<p>I just received my National Merit Finalist designation at school, and Northeastern is one of my top choices, but I can't attend unless I receive a lot of merit aid. If I designate Northeastern as my top choice, am I automatically awarded the scholarship (upon admission to NEU, of course)? Is it automatically full tuition, or might it be less? If not, what are the chances that I will get it? Their website is not very helpful at all :(.</p>
<p>My understanding is that it is effectively, though not technically, guaranteed. I’ve never heard of anyone who got NMF but didn’t get full tuition, but I believe they leave that option open. You may want to contact the Financial Aid or Admissions office (certainly make sure they get the documentation that you have formally been made a NMF), and try to get information out of them, but I warn you that they often behave much in the manner of chickens with their heads cut off, so you may need to be persistent.</p>
<p>Basically, I can’t think of any reason you wouldn’t get full tuition. However, you should seek more information.</p>
<p>My son was accepted EA as a NMSF. The school notified him and indicated that if he advanced to finalist, he would receive a full tuition scholarship. So at least for this year, that seems to be the case. Fax or email your finalist letter to the admissions office.</p>
<p>You need to fax or email a copy of your certificate to admissions. The information about it is here: [Scholarships</a> | Admissions](<a href=“http://www.northeastern.edu/admissions/costs/scholarships.html]Scholarships”>http://www.northeastern.edu/admissions/costs/scholarships.html). You don’t need to designate them as your first choice before they give you the scholarship (or at least my son didn’t need to last year).</p>
<p>I emailed them a few months ago, and they said it was automatic. They also said that you DO need to designate them as your first choice.
Also:
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<p>I actually know someone who didn’t have neu as their first choice listed and still got the scholarship without any hassle.
And though Northeastern says they will subtract any othe NM money you receive from you full tuition scholarship, they didn’t or me (nor wiseguy57, I believe) and I gave up arguing with them and just accept the extra $1000 a semester at this point.</p>
<p>I received the same email as bluetrav’s son. The email I received made it sound like if you designated NEU as your #1 before April 13th, full tuition is guaranteed, and after, it is less likely.</p>