<p>I found a very interesting section on the College Board website (in their 2008-2009 Annual Report) that listed "the colleges and universities enrolling the 2009 entering class of Merit Scholar awardees." The grand total showed 8,511 students enrolling at 360 colleges and universities. It is my understanding that the difference between the NMFs and the National Merit Scholars is that someone (College Board, school, etc.) has given money to the students in the Scholars group -- so those would be the students tracked on the above referenced report. But if there are approximately 15,000 NMFs each year, I wonder where the other 6,500 or so students ended up? Does anyone know if that information is available? I don't know what I expect to find with that info., but I certainly am curious!</p>
<p>They did not receive any scholarship money that was based solely on NMF status. So, ~8500 of the finalists go to universities that give scholarships for being a finalist (some full ride, some $2500 one-time), or otherwise qualify for that kind of a scholarship. the other ~6600 simply don’t: they go to schools like ivies or UC’s, etc, that don’t give money for NMFs.</p>
<p>*also: you are a NMS if you get money, and just a NMF if you don’t. so only those 8500 are counted as NMS. i guess they just lose track of the 6500 NMF haha</p>
<p>Many colleges give scholarships based on NMF status, but they aren’t official National Merit Scholarships, so nobody would not inform National Merit Corporation, and the students would not be on the lists. Only the individual Universities and students would know. But it’s a good guess that a lot of the finalists are at the schools that offer automatic scholarships for National Merit Finalists (without it being an official National Merit scholarship), or at those that tack on an extra amount to their highest academic award for being a National Merit Finalist. </p>
<p>None of my daughter’s top 10 university choices offer ‘official’ National Merit scholarships, but 7 of the 10 offer a percentage or set amount (3 offering full rides) if she is named a National Merit Finalist. So she will very likely be one of the ones that drops off the list, but she still will have gone to school on a scholarship as a result of her National Merit status, though she won’t show up as a ‘National Merit Scholar’ in that case.</p>