Are there any parents here from the Oklahoma/Texas area? We currently have 5 colleges on the radar. S in looking for a full ride or close to it. 221 on PSAT in Texas and 34 on ACT…2090 on SAT. Number 1 in his class and GPA 4.53 unweighted. We haven’t started tour the colleges yet however plan to in the summer time and fall. Waiting to see how the NMSF numbers look. Currently thinking about Texas A&M, Texas Tech, UNT, SMU and OU. S has to decide on what engineering degree he would like along with the Math minor.
I welcome any input from those parents that have visited these colleges.
@Tgirlfriend I think many of those schools have NMF specific tours which you can sign up for. I think your son will be an NMF for sure. Congratulations!
@payn4ward …Thank you for the kind words. We sure he gets to be NMF. His school has not had a NMF in 20 something years. People around here don’t really understand what all that means. Thank goodness we have a wonderful staff and they will do everything they can to help him. Texas A&M sent him a invite to visit for NMF however he had a UIL academic meet the same weekend. We can not put all our eggs in 1 basket so he is working hard to win UIL state at least one year. Hopefully he will be invited to another visitation with Texas A&M for NMF soon. I am a planner so I am way more worried about things than he is. He goal…get a college degree with NO debt. He would like to save his college fund for graduate work. We will see…
Please if any parents have any advice is it more than welcome.
Have you investigated the scholarship link found on financial aid forum? There are lists of schools that give full-tuition or full-ride based on test scores or NMF status.
@Mom2aphysicsgeek …no ma’am. Please post the link if possible. Thank you
@Tgirlfriend we just got home from visiting Univ of Utah and Texas Tech. Both are firmly high on DD’s list.
Texas Tech definitely made her feel like she is wanted there. She is a possible NMF, high numbers, well rounded, athlete, ECs, etc. I can not say enough about how great the day was. I would highly recommend getting in touch with the admission counselor for your area. Ours was instrumental in getting the day organized.
Oh, and the people are so friendly, not just on campus but all over campus.
I may be wrong but Texas A&M is not a full ride for NMF and even their full tuition deals don’t look guaranteed are they?
@Tgirlfriend This list is complied by CC posters http://nmfscholarships.yolasite.com You’ll need to check in the summer if changes are made for the 2016-17 application cycle.
There’s also this list for purely stats-based automatic full-tuition and full-ride scholarships http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com
and for competitive full-tuition and full-ride scholarships http://competitivefulltuition.yolasite.com
@disshar…great news to hear. My S is headed to Texas Tech for Math camp this summer for the second year in a row. I think it is pretty high on my S’s radar as well. We attended the road show in Dallas a few weeks ago and he really likes the honors dorms. My S is thinking Engineering and Math however wants to play in a band. Tech is just pretty far away from home…a good 7 hours. My Aunt and Uncle live in Lubbock so we would have family close it needed. OU is on his radar also. Lots of family close and they have a pretty good standing. The biggest downfall with Texas A&M is the band having to be in the corp. Not a fan of that. @carachel2 …no Texas A&M does not give a full ride for NMF however I think they have several outside scholarships they offer to help make up the difference. OU is not a full ride either however with outside scholarships I think it would be okay. UNT has a full ride for NMF however the engineering /math dept doesn’t offer many engineering degrees.
@Tgirlfriend We are in Texas. I think your S is certain to be NMSF/NMF. Big congrats to him! My daughter is sitting on a very borderline SI (219 - ugh at being much better at math) so we are wait and see. My D does not want to stay in Texas, so we are looking at OOS flagships that offer full-rides or close. We’ve visited a number of schools so far. My D visited UNT with my friends, so I can’t comment on it. She thought it was ok, but not for her. This was before she definitively decided she wanted to go out of state. SMU wouldn’t have been a good fit for my D, but its a good school for sure. We recently visited OU and Oklahoma State. We both really liked OSU better and D would be happy to attend there. They have been great with following up with her and she even received a phone call from a business school rep earlier this week. Their honors program seemed great, the campus is beautiful, and everyone was very friendly. We had a good visit at OU as well but D just couldn’t see herself attending so we’ve dropped it from her list.
Texas Tech offers a full ride for NMF. The only thing to note is the very high GPA to renew … 3.5. It fell from her list as a potential safety for that reason alone.
@itsgettingreal17 …Thank you. I personally think 219 will be good for NMSF/NMF. My S just got lucky on the PSAT because he is all about Math however he did better in English on the PSAT. ACT perfect math score 36 out of 36.
Good to know about OSU. I went there for 2 years then had to go back home because I ran out of $. Ended up graduating from a local college with no student loans. What scholarships does OSU have for NMF? I will have to check into OSU’s engineering/math department.
Has your D thought about colleges in Arkansas or LA?
@Tgirlfriend OSU has a very similar scholarship to the NMF award at OU. The OSU package actually results in a lower net cost than OU’s. OSU also stacks scholarships, so that is another way to get a full or almost full ride. Arkansas and LSU are currently on her list, but very low. If she makes NMSF, both will drop off as she thinks too many students from her school go to Arkansas each year and she says its too hard to be a vegetarian in Louisiana (we go to LA frequently). Most of her top schools are up north. But she also has Bama as a safety she’d be very happy to attend. So we are just waiting on the NMSF announcement in September to finalize her list.
@itsgettingreal17 …I just went and looked at OSU’s NMF scholarship very impressive. What major is your D looking at? My concern is does it matter where you get your Engineering degree at? No Ivy league schools are even on the radar. I don’t he would do well at those. My S is currently taking duel credit classes and has done extremely well in those. I want him to be in honors classes simply because I know they are smaller. I did see what you are talking about with Tech being a 3.5 GPA. That is a major concern! Once he gets into college and gets his feet wet I don’t think that will be an issue however freshman year can be very trying for students when it comes to grades.
@Tgirlfriend My D is currently planning on double majoring in accounting and finance with a minor in Spanish. From what I understand, any ABET accredited engineering school will get your son where he wants to go. There are lots of threads on the forum about this. I’d suggest running a search. My D has no interest in Ivies either (although I graduated from one). She is all about the scholarship money, so we haven’t had any disagreements about schools. But she’s also very easy-going and never got caught up in the “dream school” thinking. So long as there is an Honors program (for the perks), her majors, and a decent football team, she’ll be happy and do well. I’m not concerned about her ability to do well in college, but freshman year is such a shock to so many students that I’m not allowing her to take any risks. The large majority of schools on her list have a 3.0 renewal requirement with a couple at 3.2.
@Tgirlfriend Was UT Dallas on your list? If so, you should look into the McDermott Scholars Program. They are well known for engineering and business. It might not be on your list because of the marching band aspect but if that is something he decides he doesn’t want, I’d take a look at it.
When I was at Texas A&M, I knew a few people in the marching band and even though they were in the corps, most of them were only in the corps to be in the band and it wasn’t as strict as some of the other corps squadrons/companies. Of course, my info is very outdated but I think it is worth an in-depth look.
I have some friends with kids at Tech, OU, and OSU they are very happy.
It sounds like your S has amazing stats. Have fun visiting colleges!
@greeny8 Your post about your D stressing about doing well sounds just like the conversation I had with my S yesterday. School must have been brutal yesterday with seniors finding out about those final few schools on their list.
Not looking forward to the stress of next year. I’m sorry to hear about your other D but it sounds like she has other amazing opportunities.
We also live in a PS in PA (300 in each grade) that doesn’t have many NMF. Last year, there were two. The year before, 6, their best ever and the year before that, none. This year, one got to Cornell and a couple got wait listed to Ivies.
My question is that if your school is not that good, how will you stand out in college admission process, if you school rarely ever have any kids going to Ivies? How will your school profile adversely affect your admission? I do believe few kids got admitted to Ivies, but the financials might be holding them back, even though we live in an affluent area, at least that is what they usually describe our area.
DH and I got free rides for for graduate schools when we came to US, and we want to support DD 100% to the best school she can get into… She is a very sensible kid who calculates the payback period for a potential Ivy League education 
She wants to go to the school she can do well and feels most comfortable, and if she can save her parents money doing that, all the better.
@jedwards70 …yes, I will check with him about UT Dallas. I don’t think we looked at that because of no band. UTA was out because of no band too.
We are going to visit Texas A&M to see what all they offer. I did notice that for NMF they don’t show near what some other colleges offer for scholarships. That makes me sad.
@Tgirlfriend, your S’s score will most certain to be eligible for NMSF. I see many posters already gave you great information and links. I just want to add that some of the schools really rolled out the red carpet for us when I visited with DS14. For example, I recall OU offered to pay for our stay in Norman, OK but we didn’t stay the night due to traveling schedule. Arizona also offered to pay for travel. I think there were some others but I can’t remember at the moment. Too bad DD17’s PSAT score will most likely not qualify for NMSF.
@srk2017, it’s at Stony Brook.
@SincererLove … She sounds like a great mature and sensible kid!
Oh… And our school so far has had one kid admitted to Yale, Columbia, Stanford, Princeton, Dartmouth AND Harvard. Ohmyword. The details are killing me because I don’t know if they are full pay or if they can afford it all or not! Regardless, he has worked insanely hard and all the kids are excited for him.