I’m a NMF, and I had to designate a school as my “first-choice” since some of the scholarships are school-sponsored. I know a lot of top schools take into account demonstrated interest, and they want students that will actually COME to their school (higher yield rate in order to promote the oh-so important US News and World Report Ranking.) So if I were to put a school, say, Duke, as my first choice for my National Merit Finalist Scholarship, would that have any affect on my application? Also, what do schools see from my National Merit Application, if anything?
May want to look in NAtional Merit forum where this is being discussed.
Schools see nothing from your NM application. There is a lot of information on this topic on some of the other forums. That may be helpful to you.