<p>I know they have a full-tuition (I believe) scholarship for national merit semifinalists, but its competitive. How do they decide who gets this and when should we find out?</p>
<p>Our student received word of the Semi-Finalist scholarship soon after getting a likely letter for Early Action. The official letter was then on her portal a couple of weeks after her official Early Action acceptance was on the site. Then, a hard copy of the award came via mail a few weeks after that. I don’t know how they decide, beyond being Semi-Finalist and, I believe, a very high class ranking. I do believe that our child did show very high demonstrated interest prior to being accepted and even after that point. </p>
<p>I just assumed that everyone who is a semifinalist or higher just got it. We never even considered that my daughter might not get the scholarship. I guess we are lucky that she did get it. (She was a finalist, not a semi finalist, so I guess that helped.) Good luck!! You can call admissions and ask about it.</p>
<p>@LeftyLou Well, I applied RD, so I haven’t heard back yet. But I was curious about the scholarship, since I probably won’t go to Fordham unless I get that. Congrats to your daughter though!</p>
<p>My d is a sophomore. She applied RD. She received a likely letter in early Feb. which indicated that she was being considered for a scholarship. The notification of the NMSF scholarship was included in the big packet that arrived about March 25 or so. I remember that some indication of the scholarship appeared on the portal a few days before it came in the mail. My d was also a finalist.</p>
<p>Hi - the NMSF scholarship is not “competitive,” though I know that is what is stated in the CC National Merit thread. There are not a limited number, and students are not compared to one another. Admissions has told me a couple if times that “almost every” NMSF receives the full-tuition scholarship. Fordham screens out those who have high PSAT, but don’t have other criteria for Fordham admissions/scholarships - they want good grades and don’t want Cs on the transcript, much like the criteria for NMF.</p>
<p>If the Fall admissions practice is any guide, it should show in your Portal shortly after admission, followed my a letter and a PIP folder.</p>
<p>Okay, thank you @KvtheFan. I’ll make sure to keep checking my portal.</p>
<p>And mistakes can be made, as several of us already experienced. If it is missing from your award, contact your regional rep right away. Good luck!</p>
<p>Accepted today, but no mention of Semifinalist scholarship or any merit award. Does this mean I should cross Fordham off the list, or will merit info come later?</p>
<p>Call Admissions/your regional rep and ask them. Let us know! Good luck.</p>
<p>@kvotherFan advised us too to contact our admission rep when the likely letter and later financial package did not mention the award. Thankfully, it did appear on the portal with the official acceptance. It did not appear with the hard copy acceptance, but then came later. Lots of ups and downs and I worried that is was not official. But our admissions rep assured that she was granted the award. At one point in the process we called financial aid and they too assured us that it was listed in the system.
However, we do know of one NA Finalist and one NM Finalist who did not get the award. I recall some Hispanic Scholars posting, during EA season, that they did not get it. So it is not a done deal, but is worth checking into!</p>