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<p>Yes. It is rare for someone not to move from NMSF to NMF status. We had one from our high school–uneven GPA (he only put effort into those classes that he liked and blew off the others) was the cause.</p>
<p>I think that if your child is on the bubble, looking at schools that give NM money is still worthwhile. If your child just misses NMF, a school that gives NMF money may well still offer a scholarship.
As to the SF/F thing - I know some kids don’t get informed of the importance of it and therefore don’t follow through. Some , who are applying to only very elite schools, decide it isn’t worth the effort since those schools don’t give F scholarships and will see the SF marker anyway.</p>
<p>^Well, you never know…you might get one of the $2500 NM scholarships. It would be worth filling out the paperwork for that!</p>
<p>*I am interested in posts #4 and #5 - are you saying that most semifinalist become finalists (of course, as long as they submit the paperwork)? My DD is a semifinalist and hoping to become a finalist as her first-choice school has a few scholarships for them.
Her GPA is great (3.9+ UW) and her SAT is 2120 or 2130. Thanks *</p>
<p>Typically the kids who don’t make finalist cause the problem themselves…</p>
<p>inadequate GPA</p>
<p>trouble-maker at school, therefore the school doesn’t write a nice rec</p>
<p>refuses to do the paperwork/write the essay (or doesn’t submit on time).</p>
<p>writes a rude essay (yes, I know a student who wrote a rude essay and didn’t make finalist.)</p>
<p>inadequate SAT (altho NM won’t state a needed SAT, the consensus seems to be that anything over 2000 is ok)</p>
<p>Forgets to have SAT sent to National Merit Corp</p>
<p>All but about 1,000 NMSF don’t make finalist.</p>
<p>^Well, you never know…you might get one of the $2500 NM scholarships. It would be worth filling out the paperwork for that!</p>
<p>Yes, and many parents’ companies also participate and fund NM scholarships. My son was able to accept the $2500/yr from my H’s company and also accept the NM scholarship from his school (minus $1k which is considered the “official NM scholarship” - because a student can only receive ONE “official” NM scholarship.)</p>
<p>So, NM lets corporations and schools award THEIR scholarships first, and then NM gives out their $2500 scholarships to some of those who received nothing. So, the timing is a bit stretched. NM doesn’t give their awards out until late spring, while the others give theirs out in early spring (or late winter).</p>
<p>I’m not sure, but I think the NM award is a one time thing, while school and corporation awards are usually for all 4 years.</p>
<p>Some companies use NM to run their scholarship awarding process for their employees- students don’t even need to be a NMF to get some corporate scholaraships.</p>
<p>A student who does well on the PSAT and checks whatever info boxes on the test sheet will get plenty of mail from top schools.</p>
<p>Announcements in the fall are much better since students need the school’s input to continue the NMS process. Don’t get too hung up on the NMSF/NMF designation when figuring out which schools to apply to. Most NM finalists will not go to the most elite schools- there are simply not enough available spots for them and plenty who are not NMFs will go there. Be wary of some schools that recruit NMFs- top students may be better off at a school with a higher academic peer group; those schools don’t need to entice students with money.</p>
<p>Do your college search based on schools that seem to fit your child- both academically, socially and other factors. A child who qualifies as a NMF deserves to attend a good fit college, not just one offering them merit money. Don’t shortchange your child by having them go to the least costly school unless the academics and fit are comparable.</p>
<p>My DD is a semi-finalist and we are hoping she will become a finalist in a couple of months.</p>
<p>However, most of the schools that offer decent or full tuition are not ranked high. We should be able to afford paying for tuition on our own but it’s very tempting to take over 200K+ worth of free education.</p>
<p>Parents, what are your plans?</p>
<p>collegeproject, we’re also a full pay family. D1 is interested in a couple of schools that offer significant NM scholarships (not full rides or full tuition). I’d kept my eye on Keilexandra’s list, and picked those two out as good possible fits for her even without NM money. Then I name-dropped them to her a while ago, before the PSAT, and without mentioning the scholarship possibilities. After she got her PSAT score, I told her that those two schools would offer significant money.</p>
<p>She’ll need to do her own research and decide if she’s really interested in them to see what happens next. Weather is the big question–can this SoCal kid handle cold and snow? And of course she’d have to get in. </p>
<p>The free ride options wouldn’t be a good match for her. This is a kid who says she can manage anywhere, but since we have the resources to send her somewhere more simpatico, we will. If our resources were going to be really strained, we’d drill down through the free ride/tuition list and find the best option for her.</p>
<p>NM scholarships are a one time thing.</p>
<p>We chose to send our NMF D to the school of her choice at full pay rates rather than take an NMF scholarship at a lower ranked school. But if we really didn’t have the money and couldn’t expect much help on the need based aid front, we certainly would have given those schools a much closer look.</p>
<p>I suggest for those who might be interested in the schools that offer big NMF scholarships to check out their Honors Programs. My son is going to ASU’s Barrett and is very happy with his choice. U of Alabama also offers some very strong honors program. Those are hidden gems that can be a good fit for some top students.</p>
<p>collegeproject,
my son was a NMF, top student at a highly ranked private school, and though he was accepted at 2 Ivys and about a dozen other top 30 colleges, he received a full tuition scholarship at USC [ recently ranked # 26USNW] and knows that going to USC was the smart choice both financially and academically.</p>
<p>menloparkmom,</p>
<p>Your son must have outstanding stats to get full tuition from USC. My DD is applying there as well. My understanding is that they only give 1/2 tuition for NMF.</p>
<p>Even though he would have received the automatic 1/2 NMF tuition scholarship, because he did apply by the Dec 1 scholarship deadline[ DON’T LET YOUR D MISS THIS DEADLINE!] he was asked to interview for further scholarship consideration, did so in Feb, and was bumped up the the Full Trustee scholarship. We were blown away, and needless to say, made USC a finalist when the May 1 decision deadline arrived</p>
<p>[USC</a> Financial Aid - Grants & Scholarships - Undergraduate - Freshmen Only Scholarships](<a href=“http://www.usc.edu/admission/fa/grants_scholarships/undergraduates/meritbasedfo.html]USC”>http://www.usc.edu/admission/fa/grants_scholarships/undergraduates/meritbasedfo.html)</p>
<p>^^it’s more than stats that get the full ride from 'SC – the kid has to have something that they really want. </p>
<p>A neighbor with a 240/2400/4 x 800/5-5’s (at the time of the app)/advanced calc & linear algebra at the local UC/val at a US News gold school/accepted into every 8 year med program to which he applied/accepted into the two Ivies to which he applied (including Yale)/Siemens finalist/publishable research/yada yada yada, but yet was not offered the full ride at USC.</p>
<p>Oh yeah, the interviewing prof in his major, which is not a popular one, really wanted him. Trustee scholarships are divvied up by School at USC, and I think that is one reason he was selected. S had done 2 years of grad level research with a top Scientist in that field in HS, in addition to having great stats, so he did present an unusual level of accomplishment in an obscure, specialized area of science. He was the only student at the table for his major during the incoming Trustee students lunch 4 years ago.</p>
<p>Wow, My DD did send in her applicaiton before 12/1 for merit scholarship but from what you just said I don’t think she will get full ride…</p>
<p>Maybe I should start praying : )</p>
<p>OP here. to get the thread back on track–we are east coast in a high scoring state (>219 cutoff). I still think a junior spring release of SF names would be a huge improvement. You pretty much know that your kid WILL be a Finalist if all else is in order when the NM application is filled out in the fall. And there ARE a number of top tier colleges that offer not only NM scholarships but their own much more substantial merit money. Like Vanderbilt, Case, etc. The SF status puts your kid on their list as having merit potential and triggers scholarship mail–letters about large institutional merit awards–not just the standard recruitment stuff. This year it is hard to know whether those awards will exist for HS class of 2011–which is why contact from the colleges would save many hours of speculation and/or correspondence.</p>
<p>Also we have found that there is nothing like a campus visit to rule a college in or out–the brochures and web tours don’t show the surrounding neighborhood or let your kid check out the level of discourse in classes, the weekend party scene and so on. OTOH, I found the student guides on the tours to be pretty honest. But it is very tough for us to justify a plane ticket without a good idea that one of these distant colleges would be a good bet for merit money.</p>
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<p>Except for the guaranteed-if-you-put-us-down-as-first-choice NM scholarships, all those other merit awards are going to depend on your kid’s overall stats. You can get a pretty good feeling right now if your kid is going to be in contention for merit aid at any school, even without knowing about NM. You’d have to do that kind of school-by-school comparison even with the letters in hand, finding out about the stats for past winners of Vandy and Case merit money before you booked a plane ticket. </p>
<p>Big institutional non-NM awards are outside NM’s purview. It’s a bit unfair to blame NM because we can’t find out now if Case will have large non-NM merit awards next year. Case could make their own guaranteed NM award, or they could promote their merit aid and likely statistics on their website. </p>
<p>The good news is that you can do the legwork now and have time to go see the schools that do look like good non-NM merit bets this spring or over the summer.</p>
<p>OP, Statistically a student has to have tip top everything, not just PSAT/ SAT scores, to even be in the running for scholarship consideration at colleges like Case or Vanderbilt that offer merit $. As an example, a few years back there was a outstanding student posting on CC who was accepted at Yale, and was also accepted with a full ride at Vanderbilt. 4 years ago Curmudgeons D, was also accepted at Yale with tip top stats[ #1 ranking in class, perfect ACT score, Texas HS basketball champions, etc, etc] and was accepted with a full ride at Rhodes college. My son, with 2350 SATs, 9 AP tests with top scores, unusual EC’s, and acceptances at 14 top colleges, but not Stanford, was not offered merit $$ at ANY college other than USC, including Vanderbilt where he was also accepted. So unless your D already has straight A’s, outstanding and varied EC’s, etc, etc, you may have to go pretty far down the list from top tier colleges to have any “assurance” of winning merit $ at colleges that don’t operate on a formula. I would not try to plan your itinerary for visiting colleges only around the hope for merit $.</p>