<p>^^^</p>
<p>Was your D rejected from USC with an ACT 34?</p>
<p>Yes, a girl from her school with lower stats got in though.</p>
<p>^sleepless, I really donât think NMF hurts you when applying to USC. Iâm really sorry to hear that your daughter was not accepted. Rejections are always disappointing. But there have been many other NMF applicants who WERE accepted.</p>
<p>USC, like so many schools this year, was very, very selective. There may well have been other reasons that your daughter was not accepted. Not that she wasnât âqualified.â She sounds like she has a lot of good things going for her. But, like so many other selective schools, USC can take only so many qualified students and must turn other qualified students away. I really think it has little to do with NMF.</p>
<p>Best of luck to your daughter, though! Iâm so sorry she has to face the disappointment of being rejected! Thatâs hard to take.</p>
<p>*Yes, a girl from her school with lower stats got in though. *</p>
<p>That would be disappointing. what was your Dâs rank? Is it possible that they thought they were being used as a safety?</p>
<p>Are you certain of this girlâs stats?</p>
<p>Does this girl have some kind of hook? play a sport? legacy? from an underprivileged situation?</p>
<p>Is she possibly a URM (and you may not know this since many URMs donât visually look like they belong to a URM group).</p>
<p>I find it hard to believe that USC would reject someone for being NMF since itâs a need-blind schoolâŠmeaning that they are accepting kids who they would be giving much larger grants to.</p>
<p>@SimpleLife, thanks for the kind words and encouragement.</p>
<p>Dâs overall profile ( stats and EC) by school ranking is 3rd among female seniors( her class ranking is somewhere 20th among 350 while the other girl might be somewhere in the middle). The only thing I can think of is this girl came to US about 4 yrs ago and English is foreign language to her.</p>
<p>*The only thing I can think of is this girl came to US about 4 yrs ago and English is foreign language to her. *</p>
<p>This may have been a significant tipping point in this girlâs favor. Schools often are more forgiving for lower CR/W scores and GPA when a student has not been in the country long and English isnât her primary language. </p>
<p>And, her essays may have reflected some kind of struggle or something as she left her own country and came to this one. </p>
<p>And, being foreign born may add to the schoolâs diversity in some way.</p>
<p>Correction:</p>
<p>âUniversity of Minnesota-Twin Cities (10k guaranteed, 18k competitive)â</p>
<p>should be:</p>
<p>âUniversity of Minnesota-Twin Cities (11k guaranteed + 1k based on need)â</p>
<p>Details:</p>
<p>The Gold Scholar Award is $10,000 each year for four years, guaranteed for admitted National Merit Finalists who list the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities as their first-college choice by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation deadline. </p>
<p>The National Merit University of Minnesota Scholarship is $1,000-$2,000 each year for four years, for National Merit Finalists who list the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities as their first-college choice by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation deadline. Any amount awarded over $1,000 is based on financial need.</p>
<p>Being a NMS is never a negative at USC. The suggestion that USC âhasâ to award a 1/2 tuition to NMS is silly - they choose to do so. If it was a financial burden (which it is not), they would simply change the scholarships to competetive rather than automatic. In addition, there is no requirement that you state that you are a NMF on your application and are free to withhold that information until after decisions are made - and you STILL get the scholarship.</p>
<p>USC received over 38,000 applications from some of the most qualified applicants in the nation. The qualifications of those rejected are amazing. USC is VERY clear that âstatsâ alone will not garner admission, and if you look at the admission decision thread, you will see that even among the Trustee scholarship winners, having the highest SAT or ACT was NOT the deciding factor. Over 600 NMS are accepted by USC every year. I am very sorry that your child was not one of them, but her status as a NMS was not the reason.</p>
<p>As for the girls you criticize (here and in another thread) as having âlesserâ qualifications, no one here has any idea what might have been in their essays, or what unique characteristics they might have that made USC LOVE the idea of having them as students. Essays are A BIG part of USC admissions, and the quality of applicants they now attract mean that they can choose from a HUGE pool of well-qualified applicants without regard to 50 SAT-points here or 2-tenths of a GPA point there.</p>
<p>Best of luck to your daughter with her many wonderful opportunities.</p>
<p><a href=âhttp://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-southern-california/1074764-usc-fall-2011-stats-only-decisions.html[/url]â>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-southern-california/1074764-usc-fall-2011-stats-only-decisions.html</a></p>
<p>Here is a nice PDF with pretty much the same info as the list on this thread:
<a href=âhttp://excelcolleg**********/pdf/scholarships.pdf%5B/url%5Dâ>http://excelcolleg**********/pdf/scholarships.pdf</a></p>
<p>^the link isnât working for me.</p>
<p>How were you all notified?</p>
<p>I got a call from my guidance counselor saying the NMF people called her and my principal has to sign something. </p>
<p>Does this mean anything?</p>
<p>Sorry, bad link. Google National Merit Excel College Prep and it should be the first result.</p>
<p>My child just called about this also? Do the calls include commended too? Iâm not sure what is going on either? Would be nice if the parents were called by the school.</p>
<p>My dâ a junior from NY. She got a 232 on the PSAT. We think she will be a semi finalist does anyone know when the notification happens? What happenâs after that? If the school she is interested in is not on the âlistâ is there any advantage to choosing it? Will selecting it help her get in? Does interest in the student by the College selected improve their chances of becoming a finalist and/or scholar? </p>
<p>She hasnât decided where she wants to go yet.</p>
<p>jk2012âŠCongrats to your D on a fantastic score!! Notification of NMSF status will be sent to her school in September of her senior year. She will have a packet of information to fill out at that time which will include an essay for her to write and a recommendation from her school. She will have an opportunity at that time to name a first choice school if she wishes or leave it Undecided. There are several excellent threads in this forum that have suggestions/strategies for naming a first choice school.</p>
<p>Whether or not she becomes a finalist is primarily based on her achieving a âqualifyingâ score on the SAT that âvalidatesâ her PSAT score (normally around 1960-2000 range). MAKE SURE she lists the code for NMSC on her SAT score report since they need her scores in order to confirm she qualifies. She also needs to demonstrate continued strong academic performance (keep her grades reasonably strong during senior year) and no major disciplinary issues. Assuming all that is met, the notification of NMF status will be in February of her senior year.</p>
<p>Anyone who receives an âofficialâ NMSC scholarship (one-time $2500, corporate, or college sponsored) is considered a NM Scholar. Interest in a particular school by the student MIGHT increase their chances of getting offered a college sponsored award (or possibly additonal money from the college outside of an âofficialâ NMSC scholarship), and interest in the student by a college COULD increase their chance of becoming a NM Scholar since they might be more likely to offer her their official scholarship.</p>
<p>I know it can seem a little overwhelming right now, but folks on these forums are more than willing to help. Congrats again to you and your D!!</p>
<p>
In the past the highest cut off has been 224, hence 232 should make it any state. Cut offs never change more than +/- 2, usually none.</p>
<p>Your Dâs school will be notified around end August/Early September and they will provide forms and instructions. Most semi finalists make to finalist (about 90%) and if you look at my other postings I mention the common reasons why people do not make, however I do not think any one of those will apply to your daughter. When it comes to the time frame to submit the forms I will re-post those instructions.</p>
<p>You get notified if you are finalist around January/ Feb 2010. Then you become eligible to be considered for scholarships. Scholarships come in different varieties and have different eligibility and selection criteria. About 55% of the semi finalists make to finalist.</p>
<p>There are certain strategies that can be used and we can get to that during the August time frame as it will make more sense at that time. </p>
<p>What type of scholarship you get depends upon a host of criteria, and many of those might be out of the control of the student. There is a certain bias in the process, so in my books any one who makes to Finalist is winner even if they do not get a monetary scholarship.</p>
<p>
Not sure what you mean.
</p>
<p>Choosing two colleges to show interest has no bearing on further consideration for SF and finalist. In other words, even if you do not return the form, it does not matter.</p>
<p>Do colleges pay attention to fact that mentioned their name (if that is your question)? Not really, some smaller schools may but all the top ones (ivyâs etc) it does not make a difference.</p>
<p>Also I suggest that this thread be used only to identify colleges that give scholarships and that general questions be posted on a separate thread in this category.</p>
<p>excelcollege-prep.com/pdf/scholarships.pdf</p>
<p>here is the link i believe was referenced earlier. remove the â-â.</p>
<p>I didnât read through the entire thread to see if someone else said this, so if anyone else has, then sorry in advance:</p>
<p>University of Arizona is not a full ride, but $30,000/year for OOS or $15k/year for in-state. ECA for OOS is around $38K; for in-state itâs around $22K (living on campus). So it doesnât cover everything, but it does cover a big chunk.</p>
<p>Quoted From SimpleLife post #449</p>
<p>â^Yes, that sounds just like the OCU that we visited several years ago.
In fact, we were there because of their excellent music program. That son is a music major. We were very impressed with Oklahoma City Uâs school of music and theater program. The school and area as a whole were just not a good fit for that son.â</p>
<p>Actually, even though its not on the big list, Oklahoma City University also provides full rides for NMFâs. My elder D is graduating from there this weekend. She was not a NMF, but did get some nice talent scholarships.</p>
<p>See [Oklahoma</a> City University](<a href=âhttp://www.okcu.edu/admission/nationalmerit/NMS.aspx]Oklahomaâ>http://www.okcu.edu/admission/nationalmerit/NMS.aspx) for info on NMF scholarship.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Yes, U of Arizona has not kept up the NMF scholarship with cost increases in tuition. You can add some (not all) scholarships given by the department. A friends D got NMF plus some other scholarships that the college helped obtain but then she was both in state and top student.</p>