Stacking NM College Scholarship....and who to ask?

Paying for College National Merit Aid
1

<p>Daughter competed for and was awarded several wonderful scholarships at the U she's decided to attend. Their flagship award (A), which she won, is full tuition/mandatory fees, room and board for four years. She also received their Presidential scholarship (B), and another new award (C) for this year. The school's scholarship policy is that she cannot be granted more than the cost of tuition/fees through award B, when combined with others and C, which is brand new, is still a bit of an unknown, but A,B and C will somehow be combined so that it adds to up the tuition fees/room and board. </p>

<p>Now, the school also participates in National Merit Scholarships, and states the following: </p>

<p>
[quote]
National Merit Scholarships, sponsored by the University are awarded each year to National Merit finalists who select the University as their first choice institution. The award is in the amount of a $5,000 unrestricted scholarship in addition to the Presidential Scholarship or Academic Recognition Award, if eligible. The $5,000 includes the $1,000 award from the National Merit Scholarship Corporation for the University sponsored students. The award is for eight semesters of undergraduate study, requires full time enrollment (12-18 hours), and is renewable if a 3.0 or higher cumulative grade point average is maintained. Any National Merit Corporate scholarship received will be in addition to the $5,000 up to the cost of attendance.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>When I look online at their cost of attendance statement from this past year, the estimate is just about that $5000 for books, transportation, etc. </p>

<p>We visited campus recently, and walked into Financial Aid to ask if this could be added to her other awards, up to cost of attendance. The person there said she would check and get back to us. She called a couple of days later to say no...that it's all the University's funds, and they will not allow it to be added to the others.</p>

<p>Now, kiddo hasn't gotten her award letter yet, so I don't know if award C (the new scholarship, that even FA says they're not sure how it's being handled) will be added to support up to cost of attendance or not.</p>

<p>However...a few questions, so I don't sound too lost when/if I talk to the University again. First, can anyone define "unrestricted scholarship"? Isn't "cost of attendance" the full bill (estimated, of course) of the books and such that are also a part of school? According to the quote above, am I reading correctly that NMS provides $1000 of the award, the school the other $4000, or is it all the school's dollars for that scholarship? I know NMSQ will do the mailing of the award letters (and we've confirmed the school did receive notice of her first-choice designation March 3), but does NMSQ take care of the "hooray, you got a school-based award!" letter, or is there some back and forth with the school? Even though they do participate, state their regs above, is there a possibility that she won't be considered a NM Scholar at this her first-choice school? Would she still be "named" a NM Scholar, even if the school won't/doesn't provide dollars?</p>

<p>Just trying to figure it all out...wisdom appreciated. Also, do we talk to the school, NMSQ or both for clarification??</p>

2

<p>NMSC provides only a $2500 one time scholarship. All college scholarships, even though they are given by NMSC are paid for by the college i.e. NMSC gets the money from the college and sends it to you. So the $1000 from NMSC is still the college’s money.</p>

<p>As a general rule, no college will give more money than the COA. In this case it does not include books and travel i.e. college maximum for self funded awards does not include travel and books. So yes they may give her the NMSC award but they will take away some other award to compensate. The NMSC award gives the school bragging rights (we have so many award winners). So I do not think you are going to be able to get more than the school maximum, at least from what you say. This is because the school is paying for everything.</p>

<p>On the other hand if you got a corporate award from NMSC, you could most probably keep it or keep most of it as the school is not paying for it but someone else is. </p>

<p>That is what it appears to me from your posting.</p>

3

<p>Thanks, mw…you always do a fantastic job of translating this crazy process! Hope her award letter comes soon, so we can see how they delineate everything!</p>

4

<p>thank you.</p>

<p>Just to point out books and travel are estimates and you can do better than that. Buy used books or books from an upperclassman, travel by booking in advance etc. Also, your child can work a little bit etc, so that you are covered.</p>

<p>At this stage, I would just wait get the college letter and go from there. No point talking to the college and NMSC is not going to have anything say. They do not care for anything but the official NMSC award.</p>

5

<p>I rent my books from a place called Chegg. It’s super easy, just type in the ISBN of the school bookstore’s web site and order them online. They mail them in a few days and at the end of the term you just send them back in the box no shipping. Remember to save the orginal box for shipping back. I had 15 hours D/E this term and my books were less than $100. One $150 book cost me $30 to rent. Some books were only $10-15. Hope this helps.</p>