<p>Definitely not too late for any of the Oklahoma schools…OU, OSU and TU. TU’s full ride is competitive (about 50 awarded per year). Deadline for that scholarship app is 2/15. OU and OSU’s near full ride packages are available until the NM deadline.</p>
<p>I still can’t believe that I got into H but the issue is that is not very affordable for my family without significant loans even with FA. I was hoping for the Bama scholarship which is still great and the general NA scholarship money…just venting, college is so expensive</p>
<p>Bama has a semifinalist package that still covers full tuition, but you would have needed to already have applied and be accepted, which if you were hoping to go there, maybe you already did?</p>
<p>Yes, I applied a while ago and recived it but its not the same. The quick math in my head says it is a 40k difference. I’ll survive, worst case scenario I go to Harvard, take out some loans, work the first couple years after school on Wall Street to pay then off.</p>
<p>Yoskis…</p>
<p>How much will H expect your family to pay? Is your family high income?</p>
<p>I don’t know if Bama has any flexibility, but you could always try talking to them. Since you got into H they’d probably see you as a “catch” – at least if your hook is relevant to them as well. So… maybe they’d be able to sweeten the deal a bit even though you didn’t make finalist.</p>
<p>^^^
That’s possible. Yoskis, I could tell you who has the authority to give you more money. That said…are you sure that you won’t get big aid from H??? H gives super aid. Your family’s income would have to be really high for you not to get aid from H.</p>
<p>m2ck About $185+some assets, we haven’t gotten an actual package yet from because there was a mix up with the documents. I’m just going to wait it out and see how things play out for another couple weeks-there is the possibility of some signifant merit aid from my other schools-and ill send you a note if I want to try to get more money from bama. </p>
<p>:) lol…do you have a new screenname?</p>
<p>Haha i use two i’m paranoid that colleges might find my posts and figure out who I am and use it against me haha</p>
<p>For anyone’s future reference NMSC now has no appeals process for a rejection due to grades, what they call a “grade withdraw.” I asked about ap/honors coursework, upward trends, extenuating circumstances and overall GPA and the guy claimed it was holistically reviewed but coming down to a couple of grades is in no way holistic.</p>
<p>If I have time I’m going to write an open letter addressing the flaws in the process-the time it takes, the lack of transparency, the state cutoffs, the lack of a real “holistic” review, etc. to send to national merit, their donors, and the colleges.</p>
<p>Yoskis- your post makes it sounds like you got the rejection letter and can’t appeal. I am so sorry. I agree about the lack of transparency. S had a PSAT score lower than any cut offs i saw posted here. I was shocked that the “by region, by state” criteria made him a semifinalist. Also, his SAT was much lower than the 1960 that NMS posts say is the magic score. he had stellar grades and great ec’s and leadership.
Like you, we are high income but the need only school weren’t on the radar. I plan to give the guidance counselors a little note about our wait and see experience.
bTW- for any juniors on the borderline like this poster and my son, Fordham full tuition NA award is good even for semi-finalists. Not sure fine will attend there but good to know. </p>
<p>Did NA reject you as well? That seems strange. I thought the NAF process was less strict.</p>
<p>NA has 1600 semifinalists, 1300 finalists. So 3X as high a proportion of semifinalists rejected from NA as from NM. Don’t know if the standards are the same or different.
<a href=“http://nationalmerit.org/steps_nasp.pdf”>http://nationalmerit.org/steps_nasp.pdf</a></p>
<p>So I know at this point no news is good news. Do you think it’s safe to assume if I haven’t been rejected yet I’m probably a finalist? </p>
<p>Yes</p>
<p>Received a national achievement finalist letter today! Had two C’s and an equal amount of A’s B’s. So absolutely happy right now</p>
<p>^ Congrats!</p>
<p>I have a C+ in a specialized engineering class (which, by the way, I had no business taking!) and got my NA finalist letter in spite of it. It was a trimester course. My GPA is over 4.0 and I my SAT, while not superb (I am an ACT kid) was good and met the threshold for NM, so I figured it did for NA also. No behavior problems, good school, etc. Still, the C made me nervous. Thanks for all the advice on here. I am headed to visit Northeastern now that I have finalist.
One kid I know did not make finalist. He forgot to send his SAT score!!! Can he appeal? He has the Bama semifinalist scholarship and another semifinalist scholarship for a full ride at an HBCU, so he still is in good shape. He really thought he had sent the score! He only took it once, in 10th grade for some gifted program, but got a 1980. Since then he has only taken the ACT. </p>
<p>Hsgrad…have your friend CALL NMCorp and ask if he can still send his SAT.</p>
<p>National Merit Scholarship Corporation
1560 Sherman Avenue
Suite 200
Evanston, Illinois 60201-4897
Phone: (847) 866-5100
Fax: (847) 866-5113</p>