Hello all!
I’m a National Merit Finalist with a question about how likely it will be for me to get the $2500 one-time payment (if anyone would happen to know this information).
For the past few months I’ve been rather undecided in which college I wanted to go to. In April, I set my choice as Northeastern because it was one of my top choices, and they gave me a 30k/year scholarship. Recently, though, I’ve decided to go to Johns Hopkins, a school that does not offer its own sponsored NMF scholarship. I just changed my college choice on the National Merit website this afternoon, and realized there may be a possibility I will not be receiving any scholarship at all. Would anyone have any thoughts about the likelihood of getting a $2500 scholarship this late in the process? Any feedback or help at all would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you so much!
There are 15,000 NMFs this year. Only 2500 will get the one-time small award for 2500 (again, that is an award that is only given freshman year)…and JHU will likely reduce it’s aid if you were to be one of those 2500.
Only 1 in 6 NMFs get the one time award.
So, since only 2500 NMFs get this one time award, you can’t expect to get it.
Do you think those students who are getting the one-time award have been notified already? My daughter has heard nothing yet, but I’d heard that they notify until the end of May. Does anyone know if that’s true and she still has a chance?
Thank you @mom2collegekids for putting the math into perspective! @Mom2jl I believe the original National Merit Finalist letter stated that letters will be sent mid May to notify those who do not receive the award. She may still have a chance! 
D16 received her scholarship notice during the last week of March and had until April first to accept the award. I assume there will be some students that do not accept the award for different reasons. Maybe some of those awards will be given to other students later.
I’ll keep my fingers crossed! Since UCLA doesn’t give anything to NMF’s, it would be nice if she got the $2500 scholarship.
This is straight from the National Merit website:
What proportion of Finalists win a scholarship?
Approximately half of all Finalists win a scholarship.
When and how are Finalists notified that they have been awarded a scholarship?
On a rolling basis, beginning in March and ending in June, Scholars are notified at their home addresses. Their high school principals are also notified.
What kinds of scholarships are awarded?
In the National Merit® Scholarship Program, three types of Merit Scholarship® awards are offered to Finalists: National Merit $2500 Scholarships, corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards, and college-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards. Special Scholarships are awarded to outstanding students who are not Finalists and meet a corporate sponsor’s criteria.
True, but only 2500 get the one time $2500 NMCorporate award. The other 5000 are getting corporate or college sponsored awards.