all concerned - your son/daughter's university of choice may offer to match/beat the NM one_time $2500 scholarship if you tell them about it. They may even offer to pay it every year, as an incentive - though this fact may not show up anywhere on their website. I can speak from a sample of one, it happened to D2 at WashU.</p>
<p>Optimizerdad: So how does it work?....If you get money from NM do you turn them down? If getting money from corporations better than universities?</p>
<p>For corporation NM scholarships, I believe one of the parents usually must be employed by the company.</p>
<p>Garland - Your principal and our former principal must be twins. At an awards ceremony for seniors, fancy framed printed certificates were awarded to students for being named "National Merit Finalists for Outstanding Performance on Advanced Placement Tests".</p>
<p>On the other hand, I must say that my son's Guidance Counselor (who usually isn't too dynamic) called him at home to ask what college to put as first choice on the National Merit finalist application. I think my son forgot to fill that in or something, since the colleges he was applying to dont give NM scholarships. It was good to know the counselor was carefully reviewing the application before sending it.</p>
<p>Simba:
(All info here is to<em>the</em>best<em>of</em>my_knowledge...)</p>
<p>NM will tell you if you won one of the corporate awards (usually $1000 - $2000 for each of 4 years), or the one-time $2500 NM award. Both of these are transferable, if your child wants to switch universities later. As noted above, you have to be an employee of a specific corporation, or a member of a specific professional organization, for your child to be eligible for one of the corporate NM scholarships.</p>
<p>In my case, I'm a member of a steel<em>industry</em>related professional organization. D1 got their 4 x $2K corporate scholarship, and took it. D2 got the one_time $2500 NM scholarship, and we told WashU about it. They offered to match it for all four years - we went back to NM, declined their offer and took WashU's offer instead. A mild negative is that the university 'NM' scholarship is not transferable.</p>
<p>Look up the NM website for the order in which they announce corporate/ NM/ college_specific scholarships. I <em>think</em> it's corporate, then NM, then college - but my memory isn't what it used to be.</p>
<p>I think your memory is fine O'dad, winner list scanned first for potental corp. winners, then $2500 NM winners named. Son won a corporate sponsored one based on fact that mother worked for sponsoring co. for a few years about 20 years ago. I believe the college sponsored ones, usually much more generous, go to any finalist who elects to go to a sponsoring school--needn't have been listed as a first choice, offers begin to arrive in the mail soon.</p>
<p>O'dad and Idler: Thanks. But does this mean you can double dip? i. e. you get corporate awards for 4 years and go to a school that gives $ to NMF, can you get it from both places?</p>
<p>No double dipping. That is one of the few points of information to be found on the National Merit Scholarship Web site.</p>