We got the letter last week and yesterday son got the certificate from GC.
@sjillian15 The honor is big; the posters’ point about the certificate is that it it a bit dinky for the size of the achievement, lol. But whatever, it’s the the title that matters.
True @albert69 
@ProjectGenisis6, sounds like our school district - the semifinalist certificate is not anything official and just printed by the school. But NMSC sends a certificate for every finalist to the principal. Some schools hand them out at senior awards nights, graduation, or another ceremony. You’re a NMF whether you ever see that “dinky” certificate or not! Yay!
Last week, school put up a banner with names of NMF. Good for the students to get some recognition for academics.
@DiffMom, That is so great!
My son is the only one in his high school, so it would be pretty exciting to have your own banner! He would hate it.
Our school has a plaque on the wall in the main hallway with the names of every NMF engraved under their year of graduation.
Our school has a plaque as well. It runs about 2 years behind and has my son’s name spelled wrong. 
@GoAskDad, would you please check your neighbors’ mail boxes for mail addressed to my son? He just got an email from a university saying they had mailed a scholarship offer and wanted to know if he got it, and for him to confirm his address (it was correct) and then let them know if he needs another copy of the scholarship offer. He’s not going to attend there anyway, but perhaps your neighbor will have big stacks of misdelivered scholarship offers for him!
Got back from Wichita, really liked it and am planning to go there for certain! Any letter yet, @Barfly?
Congrats @albert69!!
Soooo, is it near the end of March the people start getting notified of the $2500 awards? Not that it matters to me since it seems that most of the people that get those have 220+ PSATs and 2200+ SATs, but just curious.
@Barfly, I have confirmed that my neighbor(s) do not have any letters for your DS…but they did have a few for mine! I will keep checking back with them, though 
@albert69, it’s great to hear that you liked WSU and have your college plans all set now. If any student can maintain that WSU NMS GPA, it will be you! How did you find the drive from where you live to Wichita? If the weather there was anything like it was in Kansas City in the past few days, you got a nice, warm welcome from the state of Kansas!
DS is now trying to figure out where he wants to attend college and we are basically down to those schools that will offer him generous $$ for NMF. Our state flagship is not actually as generous as other state colleges in KS (including @albert69’s WSU), but DS is definitely leaning in that direction. KU has really sold us, despite being more expensive, and DS has a day-long visit there over Spring Break. I need to make sure we understand the final cost, though. There are others on the list, too, but “distance from home” is a recurring theme for DS. He does not want to be too far away. So the outstanding offers from UK and UA will probably be set aside. Baylor offers free tuition to NMF, but DS says 10 hours is just too far for him. I’m cautious not to “push” because I know 3 families that had students return home after first semester of college a good distance away. Each of those parents I spoke with regretted encouraging the student to go farther away than the student seemed to want to go. It’s such a difficult balance! We would miss DS, but would encourage him to go as far away as he wanted to. DH & I were kept close to home and we know how that feels.
Best of luck to everyone and we should post as decisions are made. Again, congratulations to @albert69 on choosing WSU!
@GoAskDad Well, the drive was long (10+ hrs), but the weather was great. It’s very different than driving in the southwest - rather than the town/nothing/town/nothing pattern along the road there, it was like farms/little town/farms/little town. Plus grain silos. I have never seen that many grain silos before. Kansas looked like it had bunches of classic American farms. Rather interesting. I’m used to living near mountains, so the flatness is different (from what I could see, the highest thing in Wichita was an air traffic control tower, lol), but I’ll get used to it. It was kind of pretty, and I really liked the campus.
Everybody was really friendly, in this kind of down-home way like you’d expect in stereotypes of the South. It’s a new environment, but it will be interesting. I’m looking forward to living there - I just hope I can handle the workload.
Everybody in my family is sad that I’m going away, but we all know it’s a great opportunity.
@albert69, it does sound like a great opportunity, espc. given your desired field of study. At some point in your years at WSU, be sure to head NE and drive through the Flint Hills. Actually, you should try to catch the Flint Hills in every season, so you have 4 years to do that. You’ll understand what I mean when you make the drive.
However, you will be very busy keeping that 3.5 GPA, so that must come first! Hopefully you will have advising and support to assist you in keeping on top of that. If you’re carrying forward AP or dual enrollment credits, perhaps you don’t have to take as many classes each semester? So maybe closer to 12 hours than 18, at least some semesters? That would probably help. DS has been admitted to WSU and we really should visit. Such a great deal you have there and I’m glad you are happy with it!
@GoAskDad I’m probably not going to have a car at least the first year, so I don’t know.
I do have dual enrollment credits. I have to take 15 units for the scholarship, but with my credits, we’ve figured that I can graduate in 4 years taking 15 units per semester with the exception on one, which I would either have to take 16 OR take a gen ed my first summer (since I doubt I would get an internship that early on) and fill in the 2 unit gap with a PE class. My first semester I am thinking to take Honors Calc III, Honors Public Speaking, Chemistry 1, and a graphics class that add up to 14 units, so I’ll take a PE class to get the last unit. I am certainly not taking 18 units in aerospace engineering, and I’m glad I have the dual credit classes or else there would be no way I could graduate in 4 years.
Yes, do visit if you get a chance. I was VERY impressed at how personalized the visit was. They had a lot of people visiting the day I went, but the people they had me and my parents meet with were related to my interests and specific needs. For instance, I though the Financial Aid part would just be a briefing to everybody on the FAFSA or something, but it was actually a private meeting with a director of scholarships, just me, my parents, and her, to discuss the specifics of the NMF package.
@albert69 I’m sure you will love Wichita State. Wichita is pretty flat, but if you come up northeast, we have some lovely hills. If you’re out near Concordia ever, there’s even a canyon in Kanopolis!
Wichita State is a solid school. I’m not taking advantage of their scholarship because I want to go far away for college, but it’s an excellent offer. Good luck!
@glittervine Kanapolis? Lol, I don’t know why, but that name strikes me as insanely funny. I doubt I’ll be traveling much, but I’ll keep it in mind in case I do.
I see. That’s the impression I got, that it is solid. Certainly not elite, but solid. WSU is far away for me, haha.
Is anyone on here hoping for the $2500 award? Someone on another thread said they were mailed March 25th. I know it’s unreasonable for me to hope given my stats, but I wish I could win it!