<p>My S is filling out his NMSF packet and a question asks for his first choice college. I realize there are some factors to consider when filling this out and I was hoping some folks could go through them.</p>
<p>From what I can tell from reading the paperwork:
He can list a first choice college now and has one chance to change it before May 31. </p>
<p>He thinks he should list "undecided' now because he says once a college offers a NMF scholarship he would not be eligible for a different merit scholarship if he chooses to go to a different college. Could this possibly happen? If he is accepted EA somewhere could they offer him a NMF scholarship before he hears from other colleges on April 1?</p>
<p>I think he should list a college now and change it in the beginning of April if he needs to- but could this backfire on us if he is offered something before that date?</p>
<p>Is it better to go with 'undecided' or should he list a college?</p>
<p>There are several ways to approach this. My S listed "undecided" because he truly was undecided & didn't want to commit to any particular school. If there is a school on your S''s list that deos award substantial merit aid to NMFs & they have a specific deadline as to when students have to list them as the 1st choice to get the award, your S might want to list them as his 1st choice. It might be a "tip" factor showing interest for the school. </p>
<p>My understanding was that you can change your 1st choice college at any time before the 5/31 deadline & I don't recall any limit on the # of times you could change. I DO recall that once you are awarded a NM award from a school you listed as 1st choice, you are NOT eligible to get a NM award from any other school.</p>
<p>We were told that BostonU needed to know that they were my S's 1st choice by 2/1 to be considered for merit aid, so they admitted him but gave him $0. All 3 of the other schools that offered him substantial merit aid told him that as long as he listed them as his #1 college by 5/31, he'd get a merit award from them. It's possible it could have been a tip factor in another school, but we'll never know & he's happy with the school he ultimately chose & got merit $ from (USoCal).</p>
<p>I think your son is right and that is what he did -- he did not list a college until after May 1st when he decided where he would go. His chosen college then notified him that they were awarding a $2000/annual scholarship ... so it definitely worked for us. </p>
<p>I'd note that even though the college he attended was his 2nd choice, at no time during the application process did he or I ever think he would actually attend - he didn't even bother to visit. That is because the cost of attendance to the college is so high we never thought we could afford it. Then, after he got in, he received a need based award that was much better than any other college offered. When they gave him the merit award, it was on top of the need-based award -- so basically we got an offer stating the grant amount, and then a few weeks later with the NM award, we were informed that the grant was increased by $2000.</p>
<p>I am mentioning this because if my son had tried to guess early where he was most likely to attend, he probably would not have guessed that school - his 1st choice college did not offer NM awards, so her probably would have designated a college farther down on his choice list that we viewed as more likely and more affordable. Obviously, that could have been a mistake. Many colleges did notify him early that he was accepted, and any one of them could have offered an award -- thereby disqualifying him from other awards. So again... your son is right to wait. </p>
<p>NM will accept a designation by fax, so when you are ready in late April or May, it can be done very quickly and you don't have to stress about the deadline.</p>
<p>Thanks for your perspective. It sounds like it worked out for both of you to list 'undecided'. </p>
<p>The main drawback to listing 'undecided' is that on March 1, the NM folks send lists to all the colleges stating which kids have listed them as their first choice. I would think this would help in RD admissions that are sent out on April 1. Maybe that is a wrong assumption.</p>
<p>The main drawback to listing a college as a first choice now is the possibility of being granted an award before all decisions are in.</p>
<p>NM sends five lists out to the colleges between March and May...and they only list the kids who have made a first choice decision on each list. As I understand it, each college only gets a list of that college's first choices (each college doesn't get to see every student's decision, just the students who picked their college in other words). If your child is undecided, they just won't appear on the list; so it won't be glaringly obvious your child has not yet shown a particular college as their first choice. Most colleges don't expect to see themselves on the first list anyway and many recommend openly (Rice for example), that a student remain undecided until they receive their decisions and know where they stand with financial aid. We worried about RD too, but we were assured remaining undecided would not be a factor in our child's decision. </p>
<p>We did have one school that insisted on being on the very first list for NM money and that was UFlorida. Our daughted listed UF to get on the first list and then later changed herself back to undecided. (Hey...if UF can manipulate, so can we. :-) After decisions, she changed herself once again to show UNC-CH as her first choice.</p>
<p>It occurs to me perhaps rules have changed about how many times a student can change their first choice designation. We are all describing what we knew to be true last year which may not be the case this year.</p>
<p>TooTiredMom - I would call NM and talk to them. They are very nice and you get a human, not voice mail. They will stay on the line as long as you need in order for you to understand exactly what your child is supposed to do regarding their first choice designation.</p>
<p>I just called the NM folks. I want to preface this by saying I think I reached an overseas call center- there was definitely a language gap between myself and the lady answering the phone. She was extremely nice, I am just not sure she fully understood all of my questions. </p>
<p>Questions I asked:
1) Does NM release the essays to the colleges? No. They did in previous years but do not anymore</p>
<p>2) If a student designates a college that is not on the NM college sponsor list does NM send those names out to those colleges during their five mailing lists (starting on March 1)? NO. Only NM college sponsors receive names of kids selecting them as first choice. It is a total waste to name a school that is not on the list- no one will ever see the choice.</p>
<p>3) How many changes to the first choice college designation can a student make? As many as they want before the deadline.</p>
<p>4) And this is the question we went round and round on- If a student designates a first choice college so their name goes out on the list to the college on March 1 is it possible for a college to award a NM scholarship to the student before the official April 25 notification date? She was very unclear of the answer. In one sentence she said yes then in the next sentence she said no. This is the most important question so I am planning on calling back tomorrow and hopefully I will get to speak with a different person.</p>
<p>So.... I hope I'm understanding al of this. Please correct me if I'm wrong.</p>
<p>When a kid is NMSF (waiting for the finalist announcement), he applies to various schools (some that give NM $$ and some that don't). The colleges (those applied to) that give NM$$ THEN contact the child and make offers??? Then the kid looks over the offers, selects one as "first pick" and contact NMCorp and tell them which is first pic. </p>
<p>CalMom.... I'm not sure if I understand your post... are you saying that if a child is offered a NM scholarship from a college (but doesn't want it) then he can't accept another???</p>
<p>OK... I know I'm dumb about this.... I need a "connect the dots" instruction! :)</p>
<p>I just called Nat'l Merit Corp -- very nice and helpful lady answered the phone.<br>
You can change first choice designation as many times as you want (no limit). But the best is to just put "undecided" until you know your pick.</p>
<p>OK - we had a scary experience with this this past spring. Son listed School A as his first choice school, figuring it might help with his overall package if they thought he really wanted to go there. (This school was his safety.) Acceptances came out in April. Son is waitlisted at his favorite school and has to choose from one of the 3 he was accepted to. We assume that it will be School A since that has always been #2 on his list. However, son develops cold feet about School A. We encourage him to reconsider and he goes to accepted student days at School B. When he gets back, he is now sure he wants to go to School B. I call NM and ask about changing his choice. They say they have to have something in their office by midnight that night, April 23 I believe. We fax a letter to them. On April 24, we get a letter from School A stating that he has been awarded a NM scholarship from them. We figured that we had blown the whole thing. However, in late May we got a letter from School B stating that they were awarding him a NM scholarship. </p>
<p>I would suggest that you save yourself some sweat and tears and just put down undecided. I doubt that putting a school down as first choice has much of an impact on admissions since the schools where admission is iffiest don't participate in NM. It will only make a difference for schools who require it by a certain date.</p>
<p>My daughter is applying mostly to schools that do not give merit scholarship money. However when she was notified of her score she had listed her two top choice schools and they were notified over the summer. She received a letter(albeit a form letter) from the Dean of Admissions of her # one choice school congratulating her on that achievement and thanking her for making that school one of her two top choices. This is obviously on record with Admin Dept. This will get her no $ but it does go into the" shows interest" account. She has been informed that she has made semi-finalist and she will again name her first choice school so they are informed of her continuing high interest. As a matter of fact that school in a recent mailing crowed about the fact that their matriculating class had 95 NMsemi-finalists. So the schools do take note even if they don't give $. </p>
<p>Because of our economic circumstances will we get no financial aid so for those in similar circumstances from a shows extreme interest standpoint I would always list your number one dream school to get semi-finalist info and not list it as undecided.</p>
<p>We did fax in my S's 1st choice school to NM & the college. His college promptly gave him a very large merit award + an additional NM annual renewable award + he was eligible for & later received an annual engineering merit award.
When S was undecided he received letters from several other schools he applied to or showed interest in that told him the merit awards he would receive IF he listed them as his 1st choice as a NMF before the deadline. One of these letters came from the school that admitted him with his acceptance packet & inviting him to be in their honors program.</p>
<p>It is always best to get full clarification from the NM folks, as the rules/procedures CAN change from year to year, as has been stated in posts above. </p>
<p>The guidance counselor did encourage our S to consider whether he wanted any "tip" factor by showing strong interest in a school that gave substantial merit $$$ to NMF, but S felt strongly about remaining undecided because he really was undecided. We'll never know how things may have turned out if he had done things differently, but are happy with the school & merit awards he received (didn't qualify for ANY need-based aid anyway).</p>
<p>HIMom - can I ask when you faxed in your S's first choice? Was it before March 1st, before April 1 or before he received acceptance to the school? Or did you wait until he had been accepted and decided to attend that college?</p>
<p>We faxed the letter well after 4/1 (but before 5/1), after we had received all S's replies from all the colleges he was interested in and AFTER we spoke with EACH school about the services & support they could offer him and clarified what merit aid they might/would be awarding him if he listed them as his 1st choice as a NMF. One school indicated they expected ALL students to meet their attendance requirements, pretty much without ANY exceptions or risk losing the scholarship. The other schools were much more willing to work with the student & family. We even attended one school's admitted student's reception on 4/1.<br>
It was very helpful to know how much merit aid each college offered & how much out-of-pocket we as a family would need to provide (one school increased its offer after learning that a competing school was offering more).
Once we as a family discussed the info I had collected from all the schools, one school emerged as the clear favorite, even tho we had never stepped foot on the campus (until 8/06). Once we agreed that would be the best school for S, we called that college & informed them and faxed the selection to NM and a copy to that college. To our delight, S was awarded an additional renewable merit scholarship from that college as well.</p>
<p>Schools don't know of official choices until the first list goes out in the Spring following notification of NMF status, so am I correct in assuming the letters your d received are as a result of the paperwork filled out during the PSAT testing process? </p>
<p>Don't worry, your d is going to get inundated with similar letters after getting to SF status...many, many schools subscribe to that list. And many (OU, A&M, Arizona State come to mind), are active recruiters of NM kids. Regardless of your d's designation, these type schools will be chasing your daughter. As far as swaying the admissions committee of a highly selective (one that actually gives merit money) by showing interest with your designations, only one school where that might work comes to immediately mind (WashU). I'm sure there are a few others. I do know Rice advises in their admissions instructions to remain undecided as long as possible until decisions and financial aid information is more available to the family. They do not consider designation a mitigating factor in the decision process. </p>
<p>Imho, if a school is highly selective (and gives merit money), NMF status will be somewhat helpful but definitely not the deciding factor in the admissions decision, and timing of designation will matter even less. If a school is not selective, they aren't gonna care if the are listed number one early or not, they'll take a NMF whenever they can get 'em.</p>
<p>This is what Nat'l Merit Corp told me today...</p>
<p>If you are offered a corporate NM scholarship, take it (often given by parent's employer). Colleges that offer full-tuition scholarships to NMF are giving a scholarship that is mostly NOT administered by NMCorp (when colleges give tuition, room, laptops, etc -- only a small portion is administered by NMCorp ). Therefore, the college can subtract the NM Corp part of their scholarship and still give the student the majority of the scholarship that is not administered by NM Corporation. </p>
<p>So.... NM Corp told us yesterday to accept the NM corporate award that my H's company gives to ALL of it's employees kids who make NMF and then we can still accept the majority of the NM scholarship offer from the college.</p>
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<p>If you are offered a corporate NM scholarship, take it (often given by parent's employer). Colleges that offer full-tuition scholarships to NMF are giving a scholarship that is mostly NOT administered by NMCorp (when colleges give tuition, room, laptops, etc -- only a small portion is administered by NMCorp ). Therefore, the college can subtract the NM Corp part of their scholarship and still give the student the majority of the scholarship that is not administered by NM Corporation.<<<<<</p>
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<p>I should have added the following to the above.... </p>
<p>Usually the amount given by the corporation is larger than the amount that a college considers to be their NMF portion. Therefore, the amount that the college subtracts from their "total package" is usually less than what the corporate scholarship is. </p>
<p>In our case, the corporate amount is $2500 per year, but the college is offering a "full ride" minus 1000 for the first year (which is their NM portion), so..... we'll be coming out $1500 ahead the first year and $2500 ahead on years 2,3,& 4.</p>