<p>We’re going to make a point to visit in February. You can only change your choice if you haven’t yet been awarded a scholarship. My understanding is that once a scholarship is awarded, you can’t be awarded a different one, even if you don’t plan to accept the first one. We live in New England, so it’s not a major trip for us. The schools that will give him a lot of money for National Merit are NEU, Drexel and UVM, and of those he’s only visited Drexel. We need to at least get visits in to NEU and UVM so he can decide which of those three he likes best.</p>
<p>@mathmomvt…I have the grade of C issue that could knock me out. I hope not, but you never know. I am all good with SAT, all other grades and a ‘clean’ record with a lot of service and leadership. But at my parents advice/mandate I applied to a couple of schools that give good money to semifinalist (and also finalist) so I am still good. But Northeastern would be totally off the table if I do not make finalist. I really want a LAC but am trying to be reasonable and mature about the money and keep options open. </p>
<p>Can you share your thoughts on Drexel? I only remember, from being in Philly, that it is totally integrated into the city, right? Is there school spirit and a sense of community? I am a National Achievement Semifinalist and Drexel does not guarantee full tuition for our award, even at finalist. But historically at our school NAF generally get full or close to full tuition in other scholarships. </p>
<p>The appeal of Northeastern is the honor’s program being guaranteed. I’ve heard really good things about it. I got accepted, but won’t visit unless I get finalist since I won’t be able to even consider going without the 30k. Even with it we won’t be able to swing it probably without some aid.</p>
<p>Drexel is a city campus. It’s a few subway stops away from City Center, if I recall correctly. My S didn’t think he wanted a city school, but he really liked it. He’s applying for engineering, and the day we went, the engineering school was having an egg drop contest. Drexel seems to have a medium amount of school spirit, and some fun traditions. The first summer when you’re not on co-op yet, there is an opportunity to do paid research internships on campus through the SAGE program. The honors program is nice, though IIRC it was more social than academic. There is honors housing. Once you’re on co-op, the average co-op salary for 6 months is 16K, a bit higher for engineers. (Similar to NEU on the co-op)</p>
<p>On this thread <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/national-merit-scholarships/1318232-2500-recipients-please-post-stats.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/national-merit-scholarships/1318232-2500-recipients-please-post-stats.html</a> there is a very good clarification of how the naming deadlines work. My current understanding is that even if you name NEU before April 11th, your award notice will not be sent by NMSC until May 1, and you may change your first choice before then and still be able to receive an award from the new first choice college, even if Northeastern had in the meantime told NMSC that they would give you the scholarship. Because it hadn’t been MAILED, you can change your choice. This is supported by the information on the National Merit Leaflet:
<a href=“http://www.nationalmerit.org/Merit_R&I_Leaflet.pdf[/url]”>http://www.nationalmerit.org/Merit_R&I_Leaflet.pdf</a></p>
<p>Since NEU’s deadline is early (most people are saying; we haven’t looked into deadlines yet) then the plan would be to name NEU maybe in March and then after visits to other schools over spring break if we are choosing to go to another school then just change the first choice?
Also, when someplace like NEU awards you that much (30k) do you still get the $2500 if NM awards you that or does NEU then lower the 30k to 28.5k?</p>
<p>Yes, it seems like naming NEU in March if they’re still in the running, then changing later if needed is the “right” strategy.</p>
<p>NEU’s award will be reduced slightly if you get the $2500 NM award, in some cases resulting in a small net loss of funds, or in some cases resulting in a small net gain. It all depends how they have structured their official national merit award (which I don’t know). </p>
<p>If the NEU award is $1K/year official NM award, and 29K/year NEU scholarship that they happen to give to NMFs, then the worst case is that you’d get 2500 + 29K the first year, but only 29K each of the other years, for a net loss. Some schools will let you take the 2500 + 29K the first year and then still give you the extra 1K in the other 3 years, so you’d get extra the first year, and the same amount in subsequent years. I think the maximum that the official portion of the award can be is $2K/year. </p>
<p>I don’t know if it’s possible to decline the $2500 award if you are definitely taking an award from a school where you would have a net loss by getting the $2500. And you need to definitely talk to the school about whether they’ll make up the difference in the subsequent years if you get the 2500 the first year.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>This trick may have contributed to Northeastern reducing the amount of the NMF scholarship this year and to their eventual elimination of it altogether.</p>
<p>The full tuition Scholars program takes a holistic view of the applicant and eliminates those who are simply using Northeastern until something “better” comes along.</p>
<p>For what it’s worth, this will be the first year Northeastern has had an “early” notification deadline, so this trick won’t have been relevant in the past.</p>
<p>Most schools use their merit money to attract strong candidates who may be on the fence, not to reward students for being committed to the school. </p>
<p>I suspect the reduction of the NMF award reflects a desire to have more holistic award criteria, rather than the pretty one-dimensional NMF criteria, and has little to do with students qualifying for the award and not accepting it. (In the past, they said they wanted to give out at most 100 NMF awards, though they would guarantee the award to all who qualified. If every NMF who applied to Northeastern ultimately attended, they would have been way over their planned number.)</p>
<p>I agree with mathmomvt. These deadlines by the NMSC are nothing new so I doubt very much it explains the reduction in the NEU scholarship. I assume it is simply a matter of economics. NEU has decided that they want some target number of National Merit Finalists and that this scholarship amount is what will be needed to attract and enroll enough applicants to get them to that target.</p>
<p>Kids apply for, interview for, and are awarded scholarships all the time that they then later decline because they get into a school they liked better all along or because they change their mind about their first choice. There is no “trick” here that makes a National Merit scholarship offer any different in this regard. I have never heard anyone else imply that a student should be compelled to commit to the first school to which they receive a scholarship offer.</p>
<p>Normally I’d advise students to just wait until they really decide to name a first choice. It is NEU, by setting a date before our April vacation, when the final visits and decision will happen, that is causing us to “play games” with possibly naming them first choice and then changing. We will visit NEU in February along with his other EA schools, and would only name NEU if it is the top choice “so far” after that set of visits, but he won’t have all his options known by then.</p>
<p>My son was accepted EA and received $18,000 Excellence Scholarship. There was no mention of replacing it with the $30,000 NMF scholarship (or the Nat Hispanic scholarship in his case). However, the letter did state, “If you receive additional scholarship or grant assistance from University funds that exceed the cost of tuition when
combined with your Excellence Scholarship, the Excellence Scholarship will be reduced so all grants and scholarships equal the cost of tuition.” </p>
<p>I had assumed that meant that the two would be combined to equal the cost of tuition. Although he really liked NEU and it is one of his top choices, he won’t be going there if this is not the case. </p>
<p>If NEU wanted to reduce the number of NM kids there, I think they will succeed.</p>
<p>No, sadly, this has been covered elsewhere – the 30K will replace, not stack with, any scholarship that has been received previously. NEU acknowledges that their wording was sloppy on that.</p>
<p>That’s too bad. We only had NEU on the radar because of the scholarship. I hadn’t even heard of the school before he got NM, so there doesn’t seem to be national name recognition worthy of the expense. I’ll pay more for higher ranked schools and better known schools, but it appears that several highly ranked engineering schools will actually be less than NEU.</p>
<p>For those who want to go to or stay in the Northeast, NEU’s 30K is still one of the better options out there, but I’m disappointed that they got rid of the full tuition deal. In particular, folks should keep in mind with a fixed value scholarship that it doesn’t go up when tuition does (where as a “full tuition” or “3/4 tuition” scholarship or whatever would – I’d have been happier if they’d offered it as 3/4 tuition for that reason).</p>
<p>From what we can tell, Northeastern’s tuition went up about $1500 from last year until this year (I did not look at room and board but would be that went up too). So, my guess is that it will go up for 2014-15 and then go up every year. Will the 30k merit finalist award go up with the tuition increases? Probably not, I know But thought I would ask.
Does anyone know why the changed from full tuition to 30k this year?</p>
<p>No, the 30K award is a fixed amount per year, not tied to the amount of tuition. So the amount left to pay after the award will certainly go up each year.</p>
<p>mathmomvt…sorry. I just saw your early post that had already answered my question about possibility of the scholarship increasing with tuition increases. Thanks for answering it again though!
HSG</p>
<p>Any word on whether NMF and National Hispanic scholarships could stack to equal tuition? I’m not hopeful because they seem to all be lumped into the same category along with National Achievement, and they seem adamant that no other scholarships will stack.</p>
<p>I don’t believe they would stack, but you could always call to ask.</p>
<p>Anyone can advise the $30K renewal criteria?</p>