<p>Okay, so I was accepted early at Stanford, which doesn't sponsor National Merit. The only other places I'm applying are Duke and Princeton, which don't sponsor it either. What do I do?</p>
<p>Investigate other scholarships at fastweb.com and other scholarship search engines.</p>
<p>if you are a finalist and get that $2500 stanford will accept that right?</p>
<p>Yeah, I figured it out once I posted: I'm going to notify them of where I'm going and say that though I'm not eligible for a school-specific award, I'm still strongly interested in the contest.</p>