besides the scholarship money, is there any boost that those awards can provide to T40 admissions if you score well on the SAT regardless? might sound like a dumb question but i’m a bit curious
I’m also curious.
I assumed it means next to nothing (at least for me, given that my PSATs were cancelled and I straight up used my SAT score for Alternate Entry)
It is a moderately prestigious national level award, so it helps. Colleges which offer scholarships for NMFs are paying money to bring NMFs, so for them it is very important.
Ivy level schools don’t really care about NMSF/NMF. Something to put on your application, but it won’t move the needle. DS was NMSF/NMF. He goes to Tufts and I think they give him $1,000 a year. I doubt it made much of a difference in him getting in there. I always thought the whole thing is kind of ridiculous since it’s based on an 11th grade PSAT score. That said, it can add up to big scholarship money at some schools, but not so much at the T40 level.
3 Likes
I recently added up the USNews top 30, finding about 100k Freshman. So with only ~16k semi-finalists, it’s at least somewhat differentiating at the T40 level.
I suspect that among the top 5 or 10, a majority will be SF, but it will be much less common at 30-40.
But as noted, SAT scores should parallel this, so it’s probably not a big add on top of a strong SAT. It would be interesting to know how California test-blind schools handle it.
4 Likes
makes sense… your end note is definitely a good question! wonder if they would see it and treat it as having no benefit
i see, i bet that 1k is well appreciated haha
Not all NMF go to the t40 schools, so it is not 16000 out of 100k. Florida was giving full scholarships to NMF (instate and OOS) until this year, so attracting many to UCF, FSU, USF and even top 40 UF. Instate students can still get the award, so many are going to stay instate and take the money. Some of the schools are still giving it to OOS (UCF, USF), so those will attract NMF chasing the money.
NMF sure gives a student chasing merit more options as some schools will award merit for it.
4 Likes
Although not an expert on the subject of National Merit scholarship awards, it seems as though state public universities do award the most significant scholarship money to NMSF/NMF applicants.
Doesn’t seem to matter much for elite National Universities although,of course, it is viewed as a positive factor.
This is the correct answer. My colleague’s ward is going to a T10 school and nothing for NMF and a near perfect SAT score as well as GPA.