National merit winners

[Schokolade]

<p>Yes, you should call Macalester to get all the facts before you make a choice.</p>

<p>My D was in a similar situation to yours recently, so I started this thread: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/national-merit-scholarships/1103731-how-choose-your-first-choice-college-national-merit-purposes.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/national-merit-scholarships/1103731-how-choose-your-first-choice-college-national-merit-purposes.html&lt;/a&gt;
Mazewanderer also added some useful ideas.</p>

<p>You should also know that a student will not be OFFERED more than one NM scholarship. The National Merit Requirements and Instructions document says:

Consideration for a college-sponsored Merit Scholarship award is limited to Semifinalists who qualify as Finalists and who also

1. report to NMSC that a sponsor college is their first choice (see the list of college sponsors enclosed with your materials);
2. have applied for admission to the sponsor college; and
3. have not been offered any other National Merit Scholarship (corporate-sponsored, National, or another college-sponsored award). No student will receive more than one scholarship offer from NMSC.

</p>

<p>As I read the last sentence, if you are offered the $2500 Scholarship (and that’s probably what it is, as corporate scholarship offers were sent beginning March 9), you cannot be offered an official NM scholarship from a college, administered by the NM people. In other words, you couldn’t merely decline it and later get an official college-sponsored offer. That’s why it is so important to know what Macalester would do. Once you know that, you can decide where each college stands in order of preference on your D’s list, which would determine which college you should list.</p>