<p>I’m a national merit finalist that has been accepted to Barrett. ASU is listed as my first choice school on the National Merit website. I got a letter from Barrett in January saying that when I became a National Merit Finalist I will be offered a $13,000 scholarship. Does anyone know</p>
<p>1) Is there anything else I have to do now to qualify for the scholarship
2) Is the scholarship limited to paying tuition or can it also cover room and board (I would think the latter since in-state tuition is less than $13,000)</p>
<p>Congratulations! </p>
<p>1) As long as you have ASU listed as First Choice with NMSC you don’t have to do anything else to qualify for the scholarship. However, check your myASU account and eventually you will see the scholarship listed under something like a “Finances” tab. There you will need to accept the awards. I don’t remember the exact timing of when it first showed up on myASU but it seems like it was there by sometime in May or even earlier.</p>
<p>2) All of your charges (tuition, fees, room and board) and all of your scholarships (and possible loans) will appear on your myASU. Whatever assistance you accept (scholarships, loans, grants, etc) will then be used to offset any of the charges and a balance will be computed. They will use the ASU scholarships first and then any outside scholarships. Depending on the scholarship requirements, they may even refund some money to you if the total assistance is more than the total charges. They do this by semester, so only half of the award amount will be posted each time.</p>
<p>That is an unusual way for them to give the NMF scholarship, unless they have changed the way it is constructed. Last year they awarded ‘full tuition and fees’, no $ amount specified, and so the scholarship increases in value from year to year as tuition goes up. Also there is a separate one-time award for money for research that can be used any time, maybe $1-2,000?</p>
<p>If your award is really for actual $$, then your cost will vary depending on your major. Some schools have extra annual fees, like engineering. There are also class fees, like $30 for diffeq and $50 for any online class. If your scholarship is for ‘tuition/fees’, then it pays for things like the engineering major fee, but NOT the extra class fees. Barrett has $1000/yr fee extra. The part of scholarship that pays the Barrett fee is separate, and you have to write a thank you note to the family that funds it by some deadline to receive that part of money. ASU will send info about it. Just read all your mail and e-mails to make sure you do that.</p>
<p>Just looking through last year’s finances at ASU. I realize that though D’s scholarship award letter was for ‘tuition and required fees’, they in fact gave a bit more. At the time I asked and they said yes they cover the Barrett fee and any differential program fees. But specifically said they do not cover individual class fees or the Bridge Plan health insurance. Anyway, looks like the money they gave was enough to also cover class fees (almost $500 for the year, the Bridge Plan, $260, plus several hundred more $ that went toward rm/bd. Our numbers are different as OOS, but it looks like there may indeed be some extra padding in the award. I had a feeling I wasn’t paying as much as I expected to, but never analyzed it closely as everything, both awards and charges are broken down and itemized, so requires more than a cursory glance.</p>