<p>I read in the packet that this year's National Merit Semifinalists received that some schools have a limited number of scholarships to give. I'm applying to fifteen schools, and for nine of them I will only find out if I was accepted around April 1st. Is that too late for scholarships from some schools? </p>
<p>Have you designated your first choice school with NM? Most schools require you to have them as a first choice to get the NM $. I would guess by your list that you want to do some sort of engineering. You will not know until Feb. if you are a finalist, so you have time. The amount given by each school varies. The number each school gives also varies, and some schools don’t necessarily limit the number. Son is a NMSF and applied to A&M and has already received his scholarship offer. I do not believe A&M limits their number.</p>
<p>I’m sorry, I didn’t make my post as clear as I could have. I named Iowa State, which is my safety, as my first choice, but I have now decided that I do not really wish to go there. I am going to contact the competition office asking to change my first choice to undecided. I was planning on letting the program know when I decided on a school, but I won’t know that until April 1st, or maybe even later. </p>
<p>bringbackpluto, when did your son receive the scholarship information? Was it the scholarship that is offered to semifinalists and finalists that was listed at [National</a> Merit | Honors Programs | Texas A&M University](<a href=“Honors - LAUNCH”>Honors - LAUNCH) ? I have been accepted to Texas A&M, and I applied for the scholarship deadline, but some of my materials came in a little late. If I haven’t heard of any scholarships by now, am I not going to receive any?</p>
<p>SlitheyTove, Keilexandra’s list did mention Texas A&M and Iowa State University, which I now see both give competitive scholarships, but it did not mention the other schools that have given scholarships in the past. This is, of course, assuming that the 2007 list I referenced was accurate. </p>
<p>Thank you for your answers. I have just thought of a new question. If I designate a National Merit school as my first-choice and receive a scholarship, is it possible to receive the $2500 scholarship from National Merit itself? To possibly prevent this situation, does National Merit select its $2500 winners first?</p>
<p>ipopova: In answer to your question, my son received his scholarship packet about 6 weeks after he was accepted. Yes, it included what was listed on the website and also some others. You should be fine; I suggest you contact the honors office at A&M and ask the status of your scholarship packet. If you applied close to the deadline, I am sure those applications are taking longer than when my son applied back in the fall. As for your other question, I would check the NM site; however, I believe that you can get either the school sponsored NM scholarship or the $2500 directly from NM. Hope this helps.</p>
<p>Schools will coordinate how they do it with NMF so there is no double dipping. If the school gives you something which is better than NMF (say they give $2000 a year for 4 years) and NMF gives you a one time $2500), you will be allowed one of them, not both. The school will work with you on that and you can get only on NMF designated scholarship. Schools can add on to that but they are not “strictly NMF scholarships”. For example if the school offers tution waiver in to NMF scholars plus + 2000 a year, the $2000 a year is NMF scholarship but the tuition waiver is an add on. So in theory you could get the $2500 one time from NMF + tuition waiver from the school or $2000 a year for 4 years from the school + tuition wavier from the school. Hope this helps.</p>
<p>The one-time $2500 award from NMSC is offered before the college NM awards–late in March or early in April in past years: the college awards come later than that. I believe you have the option to decline the one-time award if you would rather accept or compete for a college NM award that is greater in amount. In contrast, the corporate scholarships are selected and given earlier than the one-time NMSC awards. I don’t think they come with an option to decline. But they are usually more than the $2500.</p>
[quote]
The UA National Merit Scholarship award package includes the college-sponsored, corporate-sponsored, or National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC)-sponsored awards.[/unquote]</p>
<p>It does not matter what the source is, the final package is the same for all. So U of A takes what ever scholarship you get (corporate or NMSC) and makes up the difference. As I said you cannot double dip. If you did not take of U of A scholarship, then you could take the NMSC scholarship/</p>
<p>bringbackpluto, I just received an email about scholarship consideration, so I am not as worried. As to the National Merit scholarship decisions, I could not find a timeline on the website. </p>
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<p>I get the impression that I will be notified of both possible scholarships. However, MomPhD says that she thinks I would have to decline the National Merit $2500 if I wanted to compete for the college scholarships. Does anyone know for sure? </p>
<p>mazewanderer, do all schools make up the difference like University of Arizona?</p>
<p>Not anywhere near all the finalists get NM money, so this may not be an issue. I think the number is about 2000 for NM money and ipopova would know whether he/she is eligible for corporate money. One thing you can be sure of is that all schools do not make up the difference. They are all different.</p>
<p>Any school that gives money for NMF will have a policy in place for anyone who gets NM money. You can also change your first choice school fairly late in the year.</p>
<p>ipopova: If you mean the deadline for accepting NM scholarships to A&M, the deadline is May 1st. It is my understanding that the corporate scholarships pertain to those students who may have some sort of connection with that corporation (Dad works for IBM, so eligible for IBM sponsored one, etc.) If you do not have a connection, you will be considered for the regular NM one and the school-sponsored one. The regular NM one is 2500, and 2500 scholarships are given. There are close to 5K school-sponsored ones. A&M sponsored scholarships are valued at $2600. You can only get one of the three listed above. If, for example, you have designated school A as your 1st choice but have decided that you would rather go to school B and NM offers you a NM school-sponsored scholarship from school A, you will not be offered an offer for school B. It is a one-time deal, so if you are not 100% sure of your school choice it is best to list undecided. Hope this helps.</p>
<p>If your goal is to obtain a NM Scholarship from your college (vs. Corporate or NM itself) then you have time to list your first choice after you get acceptance letters in the spring. My daughter did this after she decided which college to attend and sent in her choice at the same time she decided on a college (prior to May 1) for college sponsored scholarships. You can change your first choice at any time BUT once you are awarded a scholarship you CANNOT change your choice. My daughter ended up changing her first choice to undecided in order to wait for acceptance letters and leave her options open. This is from the National Merit Website</p>
<p>March 1 through May 31, 2010: A Finalist who has reported a sponsor college as first choice by March 1 will be included in the first group referred to that institution for scholarship consideration.
Periodically NMSC will notify sponsors of additional Finalists who have reported (by May 31) the college or university as their first choice.
April 28, 2010: NMSC will begin mailing college-sponsored Merit Scholarship offers.
NOTE: If NMSC receives notification of a change in college choice from a Finalist after
mailing a college-sponsored Merit Scholarship offer to that student, the Finalist cannot be
offered another college-sponsored Merit Scholarship award. This applies even if the new
choice of college is one that also sponsors Merit Scholarship awards. Therefore, a Finalist
who has previously reported a sponsor college as first choice but is uncertain about it may
choose to notify NMSC that he/she is now undecided; such notification must be received
at NMSC, via mail or by fax to (847) 866-5113, before April 28. The Finalist can subsequently
report a firm college choice that NMSC receives by May 31.</p>
<p>My understanding is that you are notified that you get the NMSC or corporate scholarship based on schedule. Again corporate comes first and you can choose to accept or decline it. You can designate a school before that or after that at any time. If the school offers you a scholarship, then you would have take only one of them. In other words, you work with the school to determine what is best for you. If the corporation gives a better scholarship than the school will give you, why would you want to take the school scholarship unless there are other benefits. I would assume most schools want students to get the best scholarship available, so the FA office can tell you the best if you know the school you are interested.</p>
<p>So first question is “are your parents employed by any corporation that offers NM scholarships?” (BTW IBM is not on the list of NM sponsors, my understanding is IBM offers their own scholarships and you do not have to be a NM finalist to qualify as they have their own process).</p>
<p>If yes, find out the terms of the corporate scholarship and go from there. </p>
<p>If not you have two choices, NMSC or the school. You know what NMSC will give and you can contact the schools that you are interested in and find out what they have to offer. They will help you decide. At this stage, I would suggest you put undecided for school choice and wait until the finalists are announced. Meanwhile look at schools that are on your list and find out what they offer. Some schools are very meager ($500 per year) some give full rides. Talk to them, you will get a better answer as to how each school deals with it.</p>
<p>There are whole posts on NMQST but here is a quick synopsis for you</p>
<p>[ol]
[li] The 220 counts for NMQST scholarships only if the PSAT was taken in your junior year and you will graduate from HS in 2011 or be in college that year. NMQST are college scholarships so there is no scholarship for juniors, it is for college education. You have to be in college to get it. If the 220 reflects your sophomore year performance, it does not count. If you took the exam in your Junior year in 2009 October, you will get your scores in Dec 2009, know if you are commended by about March 2010, know if you are Semi finalist in Sept 2010 and know if you are an award winner in March-May 2011 for awards to be distributed in fall 2011. Long process.</p>[/li]
<p>[li]There are two levels of winners. The commended for which the cut off is about 201 (varies a little from year to year) which you will make. The better recognition is finalist (for which you first need to make semi-finalist first). The cut off for semi-finalist varies from state to state. Last year it was 221 in MA, so you would not qualify if you lived in MA (assuming the cut off stays the same) but the cut off is 201 in WY where you would be a semi-finalist more or less certainly if you have a 220. There are several threads with the cut-offs for each year. So you will have a good idea where you stand based on your state. For most states 220 is very good, but there are few states that go above 220.<br>[/li][/ol]</p>
<p>My parents do not work at any of the corporate sponsors, and I doubt listing engineering as my major will make me receive corporate scholarships. I am going to switch my choice to undecided soon; I was just afraid that only deciding on April 1st would limit my chances for the competitive school scholarships. But then again, I can’t really decide before I know if I am accepted, so I shouldn’t worry about it. I’ll just need to pick one school out of the six I have already been accepted to.</p>
<p>Thank you for letting me know that I can still weigh options. I did not even consider calling my schools to find out their scholarships. I think I had all my questions answered. Thank you.</p>
<p>ipopova. I agree it seems to be ridiculously more complicated than it really is. After all…the school and NM scholarships are one time and usually only about $2000-$2500. NOT worth all the hassle, for the most part. I will tell you that MOST seem to think “undecided” is a fine way to go, and that is what my D did. We have the notification card taped to a credenza in our home office…in our face ALL the time. I personally contacted the two schools my D feels she’ll get into, and one of them (our big state uni) didn’t even know they HAD a deadline to designate them (it’s only $1000/year). But they got a supervisor who said it’s something crazy like May 31. Then we contacted NYU too (not much money but a fun “extra” called the Baird Experience where you get to travel with others for very little cost). Likewise, the didn’t really seem to know either…just said “we’re in line with NM’s deadline”. But NM has a bunch of deadlines. So I got a more firm answer from NYU and it was ALSO very late…sometime in May.</p>
<p>So we stopped worrying, will wait for acceptances, and decide THEN what to send in. Not worried about getting one of the $2000 one time scholarships and risking something bigger elsewhere (example, our state uni has a GREAT separate scholarships that gives preference to National Merit, so we want to leave THAT option open). </p>
<p>When my son was a NM, he qualified for both a corporate one and a school one.</p>
<p>Since he was only allowed to choose one, NM called and told us that it was better to take the corporate one ($2500 for 4 years) and then accept the big university one (minus $1k - the “official” part of NM scholarship), so that my son would get the most money. This way he gets free tuition, free housing, and $2500 per year.</p>
<p>If I remember correctly, the “one time” NM $2500 ones are decided after the corporate and school ones are awarded. </p>
<p>There is NO BENEFIT to getting the NM money over the corporate or school ones. No matter how you get your scholarship, you’re still named a National Merit Scholar.</p>