<p>007math, according to the national merit corp timeline, corporate award letters start going out in mid-March. A couple of years ago, some were quite late, my son’s did not arrive until sometime in April. Both of my older kids received corporate special scholarships, neither scored as high as commended, but the company my H works for gives out quite a few scholarships to employee children. My 2013 grad will be a finalist (still hasn’t received her letter!) so we are working on our strategy to name a school or not.</p>
<p>Assuming one makes NMS. Is it possible to get the NMF free ride and get to keep NMS money?</p>
<p>^^ What do you mean by NMS?</p>
<p>BobWallace – Just curious. Is that published somewhere or do you have personal experience confirming it?</p>
<p>Mamabear – Are some of the college-sponsored awards better than the corporate award? Or does the company have fewer scholarships than eligible finalists? Otherwise, why would naming a school or not matter?</p>
<p>The 2011-2012 Annual Report shows the breakdown of each corporate sponsor’s number of National Merit Scholarships and number of special scholarships. I don’t remember seeing that breakdown in previous reports. </p>
<p><a href=“http://www.nationalmerit.org/annual_report.pdf[/url]”>http://www.nationalmerit.org/annual_report.pdf</a></p>
<p>National Merit Scholar is the term used for kids who get money. If students do not get the scholarship money through NMC, another corporation, or a college, the designation is National Merit Finalist.</p>
<p>Sosomenza, if a student gets the $2500 award, it is a one-time award. Colleges sometimes decrease the first year award by that amount but award the rest of college’s scholarship money.</p>
<p>As far as corporate awards to finalists, those awards are awarded first and those kids are not considered for the NMC $2500. Some kids who get the corporate awards have high enough stats that they would most likely have been awarded the NMC money had their names not been taken out. Corporate awards vary widely. My daughter’s corporate award was $1000 per year, so it was a better deal for her.</p>
<p>Thanks MD Mom. I knew that NMS meant National Merit Scholar which is the designation for anyone who gets money, not just the $2500 that comes from the NMSC. But given that definition, I was confused by the question. Your interpretation makes sense.</p>
<p>It says it right on the NMSC website:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>This is for the NM finalists who are NOT committed to the schools that offer full ride or tuition-free benefit for all admitted NMSFs, nor eligible for the corporate-sponsored scholarships.</p>
<p>Post #20 BobWallace says: “The $2,500 awards are selected without regard to school choice. It doesn’t matter if you have listed a first choice or not.”</p>
<p>Post #27 shows the quote from the NMSC website.</p>
<p>According to this view, the best strategy of the finalists seems to report their first choice schools as early as possible. They can be considered for the $2500 scholarship, which seems to be the best award for those who intend to go to the colleges that are not on the college sponsor list. If they are not chosen for the $2500 scholarship, they still can be considered for the college-sponsored scholarship with their first choice school reported, which may serve as a backup choice if they do not get admitted to their preferred non-NM schools. Since most sponsor colleges have limited scholarships for NMSFs, it makes sense to report first choice as early as possible.</p>
<p>But this strategy seems to contradict what is said here (<a href=“http://www.nationalmerit.org/Merit_R&I_Leaflet.pdf):%5B/url%5D”>http://www.nationalmerit.org/Merit_R&I_Leaflet.pdf):</a></p>
<p>“March 1 through May 31, 2013: A Finalist who has reported a sponsor college as first choice by March 1 will be included in the first group referred to that institution for scholarship consideration. Periodically NMSC will notify sponsors of additional Finalists who have reported (by May 31) the college or university as their first choice.” (quote from page 3)</p>
<p>So it makes sense to accept what Longhaul’s post #14 points out: reporting first choice school early (like by March 1) blocks the finalist from receiving the $2500 scholarship from NMSC. </p>
<p>Look at the schedule of National Merit Competition (same source as the above, on page 4):</p>
<p>“March 1 Finalists who have reported a sponsor college as first choice by this date will be included in the first group referred to the institution for scholarship consideration
March 13 NMSC begins mailing corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship offers to winners at their home addresses
March 28 NMSC mails offers of National Merit $2500 Scholarships
May 1 NMSC begins mailing offers of college-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards”</p>
<p>NMSC seems to have a specific timetable and procedure to differentiate the finalists into 3 pools for the 3 types of awards. Will NMSC really take the trouble to consider every finalist for their “top” award of $2500 while differentiating them first? Does that mean NMSC will notify the corporate and the sponsor colleges not to select the 2500 finalists it has chosen (after sending them the lists of those eligible) or it will just withhold those 2500 finalists with the highest stats in their states?</p>
<p>Is it better to report the first choice later (in late March after the $2500 decisions are made) if you want to get the $2500? Should you report your first choice by March 1 if you only want to get the college-sponsored scholarship? Or nothing matters for the NMSC will decide your lot? This discussion may be just much ado for those who will not get any kind of National Merit scholarships eventually.</p>
<p>It may be simpler and wiser to choose a guaranteed free ride school like Bama.</p>
<p>^^^ Thanks BobWallace and Meliora. Our D will be going to Bama. No NMF rejection letter yet, but still waiting for the snail mail letter from NMSC (her HS school has said nothing … grrrr). So assuming she is a NMF, then she’ll get the $1K/year from Bama. But I was concerned that by naming Bama early it would take her out of the running for the NMSC $2500 scholarship. I know I have read posts from others (maybe M2CK) that Bama NMFs can be in the running for the $2500. I didn’t know if committing early to Bama as first choice took a NMF out of contention for the $2500, since NMFs choosing Bama are automatically “Scholars.”</p>
<p>Meliora, you are reading too much into the 1 March date where names are sent to first choice schools. That’s just a head start for schools. </p>
<p>My daughter had Fordham listed for her first choice last year on March 1, then she was awarded the $2500 NMSC award, and then she changed her first choice school before 1 May to her final choice. She got a full ride (not directly tied to NMF) at her final choice, and they let her stack the $2500 on top of that.</p>
<p>The corporate scholarships are usually given to employees’ kids. When you are named NMSF, you are required to name your parents’ places of employment and NMSC contacts the employers with your name and asks them to provide a scholarship. I am not certain how many companies provide these scholarships to kids with no affiliation (I assume there are always companies doing this but don’t know how many such non-affiliated scholarships may exist). Some of the earliest announcements of scholarship come out for company sponsored ones so NMSC can start naming scholars instead of finalists. </p>
<p>The companies can name scholarships for whatever amounts they want and even provide that amount for all 4 years of college. I know one company giving 2500 all 4 years while another gave a lumpsum of 4000 in the first year. NMSC does control the disbursement of this money even from corporations and they separate it out by semester or quarter. My D is in a quarter system and they have been doling out 833/834 a quarter, a week after the quarter starts. </p>
<p>I have seen NMSC give their own scholarships at periodic intervals. They release a few in the beginning (April or so), a few more in May and as late as July. I don’t know if July happens because they keep some saved until the end or if some people need to give up their scholarships because of their school process.</p>
<p>I have seen in the past that some schools have policies where one can accept either 1000 annual scholarship from the school or 2500 one time from national merit (I can no longer name names but just remember these discussions from the past years). I believe these are explicitly called national merit and NMSC keeps track of them. </p>
<p>On the dates issue - D put down one school early on, at the NMSF stage. By end of January, we had pulled the application altogether from that school since it was no longer a viable option. However, since there was no other school in the picture which awarded National merit naming money (you name us, we give big scholarship), we let it ride. We changed the school named by NMSC only after May 1st since D picked a college on April 30th and there was no money from the school. </p>
<p>I see lots of people debating Bama here. You may want to start a thread in Bama area since people there are very sophisticated about national merit money in relationship to Bama.</p>
<p>BobWallace: I have seen that but interpreted it differently than you did. I just interpreted it in a broader sense that the NMSC doesn’t care whether a student is going to a selective or more expensive school, not that it is specifically referring to the “First Choice” selection that is part of this process. But now that I think about it some more, it probably does include that so I think you are correct. Thanks.</p>
<p>BobWallace’s experience last year (in post #30) helped answer a few of my questions. 1) You are not locked into a school if you have them named as first choice on March 1st, and 2) It doesn’t impact eligibility for the $2500 award. It sounds like naming a school by March 1st may be advantageous by giving you priority if the school has limited scholarship funds. Do I have that right?</p>
<p>Thank you , BobWallace, texaspg, and all who help me understand the National Merit scholarships more realistically. GCs cannot give me the info and answers I found here.</p>
<p>The national merit website has the following very-helpful document:</p>
<p><a href=“http://nationalmerit.org/Merit_About_Leaflet.pdf[/url]”>http://nationalmerit.org/Merit_About_Leaflet.pdf</a></p>
<p>A few excerpts:</p>
<p>“In late January 2013, a committee of experienced college admission officers and high school counselors will meet to choose the winners of National Merit $2500 Scholarships.”</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>“Winners in each state (or other selection unit) will be the Finalists judged by committee members to have the most distinguished credentials and potential for academic success, without consideration of financial need, college choice, or major and career plans.”</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>“Also, if NMSC receives notice of a change in college choice from a Finalist to whom a college-sponsored Merit Scholarship offer has already been mailed, the student cannot be offered another college-sponsored award—even if the new choice of college is one that also sponsors
Merit Scholarship awards.”</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>“Early in March, NMSC will begin notifying each sponsor college about Finalists who have reported that institution as their first choice. College officials will choose all winners of their Merit Scholarship awards from among these Finalists. A sponsor college may decide to offer a
Merit Scholarship award to every Finalist who is admitted or choose to limit the number of awards it provides. After receiving the college’s report of its winner selections, NMSC will mail formal scholarship offers to the selected Finalists.”</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>Keep in mind the Merit Scholarships referred to in this document are the stipends of $2-to-8k, not the entire NMF scholarship package potentially offered by the school.</p>
<p>My daughter just today received her NMF notification letter. From that letter:
</p>
<p>Note that the key event that precludes being able to change choice is after NMSC has mailed a college-sponsored offer to the student which they clearly state will not begin until May 1. It has nothing to do with the college’s own schedule of when they want first choice names or when the college would award their part of an NMF package. I think this pretty clearly states a Finalist can choose a first choice so their name would go out in the first batch but are in no danger of getting a National Merit Scholarship offer from that school such that they can’t later designate a different school as long as they change before May 1. (as long as they aren’t past the deadline for the second school.)</p>