NMF rejection letters will likely get mailed sometime this week.

Paying for College National Merit Aid
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@mom2collegekids - yes, we still have terrible mail delivery here and it has even gotten worse! We very seldom get anything truly important via the mail anymore (because I’ve set up everything online), but occasionally I will be expecting something and it is virtually never delivered here. Christmas is the worst, because we get cards for a variety of addresses in our neighborhood, and those people get ours.

Anyway, I think if mail delivery is decent in a person’s area then I would worry less about a “missing” rejection letter. I haven’t checked the main NMF thread, but are posters reporting any letters there? It would be strange if nobody reported a rejection letter on CC this year, so I have to wonder if they have gone out yet. @lcgusa try to keep your spirits up!

@mom2collegekids - I missed that story about the KS mom! I’m glad I didn’t know about it last year at this time! :wink:

I will check back on CC next week. Hoping for good news all around.

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There has been no post about anyone receiving rejection letters yet @mom2collegekids, but then again only a small percentage of NMSFs actually post of CC, so there’s really no telling whether any of the 1k or so who have been eliminated have been notified yet. But thank you for the encouragement; I’m trying to be as positive as possible and accept the future as it comes!

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Oh, my bad, I meant this post for @GoAskDad

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16th has come and gone and still no letter, but I’m still holding out until next week. If I can recall correctly, people got letters around Jan 20.

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Unfortunately, I got a letter today. I don’t know how I’m going to pay for college now…

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Is there any way to appeal?!!!

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@Icgusa so sorry to hear that you received a letter. I am going to be afraid of the mail all week I think. I’m pretty surprised, it seems like you had fantastic stats. Can I ask if they gave a reason? And to answer your question, I searched “NM appeal” on CC and there were a couple of posts about appealing, one that was successful so you might check that out. Hang in there!

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Sorry to hear that, @lcgusa. Our son with his multiple D’s will probably get his this week. Have you looked into University Mississippi? Their NMSF package is great, and our son who grew up in a very different environment liked it.

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So sorry to hear. @lcgusa

What are your stats? Are you low income?

Did you apply to Ole Miss?

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<<<<
2260 SAT, 3.8 UW GPA, 4.4 W, decent ECs


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If it’s not past the deadline (website isn’t clear), you should apply soon to Ole Miss. They have the most generous NMSF pkg I’ve seen.

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I am not low-income, however my parents assured me that they have the income to support me in college. I’m bummed I got rejected, but I guess I’ll be looking at scholarships elsewhere.

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@lcgusa If your parents are saying that they will pay for college then why did you say, “I don’t know how I’m going to pay for college now.” ???

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I wrote this in the heat of the moment right after I got the letter…

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So sorry @icgusa. I’m glad your parents will be able to help. You have a good head on your shoulders it sounds like so I’m sure you will on your feet after this. Good luck

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@lcgusa, I am so incredibly sorry. Truly, I thought you would make it through. Your stats (2260 SAT, 3.8 UW GPA, 4.4 W, decent ECs per @mom2collegekids post) are strong. I’m shocked. To confirm, you had just one semester C, and it was in an AP or Honors class, correct? All I can think is that your state (FL, correct?) had something to do with this. NMSC must have needed to cull their list for your state.

Please know how sorry I am, because I know you were really counting on this to pay for college.

Now, to confirm, your parents CAN or CANNOT help pay for your college? I’m unclear on that. If they CANNOT, then @mom2collegekids has made an excellent suggestion re: Ole Miss. Plus, I recall there’s another thread for NMSF scholarships here…or you may want to start a new one to ask for suggestions re: where to apply.

Finally, though I doubt it’s much consolation now, being a NMSF is still a great honor & very few students in the pool (a pool of high-achieving students for the most part) make it even that far. But I realize the scholarship was still very important to you.

Re: filing an appeal: @mom2collegekids is so knowledgeable, perhaps she can share her insight here on that topic. While your state of residence is probably the reason you did not make it, I wonder how much your HS counselor went to bat for you in his/her rec. Do you know your counselor well? Is there any chance he/she would help you file an appeal? I will let the experts chime in here, but - if it were my DC - I would want my DC to file…IF the scholarship aspect meant the difference in attending college or not.

I am so sorry to see a student on this thread with a rejection letter. As a parent, I’m sure that your own parents are incredibly proud of you for so many things, @lcgusa. Please keep us posted on your progress. I will check back here as often as I can.

@Albert69, do you have any other advice here?

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I am so sorry, @lcgusa. That really stinks on NMSC’s part. I don’t know anything about an appeal process. I hope that you get a great scholarship someplace with your stats, because they really are impressive.

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@GoAskDad I think he had a “year end” C, which would be counted as two semester Cs

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Our son got his letter today, which was expected. He would be the first to say he didn’t deserve to advance with 2 year end D’s and one semester D.

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@GoAskDad @albert69 thanks for your kind words. My parents claim they can pay for my college, but my siblings are just a few years younger than me and will be entering college soon, and I don’t think they will qualify for any merit aid, so I was really counting on the FL incentive scholarship to kick in and kind of alleviate the financial strain with all the private school and college tuition, room and board, etc.

I knew back in Sept (and I remember asking you this over on the class of 2016 forum) that I may have been an iffy candidate since I had that C, and plus I lived in Fl, where there are usually 750-800 NMSFs a year, so without a doubt NM would have to knock out a few or however many of them to get that magical target NMF range of 15,000. I’m sure a C would have been a liability in other high population states like CA and TX, but maybe(?) i could have gotten through in other states like Mississippi or Alabama, with lower cut off scores and way fewer NMSFs.

I had entertained the notion that I wouldn’t get a letter in the mail, but then I sort of started feeling anxious about getting one this week, as people started getting them around 1/20 last year, but I kind of knew instinctively that that C would kill my chance, but then again I thought my 3.8 GPA (and now 4.5 W), plus my 2260 SAT would help my case, and then of course I wrote an essay describing the circumstances of my freshman year, but then again I don’t think NM reads 16,000 really thoroughly. Id love to know in hindsight what formula or process NM uses to eliminate candidates, but I doubt we’ll ever be in the know on that.

I’ll looking into the appeal process with my GC but there’s probably a 90% it will be unsuccessful, but at this point I’m just holding on to that 10% hope. I don’t think NM cares about what circumstances I was under when I got that bad grade—they just really need to cut down the NMSF pool.

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Oh, and @GoAskDad, I forgot to add: it was a FINAL grade in an honors, which maybe NM considered 2 bad semester grades. Maybe that partly explains why some make it to NMF with a semester C, like your DA last year?