Offers following being named NMF

Parents Forum
1

<p>My son is in the running to become a NMSF so I guess we won't hear more until September, but I see other posts saying they got some good offers from schools once they ended up in finalist status.</p>

<p>My question is do offers just come in from schools you have applied to and supplied info to, or do the colleges found out another way and contact you on their own? And how soon does this take place? I think he's on the line of just missing or just making NMSF so I won't get too set on this until we hear this fall.</p>

2

<p>I've basically just gotten letters to various schools that I didn't apply to or even express interest in since I was named a semi-finalist. I can't honestly remember all of them, but they offered everything from partial tuition scholarships to full COA plus laptop and stipend. Two that I remember clearly are Westminster College in Utah (I think that's the name, maybe I don't remember it so clearly), and Texas A&M. Some offered free applications also. </p>

<p>So in my experience, they tend to mail you information about their schools.</p>

3

<p>Your son will receive brochures, letters, and offers from all kinds of universities and colleges from across the country. Not top tier (relating to NMF), but still interesting, nonetheless. Texas A&M's NMF program sounded pretty interesting.</p>

<p>One of S's classmates took the University of Oklahoma up on its unsolicited offer of a full ride scholarship, plus laptop, plus stipend for overseas studies.</p>

<p>Enjoy the barrage of mail about to come your son's way!</p>

4

<p>orangepop, most of the mail will be coming in the fall rather than the spring. start now by contacting the honors departments and admission offices of schools that are of interest to your son. Ask them what scholarship opportunities are available to nmsf's and nmf's....... provide PSAT score, gpa, SAT or ACT scores, and class rank. </p>

<p>some schools have EA (early admissions) and also some scholarship deadlines are early............. so be prepared to act quickly to get apps in and scholarships applications completed........say by end of November of senior year. he won't need to make a final decision until spring in most cases but it's good to get those apps in early, if possible. find out too if the schools have separate honors program applications and what those deadlines are to apply to those.</p>

<p>there are threads here on cc that discuss nmsf and nmf offers and name the colleges.</p>

<p>my d received nice offers from both public and private colleges, both in-state and out of state. </p>

<p>again, suggest starting now contacting the colleges that are of interest to your son.</p>

5

<p>If your son, like mine, did not check the box on the PSAT that authorized his contact info to be provided to colleges, he won't get so much mail. We had to do our own research, and CC has been a great resource. Condor's suggestion is very good. My S ended up choosing USC with a half-tuition scholarship for NMF. There are some great offers out there!</p>

6

<p>BOth</p>

<p>Offers came from schools he did not apply to. However other NMF scholarships were offered from schools my son applied to that we did not hear from until after he applied.</p>

<p>Some Schools we did not contact but offered were:
Univ of Oklahoma
Texas A&M
Univ of Nevada Las Vegas
Arizona State
Univ of Idaho
Univ of Nebraska
Tulane</p>

<p>Washington U St Louis did not offer anything up front but were the junk mail king LOL --totally turned off my son</p>

<p>Faux my son is also at USC on that scholarship for NMF</p>

7

<p>While we certainly received lots of mail, including the offers from schools mentioned by drizzit (which came a little late in the game). I think the real value of NMF status for my D was the quality of offers from schools that fit her fairly specific criteria. Her EA applications resulted in 2 full-tuition scholarships, which was nice to have in her pocket as she completed other aps. </p>

<p>Of course, she settled on a school that does not participate in NM. However, one of her final two schools included one of their very few merit scholarships to the FA package.</p>

8

<p>I didn't think being NMF helped my son much. He got merit offers at both safety schools he applied to and some mail from schools he wasn't interested in (state universities in red states), and nothing from the schools he was most interested in.</p>

9

<p>If your son gets commended or nmsf you will get tons of stuff from schools. After D got nmf she got more stuff with scholarship offers, but she was already committed at that point.</p>

10

<p>The University of Texas at Dallas has a nice package for NMSF/F. My son heard from them after his sophomore PSAT scores were out. He also heard from Marshall.</p>

11

<p>mathmom, our experience exactly. And, OP, our school had 6 NMFs, 3 of whom ended up accepting NO scholarships, because they chose schools that do not offer merit or athletic scholarships.</p>

12

<p>riverrunner, that's the usual for NMF, but for the large minority who need the money but don't get it elsewhere, it's a godsend.
dirzzit has a good list started, because the one elsewhere on CC is outdated. Mine are all now in college so we aren't getting these offers any more, but some parent of a current junior should start a thread with connections.
D1 got tons of postal mail that I could look at, by the time D2 was getting it, she was deleting stuff via email. I strongly suggest that you ask your student to set an auto forward or something on their email so you see what they are flushing. For instance, our D confused U of Tulsa (small private U) as being a lesser branch of OU and deleted it all unread.</p>

13

<p>I can't remember all of NMF S's full ride/almost full ride offers, but they included ASU, Arizona, University of Central Florida, University of Florida, Oklahoma, Texas A&M, Pitt (for which he did not apply early enough so was only offered half tuition) and CUNY Honors. Fordham, which used to offer full tuition for NMF, only offered 10K/year. He had checked Fordham as his first choice, and was also offered the one-time $2500 scholarship from NMF.</p>

<p>Of course, like so many other kids, he's going somewhere else, no scholarship. I could go on and on about this, but I need to go write a bunch of checks.</p>

14

<p>Do not underestimate the importance of the NM scholarship. Not only will several schools send your s offers for a full ride (some include stipends, travel money and laptop computers) but many other schools are desirous of having NM scholars (and advertising this in their marketing literature), and even if you don't get $$, the honor may increase your s's chances of admission. Neither of my s's were interested in the schools that offered full rides ++++ (though older s now occasionally questions if he should have taken the big package that UF offered him several years ago, before they cut back on those big NM offers) but both received NM $$. Older s's was a token amount ($750/yr). Younger s will be getting $2k/yr. I will never know if the large merit scholarship (full tuition) that younger s was awarded was influenced in any way by his being a NMSF (at the time he applied) but I would not be surprised if it was a factor. So, even if the money he'll be getting directly as a NMS is $8k, the secondary effect-- having the full tuition merit award, is huge.</p>

<p>By the way , read this <a href="http://www.nationalmerit.org/07_annual_report.pdf%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.nationalmerit.org/07_annual_report.pdf&lt;/a> starting at pg 17 for the list of schools and corporations sponsoring the NMS.</p>

<p>Also forgot to mention, some schools, like Vandy, are generous with their NM money. They guarantee $5k/yr for NM scholars.</p>

15

<p>And I've wondered the various reasons for a student not to accept a full-ride offered and I could totally see that for my son if he got offered that but it was somewhere out-of-state. I don't think he'd want to be that far away, so that would be a legit reason. Also, I suppose some don't have the program the student was interested in, or they have it but maybe not as high of a reputation in a particular program. Or the school could be known as a party school or otherwise labeled in a way to influence a student.</p>

<p>Am I on the right track about reasons this occurs?</p>

16

<p>What everone has been saying is correct - your child will be absolutely flooded with unsolicited college brochures and letters. When it was all over, we dumped them in a huge pile on the floor and photographed her sitting in the middle with the caption, "I'm wanted!" We told her to enjoy the ride and all the attention - things like this rarely happen in life! </p>

<p>That being said, if your child is interested in a school and DOESN'T receive anything from them, these is nothing that says you can't ask, "What kind of scholarships do you offer NMF."</p>

<p>As far as $$$ goes, D received several unsolicited four-year full ride offers (+ stipend + laptop, etc.), many lump sum offers that would have covered nearly all four years, some full tuition offers, and some small token scholarship offers. These big offers will not be at the top schools, but at respectable colleges none-the-less. Schools such as WashU (where are D attends) and Northwestern (my nephew is a freshman there) offer small token $$. If your child is chosen to receive one of the $2,500 scholarships, often these top schools will match that amount for their remaining 3 years.</p>

<p>Sort of off topic but something we learned in the process. It is all sort of overwhelming and the money can be a strong pull, but listen to your child. We made two trips to a nice little school who offers NMF $120,000 over four years. Very hard to turn your back on that kind of $$$. But, we looked at the school only because of the money. It was not really the type of school D wanted to attend. If we had it to do over again, we wouldn't encourage D to visit and apply to schools just because of the money they offered. If money is an issue, try to find a school that matches what your child is wanting in a college to one offering big $$$ - that can be hard to do.</p>

<p>I heard someone call the National Merit process a scholarship "competition", and that is what it is. On one single day in October, if you happened to score above the magic cutoff on a test, you won. Now, do you choose to use your winnings or not. Our D chose to attend WashU and in essence, not use the "prize" to its fullest extent, but is extremely happy with her choice.</p>

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<p>Orangepop, I posted before seeing your last question.</p>

<p>In our case, our younger D was the ONLY NMF at her rural, mediocre high school. She longed to be challenged and be surrounded by "like minded" students. She wanted brilliant professors. When we visted the one college with the HUGE offer I mentioned, we requested that she have time to spend with NMFs who attended the school. She asked them, do you find classes interesting and challenging here, or did you come for the money? They said that they found 'some' of the classes interesting, but they really came for the cash. That is a very valid reason, when finances are a concern. At the school D attends, she is challenged like never before and LOVES it! The other students blow her mind with their brilliance, life experiences, talents and diversity. That is what she wanted in a school and those type of schools don't give large NMF scholarships. </p>

<p>With National Merit, that seems to be the big question. Do you go to a top school, which your NMF designation can help you get into? You won't be the top student at that school, but you will be surrounded by such amazing minds and be challenged like maybe you've never been challenged before. Or, do you go to the school offering lots of money where there might be only a handful of students of your 'caliber'? Curmudgeon, who is a wise old sage on CC, has a wonderful quote that I am probably going to mess up. He says something like, are you the kind of student who can run at the front of the pack and still set the pace? Some parents have said that they didn't think their students would do well in an environment where they weren't on top. Maybe they have self confidence issues, etc. and being in an environment where you are the top is something that is important to them.</p>

<p>Our older D chose a different path. She was in the Honors Program, lived in Honors housing at our StateU. She just graduated last month and received just about every honor they could give a student - graduated with a 4.0 gpa, graduated with highest distinction, graduated with honors from both her department and the university, was named top student in her department, named one of only 10 (out of 3,500+ seniors graduating) Chancellor Award winners (got to sit on the podium during graduation), had her honors thesis chosen as only one of five to be presented at the undergraduate research symposium, was named Phi Beta Kappa - the list goes on and on. Just telling you this to make a point. The Honors Program supplies classes in SOME areas, not all. She took the honors class whenever it was available (thus allowing her to graduate with honors and take a more advanced version of the class). I was shocked one day when she said (and I can tell you she NEVER talks like this), that many of the kids in her classes were "stupid". They don't care about the class, they don't do their best work, she really didn't know why they were there. In essence, they weren't of a "like mind". She really had to seek out students who were her intellectual peers and wanted the same thing she did out of her education. Our younger D would have wilted and blown away in an environment like that. In fact younger D said, "Enjoy this now, because it won't be happening where I go to school." And she's okay with that, and so are we! Different kids, different needs.</p>

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<p>orangepop, the three NMF kids at our school this year who didn't accept the full rides, and so on, all chose HYPS schools, which do not participate in NMF. The other three students accepted full rides to participating schools. I won't lie: ability to pay the HYPS price and/or qualifying for good finaid at HYPS drove the decision in all cases.</p>

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<p>Be wary of the schools that recruit NMFs. Consider the overall caliber of the school, then the money. The best public U's do offer some NM money but will have many students who choose it without any NM financial incentives, remember more than half of the NMFs will get nothing through NM (you don't know how many NMF students are at a campus, the public U's that offer fewer NM scholarships may have many more NMFs than those luring people with money). Some schools will advertise their separate honors dorms et al- but others will integrate the honors students with the rest of the high caliber student body. UW has had a party school reputation but also has a "study hard, play hard" rep- you have to study, but you don't have to party. Look at the 25-75 %ile test score numbers for schools for one parameter indicating the caliber of the student body. Honors programs vary, and how much any student takes advantage of their offerings also does. Look at schools with an eye on the majors you are interested in- the math/science honors classes may be superb but do your humanities major child no good. Regarding large schools versus small- my experience with a large public U, as a student and a parent, has been that the individual matters. I have many examples of how the school accomodated the students, things that don't show up in the published material. The message here is that a large size does not preclude personal attention.</p>

20

<p>D is a NMSF.</p>

<p>She has particular interests as to a major.</p>

<p>She does not particularly want to attend a large university; she is looking at small to mid-size colleges.</p>

<p>She is a TX. girl and has no real desire to experience "cold" (below 60 degrees lol).</p>

<p>Naturally, schools not meeting at least some of the above criteria are not being considered no matter what the NMSF offer includes.</p>

<p>On the other hand, she is looking closely at schools that meet some of the criteria and offer NMSF packages. IMO NM offers will play a part in the final decision - financial benefit aside (and she will probably get a graduate degree so a financial break at the undergraduate level is a plus), the offers make her feel - for lack of a better word - "valued".</p>

<p>NMSFs who turn down monetary offers often consider the name value of a university compensation enough. </p>

<p>At least in dd's case, she really doesn't care about name of the university. Although she attends private school, she chose the private hs that felt like the best fit for her rather than making her choice based on name; I can't even begin to express the wisdom of that decision in every aspect of her life. Anyway, she has already learned how to make choices about the type of educational environment that works for her. She'll weigh her college and NM offers carefully.</p>