My son is going to attend Texas A&M next year. They give full tuition for NMF. This is already in his account. He recently received a corporate NM scholarship. This won’t affect the scholarship he is getting at A&M, will it? I have read that you can only get one NM scholarship but I am thinking the the one he is getting from the school is not an official NM scholarship. Is this correct? I am hoping these can be stacked.
I have the same question, but my S does not know where he is going at this point. In my rough glance of the materials, they can get a corporate and school sponsored scholarship. The only ones that do not combine with another are the ones offered directly by National Merit Scholarship Corporation. I am hoping someone that knows more can clarify.
Edit to add: Congrats to your Son! 
Meh, then I read other things and I don’t know. I may call.
(Sorry for the string of posts.) In your case, I think it is OK. I would contact the Financial Aid Office at your sons’s prospective school.
I have sent emails to my son’s prospective schools. Some I think will be OK and others not. I am just annoyed he has to respond before we know where he gets in. He is still waiting on 4 of 6 schools.
Just for future reference, I did call National Merit on this. My son has one school with a big NMF scholarship, one that does not offer an official NMF scholarship, and 2 that offer a better school offered Official NMF scholarship.
I contacted the school with the big scholarship…they will still honor the big scholarship.
The other schools we have not heard back from, and will not have decisions from them until after the deadline to claim the corporate sponsored scholarship. As far as NMSC is concerned, if you get an offer of a corporate sponsored scholarship, that is your official offering. NMSC will not process a different scholarship for the finalist. They consider it better than a school offered one, even if the school one is monetarily higher in the long run, because it is good at any accredited school in the US.
So, in my son’s case, he is taking the corporate one.
When I talked to nmsc they said official nm $$ is NEVER more than $2000 per year (in this case it would be a corporate or collegeschollie). They said anything more is just the college using the nm score for their own scholarship requirements.
@rosegeo We attended the TAMU National Scholars Day were given the information that they do NOT give full tuition. Their scholarship for National Merit is nice, but not a full ride - $42,000 over 4 years. Did your son get additional scholarships to cover full tuition?
A&M lists 3 scholarships that total $10,500/yr which should come close to covering instate tuition, maybe a $1000 shy. They will also give OOS a tuition waiver because they are receiving more than $4000/yr from the Natl. Recognition Merit Award. They do state NMF might receive additional scholarships that should have announced in January.https://scholarships.tamu.edu/Scholarship-Programs/National-Scholars
@politepretzel The Texas A&M NMF scholarship is pretty much full tuition once you consider they give a waiver for out of state tuition along with it. My son did get additional scholarships which will take him close to a full ride but even without that he would have had his tuition covered. They are very generous with NMF.
@GTAustin @rosegeo Hi there! I’m absolutely not trying to argue, just trying to present information for those looking at these boards in the future. Yes, if you look at tuition ONLY, that about covers it. If you factor in what TAMU lists for room/board, books, travel, and expenses - you’re looking at a 16k-17k gap per year (in-state). (TAMU lists in-state cost of attendance as $27,272.) We’re just comparing it to offers from schools like OU where the NMF scholarship covers more that just straight up tuition.
Hopefully this discussion will help others in our situation in the coming years.
How did you come to that conclusion, politepretzel? I did the spreadsheet comparing OU vs. TAMU, and came to just the opposite conclusion… Would love to see your math to make sure I am not missing anything. I am speaking of years 2-4, not counting $4,200 and $2,000 OU gives to incoming freshmen their first year.
TAMU scholarships cover full tuition and fees. OU tuition waiver covers tuition only, but not fees. The 2 additional NMF scholarships totaling $6,750/year don’t even cover 100% of the fees (but come close). So I would argue that OU NMF scholarships cover less, not more compared to TAMU.
What is left over for parents to pay in years 2-4 are exactly the same expense categories as at TAMU - R&B, books, travel, and expenses.
My calculations show they would cost about the same, except that OU covers 5 years tuition plus summers. Backing into the number from TAMU’s COA would included personal expenses that might not show up in the calculations for OU.
You can go crazy with this (cost of parking, etc.) - my DH added a line for speeding tickets for TAMU, based on personal experience :))
Agree, that was my point as well. While technically TAMU covers “more” - not the other way around - they would cost roughly the same.
I am surprised at A&M listing their COA at $27,272. That is significantly higher than UT Austin which they list at close to $23,000. I think UT’s in understated and A&M’s is overstated. It is definitely cheaper to live in College Station than Austin.