<p>how hard is it to qualify for finalist..i heard most people move on.</p>
<p>Also, how important is the essay? Can i just use my generic college essay for the semi 500 word essay?</p>
<p>thanks</p>
<p>also, can i get any money from NMS if my first choice is a college that doesnt sponser merit awards (eg. Columbia College)</p>
<p>^ wow, this thread is extremely ambiguous.</p>
<p>but because this is CC ( and because i'm smart :) ), I'm going to assume that you're talking about the Psat/nmsqt. </p>
<p>1) You are correct in the assessment that most people do move on to be a finalist, thus, becoming a finalist isn't very difficult, because probablity is on your side.</p>
<p>2) the NMS officials wouldn't have a way of knowing that you are using your college essay, so doing so is fine. </p>
<p>i sincerely hope you are refering to the psat...if not, then i just wasted 2 minutes of my life.</p>
<p>haha no i am referring to PSAT. sorry for the ambiguity</p>
<p>I find it really funny that from reading the first post earlier, it was immediately obvious what you were talking about, and I didn't even realize you didn't specify until reading that post. Hahaha.</p>
<p>And it's not hard to move on, I believe almost everyone who doesn't simply didn't submit an application, either out of laziness, or because they aren't planning to take the SAT, etc. It would be quite rare to complete everything and then be denied finalist status, though I'm sure it's happened to <em>someone</em>.</p>
<p>If you are one of the lucky 2500 that get the $2500 scholarship you can use it at any accredited college.</p>
<p>You can apply to colleges that give $ to NMSF and those who do not and, for most of them, you can get the $ even if you hadn't originally designated them as the first choice. Or you can leave the first choice college as "undecided" and then designate one after you've received acceptances and financial aid packages.</p>