Which schools are you talking about? There are some that have competitive NMF awards, and some that don’t.
@mom2collegekids The quote I gave is in reference to UofMinn in relation to their honors program. I know you know a bit about Alabama, so this would be another one I’d be curious about.
@2muchquan You should send an email to UMinn scholarship office and ask for clarification.
All of the schools offering NM scholarships to my son in 2014 indicated in their financial aid packages (in early April) how much the NM scholarship would be and indicated they needed to be listed as first choice with NMSC by May 1 to actually get the award. Which, by the way, was usually but not always only a small part of the overall merit scholarships offered. I don’t know that any of his were competitive (they were offered to all NMFs), however, so I don’t know how the competitive ones work. However, I’d assume that competition would be sorted out in the initial financial aid package leaving plenty of time to declare by May 1.