New Rules for National Merit this year

<p>From the website:
Students who are admitted to Northeastern and are recognized as national scholars (National Merit Finalist<em>, National Achievement Finalist</em>, or National Hispanic Recognition Program Scholar**) will receive a $30,000 merit based award and may also be eligible for additional Northeastern merit scholarships.</p>

<p>Northeastern National Merit, National Achievement, and National Hispanic Scholars will also be invited into The University Honors Program.</p>

<p>Wonder how this will effect admissions - now the only full tuition will be for university scholars.</p>

<p>That definitely would have made a difference when I was applying! Though if you think about it, it’s not particularly surprising since they added the University Scholars; having two sets of full tuition scholarships with the similarity in requirements didn’t really make a lot of sense to me. I wonder if it’s also a matter of just how many NM scholars they might be getting now. And looking at how CEP has exploded in size, maybe it’s getting overwhelming for them. :)</p>

<p>I’m curious what exactly they mean by that “may also be eligible for additional Northeastern merit scholarships.” Does that mean they might stack academic scholarships so you would get really close to full tuition anyway? This also might mean they are expanding the University Scholars, so there might be more NM students accepted to that.</p>

<p>I talked to an admissions officer there who said they would put together merit aid packages that could add up to full tuition. It’s hard to know how many would get that level of aid.</p>

<p>DS, a NMSF, will be applying early and will take a look at the package offered. It’s nonbinding so the risk is minimal.</p>

<p>I’ve always thought it was a little weird that so many schools offer huge, full scholarships based on one test as a HS junior. Before my older brother took it, and got Commended, I didn’t even know such an option existed. It’s hard for me to complain, though, when I was also the benetactor of such a scholarship. This option seems like it will give the university the option to really recruit top students, both NM and non-NM. I hope it doesn’t turn off any NM scholars because of the lack of automatic full tuition.</p>

<p>And of course they had to do this the year I’m applying.</p>

<p>I think they increased their standards to target more selective and qualified students. Eventually in the long run NEU will increase its ranking even more with its increased selectivity and pools of more qualified students…?</p>

<p>This might turn away some NMF winners - ones who don’t make university scholars who might find full tuition someplace else. It will also set university scholars apart form the other merit winners. </p>

<p>Will it make the school’s overall admissions stats go up - I am not sure? You could always have been a NMF who did not get in at all and maybe this is safeguarding against NMF winners who might have otherwise weak applications?</p>

<p>I also agree that CEP is too big. Several of my daughter’s friends on CEP had a hard time fulfilling thier 100 hours last year - finished them up over the summer back home. Some of the CEP partners simply did not provide 100 hours of opportunity over the course of the year.</p>

<p>I didn’t get all of my 100 hours from my partner organization, but there are a lot of one-time service opportunities. The problem is that, as the program has grown, it’s harder for the people in charge of the program to follow-up and make sure everyone has a way of getting their hours. I’m in a tricky spot right now trying to figure out how to do my hours while overseas, but overall I’m glad for the CEP program because it’s encouraged (OK, forced, but in a good way) me to get involved in the community.</p>

<p>Is this scholarship renewable??</p>

<p>The school cracked top 50. Wouldn’t be surprised if merit money slowly starts disappearing in future.</p>

<p>If a NMF can not complete 100 CEP hours, will NEU renew the merit scholarship for the next year?
When and where did you do the community service? Was it during daytime or in the night? Was it in a safe area or a bad neighborhood?
Did NEU assign you to a duty or do you pick which one you want to do?
Can you volunteer in other places in the summer, and also have it counted towards 100 hours?
Sorry for asking many questions. Thanks.</p>

<p>I can answer what I know. Typically all of the merit scholarships are for 8 semesters of classes (so nothing for the co-op times and prorated if you do summer semesters.) </p>

<p>They seem to be flexible about the 100 hours - all of my daughter’s friends who didn’t finish them until over the summer were not penalized in any way. However, what they chose to do over the summer had to be approved in advance by their cep advisor. Freshman were required to do all their hours with one program for the whole year - many kids chose tutoring type things at local schools and those were daytime (what would be after-school for your typical high school student). I think the problems arose with those who chose the Saturday morning programs - because they had fewer times to chose from.</p>

<p>After freshman year, you can mix and max your hours at various places and they start the year with a volunteer fair where you can find opportunities (it happens to be this week). </p>

<p>All this being said, we don’t know if these rules will now change now that the NMF is not full tuition only university scholars is.</p>