<p>Does anyone know what UCF awards National Merit students (my daughter in particular is a Finalist)? She is also looking at a few other Florida schools as well as some out of state schools that are offering good awards.</p>
<p>Is your D a senior in high school?</p>
<p>Yes, she is…she’s narrowed it down at this point to about 2-3 schools.</p>
<p>DS attends UCF on a NMS and if things have not changed, it is $104,000 over 4 years…$26,000 per year and it is guaranteed. He also was awarded a laptop. </p>
<p>OOppps! Just realized you are in-state and my DS is out of state. So the award would be lower since it doesn’t have to cover the out of state tuition premium.</p>
<p>Contact: Luke van Blaricom for specific details on the NMS <a href=“mailto:Luke.vanBlaricom@ucf.edu”>Luke.vanBlaricom@ucf.edu</a></p>
<p>How have they liked UCF? And thanks for the contact info, I’ll get in touch with Luke. She’s been receiving a lot of great offers but UCF seems the best so far. She’s kind of considering out of state slightly but I think her heart is set on staying in Florida.</p>
<p>^ smartkidparent</p>
<p>Could I ask you to sharing which out of state schools have offered daughter NMSF or NMF offers if they are different from the ones that are represented in this thread? Thanks</p>
<p>She was looking at UNC-Chapel Hill and Duke but didn’t like the awards and then we researched Arizona State and Univ of Oklahoma which had pretty good scholarship packages.</p>
<p>I forgot to follow up…but I did contact Luke VanBlaricom and he provided details on their National Merit Finalist award. $140,000 for out of state, $64,000 for Florida students. They also get their pick of housing on campus and a laptop computer, he said they could even get a Mac if they wanted. Pretty neat!</p>
<p>Smartkidparent:</p>
<p>Haven’t been back here for awhile. Glad to hear that you got in touch with Luke and like what UCF offers. Remember that your semester/annual scholarship funds will stretch depending on what housing your DD chooses. For example, DS listed Lake Claire as his #1 and got it. He was not interested in the Honors apts because the price tag was close to $9K while the former was around $5800. This decision freed up more funds to cover other things. </p>
<p>Anyway, he loves Orlando and the university. You may not believe it but one of his criteria for college selection was no snow but warm weather year round. This year he is off campus in an apt with friends. Uses the university shuttles to get back and forth.</p>
<p>Hondu: I think DD is going to live in Towers. She really liked the location and amentities. Housing that far exceeded what I ever had in college. Luke said she could even have a four bed/four bath if she wanted it. I did really like that the scholarship package also meant that DD can move off campus at some point too and the scholarship still pays just as much. Doesn’t lock her into living on campus all four years. This is one of the big things that sold us on UCF and I feel makes their scholarship all around better. Glad to hear DS is enjoying UCF, I really think DD made the right choice.</p>
<p>Does anyone know when the National Merit Finalist get the computer that is part of the scholarship package? Is it in the Fall when the semester starts or earlier?</p>
<p>I don’t know about UCF in particular, but I know that my kids’ school doesn’t give the computers out until 2 days before classes start. I guess they don’t want to give them out and then have the kid decide to go elsewhere, and then have a hard time retrieving them back.</p>
<p>So, I would guess that UCF may do something similar.</p>
<p>I’d suggest visiting UCF. I personally don’t like the atmosphere at all and wouldn’t go there in a million years. Yes the scholarship is great, but there are great NMF scholarships at a lot of other, better schools.</p>
<p>I posted earlier a similar answer. DD had the same questions so I inquired about it a few weeks back. She’ll get to pick out her computer in early June and then pick it up when she arrives to campus in August. I agree with mom2collegekids. They probably don’t want to give them out ahead of time and then have students not go and have to track down the equipment. @tommykirkpatrick DD had a lot of great options to look at. We checked out a few out of state schools AND some other Florida schools. They had some great offers. I guess to each his own as DD thought UCF was the best place for her.</p>