National merit winners

[Schokolade]

<p>FlMathMom–In a similar situation, we chose Princeton, which doesn’t give NM scholarships. If my D doesn’t get in, she can change her choice.</p>

<p>The reason we chose a college that doesn’t give official NM scholarships is that, if she doesn’t get this award, we don’t want her to be offered an official college NM scholarship (i.e., administered through NM) to a college that she ultimately doesn’t choose, b/c once it is offered, she can’t change her mind and receive a NM scholarship from another college.</p>

<p>Here’s the info from the 2011 NM Requirements and Instructions:

NOTE: If NMSC receives notification of a change in college choice from a Finalist after mailing a college-sponsored Merit Scholarship offer to that student, the Finalist cannot be offered another college-sponsored Merit Scholarship award. This applies even if the new choice of college is one that also sponsors Merit Scholarship awards. Therefore, a Finalist who has previously reported a sponsor college as first choice but is uncertain about it may choose to notify NMSC that he/she is now “undecided”; such notification must be received at NMSC, via mail or by fax to (847) 866-5113, before April 27. The Finalist can subsequently report a firm college choice that NMSC receives by May 31.

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<p>I researched this thoroughly, and suggest that you determine from each potential college’s website how the college would treat a NM-awarded official scholarship. All but one of the colleges on my D’s list either don’t give official NM scholarships, don’t guarantee NM scholarships anyway (so we’d rather take the bird in the hand) or would still give some additional money but would call it something else.</p>

<p>For example, UNC-Chapel Hill says:

College-Sponsored National Merit Awards are annual awards of $1,000 (or $2,000 in the case of substantial financial need) to National Merit finalists who have not been offered another type of National Merit award and have notified the National Merit Scholarship Corporation that UNC-Chapel Hill is their first college choice. Recipients of National Merit’s one-time $2,500 Merit Scholarship will be eligible to receive the annual $1,000 college-sponsored award after their freshman year.

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