<p>I got the Chancellor's Scholarship from Vanderbilt. Though it is on top my list I am still waiting for other offers from other schools and hence unwilling to put down Vandy as my 1st choice BUT if I receive the one time $2500 NMSC award then I may miss out on Vandy's $2k per year additional national merit scholarship .</p>
<p>Vanderbilt site - <a href="http://www.vanderbilt.edu/scholarships/faq.php">http://www.vanderbilt.edu/scholarships/faq.php</a> - says :
" Does Vanderbilt offer National Merit and Achievement Scholarship"
Yes, Vanderbilt provides scholarship assistance for admitted and enrolled students who are named National Merit or Achievement Finalists. Students must designate Vanderbilt as their first choice school with the National Merit Corporation by the final deadline and enroll as an entering freshman student to receive Vanderbilt's National Merit or Achievement Scholarship. For those finalists who also receive one of Vanderbilt's merit scholarships, we guarantee an additional $2,000 in National Merit or Achievement total scholarship dollars per year from all sources (with Vanderbilt supplementing any smaller corporate or one-time National Merit Corporation awards). "</p>
<p>That last sentence makes me think that even if I get the one time $2500 award, Vandy will supplement the difference $5500 if I choose to go to Vandy. Am I interpreting this correctly ?
So, if I get the $2500 award on March 27th, I can still put down Vandy as 1st choice by May 31st to get the $5500 ?
or I just work with Vandy directly to get the $5500 supplemented ?
TIA</p>
<p>As I interpret it, you get $5000 a year (not factoring in your Chancellor’s Scholarship). If you get the NMSC Scholarship, Vandy will push it up to $5000, but not over.</p>
<p>yetanother…Yes, I believe you’re interpreting it correctly. Vandy appears to be one of the schools that will not “punish” a student who is awarded a one-time $2500 NM scholarship. According to their verbiage, you will receive $8000 total over 4 years there (I don’t see the $5K per year that SurvivorFan interpreted), with $2500 coming in the first year. My guess would be that they’d split the remaining $5500 over your last three years, but you could call Vandy directly and ask them.</p>
<p>It’s good to know Vandy will do that for NM students. Some schools (Northwestern for example) won’t supplement one-time $2500 recipients. At least this way all NMFs who attend Vandy receive the same total amount of NM money. Good Luck!! </p>
<p>Vandebilt’s policies with regard to National Merit Scholarships seem to be attracting National Merit Finalists. In NMSC’s recently released annual report for 2012-2013, Vanderbilt had the third highest number of NM Scholars (260), behind only U of Chi (314) and Harvard (268). <a href=“http://www.nationalmerit.org/annual_report.pdf”>http://www.nationalmerit.org/annual_report.pdf</a> at pp. 32-34.</p>
<p>^Difference. Chicago and Vanderbilt turn all their NMFs into Scholars by giving them $ for the status. Harvard does not. All the Harvard Scholars got their money from NMSC or corporate sponsors. They also have the uncounted NMF students who received no money.</p>