<p>mytwods – Did you learn if your HS was notified directly of the NMSF student’s rejection … or was the student the only one notified of the rejection? My student is afraid to ask the CG if the school has received a list of NMSFs not chosen as NMFs.</p>
<p>The GC has a copy of the letter. The school knew before the letter got to us.</p>
<p>It’s my understanding from the NMC website that school principals wil be notified regarding those who have advanced to finalist on 1/31 (presumably date letters are mailed via USPS). Letters will be sent directly to advancing students about 2 weeks later. Per my son’s counselor, schools are not notified about rejections and have no information until after the 31st, unless rejected students choose to share the information. A call to the school on 2/1 or 2/4 is probably the fasted way to know for sure. We’re waiting anxiously here…My son has significant learning differences due to birth trauma and his private school offers no accomodations (i.e; no keyboard for his severe dysgraphia in some classes, no extended time). He has a 3.4 weighted, but no C’s; 233 PSAT, 2260 SAT on 1st and only try). No letter yet…but you never know.</p>
<p>Question to perazziman </p>
<p>Your school received a letter? Perhaps my son’s counselor is following some sort of honor code about notifying finalists early. He has confirmed that he has no knowledge my son has been rejected. This could be good news. :)</p>
<p>Mom24boys- Congrats to your S on the Presidential Scholar candidacy. My S also qualified, and I also think he will probably not do the app when he sees all those essays! I am assuming at this point he will get NMF but am a bit disappointed his chosen school says they subtract the NMF money from the need based award rather than keep it. I wonder if we should bother asking about it.</p>
<p>Ecollegy, I defer to Perrazziman on this. I was talking to the teachers of the HS prep class and they first heard from the student.</p>
<p>My son’s rejection letter says it was CC’d to the principal.</p>
<p>David1126 & Momof24boys, Congratulations to you both and to your sons. My D is also a US Presidential Scholar Candidate. The last thing in the world she wants to do at this time is write more essays but maybe she can re-purpose some app essays.</p>
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<p>I’m not sure what you mean by “sponsor” but a student from my son’s high school received a football scholarship to attend Harvard this fall.</p>
<p>Not sure what you mean by football “scholarship” but neither Harvard nor any of the Ivy League schools give any non-need based aid for either academics or athletics. This is published in the common data sets.</p>
<p>However, I will agree that they can use their own definition of “need-based” for their own money.</p>
<p>However, I will agree that they can use their own definition of “need-based”.</p>
<p>So if no rejection letter by today, should we start to feel relatively safe? My S has no academic issues to be worried about, but I’m still anxious that somehow something got missed. His GC had never dealt with the program before.</p>
<p>mommaof5 – One hesitates to be absolute, but yes, it is extremely unlikely he will be rejected if you have not had any notice by now.</p>
<p>patesq – People are very “loose” when talking about scholarships but, as STEMFamily said, no Ivy League school awards athletic scholarships (nor any academic merit aid, either). It’s a league rule which makes them the only Division I conference not to give athletic scholarships. However that does not mean a student who plays football for Harvard cannot be there on “scholarship”–or, more precisely, grant-in-aid–from the school.</p>
<p>patesq, the media often mistakenly says “scholarship” about Ivy athletes, and it can be awkward for the athlete or the family to correct the misconception by saying that it was actually a need based award that made attendance possible. No one should have to reveal their economic status in the conversation about how excited they are to have their child commit to a school for athletics. I’ve seen parents just let the clarification moment slide, rather than launch into an explanation about how much aid they recieved.</p>
<p>Hi all,
Jut chiming in re D1 and her NMF rejection this year. It has been a relief to see some of the other families perspectives who are also in this position. My daughter does have two Cs (math courses two years beyond her grade level) and I was told that was the reason for her rejection. I don’t really expect to be successful with an appeal, but we are making the effort. My daughter has always pushed herself and continues to take hard courses, participate in sports and Academic Decathlon, hold a partime job. We are proud of her no matter the outcome. </p>
<p>Someone posted one of the NM stated goals and I would like to add another -" to promote a wider and deeper respect for learning in general and for exceptionally talented individuals in particular." To me, this means that they should look at more than the GPA, but from what I was told, that really is the line in the sand.</p>
<p>I think it’s just the perceived injustice that only 1,000 kids of the 16,000 are cut - that really gets me.</p>
<p>Ruzanne, I have to agree. Why even have “semifinalist”? Just choose the scholarship winners from those 16,000.</p>
<p>Trying to look on the bright side here - there are some good scholarships for semifinalists - full tuition at University of Alabama and Fordham University, to name the ones I can think of. Also in my S’s case, all he had listed under National awards were NMSF and AP Scholar with Distinction, it felt much better than having nothing. </p>
<p>I am sorry for those not moving on - NM seems to be one of those heartbreakers, where a qualifying score one year is not good enough the next year or where if someone lived almost anywhere else in the country they would receive the award. A good friend moved to another state a few years ago. Our S’s both got the same PSAT score, my son made it by 4 pts in our state and her son missed it by 4 points in her state. :(</p>
<p>fredsfam-</p>
<p>Exactly! I don’t know if they were especially brutal this year or if we were the only ones who ever got a C. My D attends a very competitive public high school in Houston, so I’m not really shocked that there are kids with much better GPAs than hers.<br>
However, I still don’t get cutting the 1,000 - it seems like more a culling of the herd rather than a really competitive scholarship. if it were truly competitive it seems like they would select only a small group of winners from each state. Just not sure what the purpose is of reducing it by 1,000 only. Doesn’t seem like it really lessens their work load at NM very much - they still have 15,000 on the list!
I’m venting a little but it feels good;)</p>
<p>Compared to the National Merit Scholarship program, the Presidential Scholars program seems to be more competitive–Only 3,000 students nationwide are invited to apply and only 141 will be selected to be the Presidential Scholars. The first step of selection is also based on SAT/ACT performance, but the Presidential Scholar program offers honor, not money for college.</p>
<p>Good point - ironically enough, my D was selected for the President’s Scholar Award (after not being selected for NM finalist). I know she won’t be too excited about writing more essays, and honestly she probably won’t be a final winner in this program since she 's not the valedictorian (looking at past year’s winners from our area that seems to be the way it goes)</p>
<p>However, I did have our counselor include the fact of her nomination in our appeal to National Merit… every little bit helps</p>