Hi,
I took the PSAT this year (graduating early), but I will not qualify for NM with a 214 SSI in Texas.
Will I be treated as a second class honors student without NM status?
No. The program appears to be very welcoming. There are financial advantages and a couple of prestige things for NMS, but in terms of classes and inclusion, you will likely not notice too much.
After the second day of orientation, no one cares who’s a national merit and who isn’t. You take the same classes as NMF and enjoy most of the same perks.
What @whenhen said is absolutely correct. Most of the time you don’t have any clue who’s NMF and who isn’t. One of my very good, very intelligent friends got into Stanford and Oxford for undergrad but ended up at OU. We all assumed she was NMF and after like a year of knowing her found out she wasn’t. Then we have friends who we had no clue were NMF. It’s not a big deal at all.
Also you don’t have to be NMF to live on the NMF floor in the dorms, if you want to.
@KG5apr My D will be starting at OU with you this fall. If you haven’t already looked through the honors college webpage, you need to look into the benefits (study areas, computer facility, dorms, advising, etc.) and browse all of the honors classes being offered in the fall. I’m encouraging my daughter to take as many honors classes as possible because the experience between a 150 student lecture hall and a small class of 15 honors kids is immense.
I attended an honors college in a large public school 28 years ago and remember showing up to Political science my freshman year and seeing 200+ students with me in a gigantic lecture hall. The teacher passed out the syllabus and started the lecture. When I showed up to the second lecture later in the week, about 80% of the students stopped showing attending. I don’t think I ever asked a question in that class and probably never even made eye contact with the professor.
The honors classes I attended were so small that it was hard for me to sit in the back and be quiet…the teacher expected participation and knew everyone’s names by the end of the semester. Although I did not like having to step out of my shell at the time, the experiences in small classes are much more memorable to me than the large ones.
The only “noticeable” difference I see between NMF and honors students is the housing and that is only a difference for the freshman year. Also not all NMF stay in NMF housing and not all students in NMF housing are NMF, so this is not a difference for every student. Scholarships, advising, etc. are not something you would necessarily know about any other student. The students will all be in a mix of honors and non-honors classes and even in some semesters not take any honors classes.
Since you are out of state like my D, your new group of friends will probably be based on the classes you take, organizations you join, and housing you live in. Although you don’t have total control, you do have some influence on all three of these things. Start thinking about what you might want from your freshman experience and get yourself prepared for a great time in college!