@Tgirlfriend - can you elaborate on UNT’s NMF program? Thanks!
@Torveaux, NMF can get full ride at Baylor if they are chosen for Faculty Scholarship at one of the Invitation to Excellence events.
@bctnin1059…they said it is a full ride.Tuition…room and board…any fees and a stipend. You can go to the website and put in NMF and it should tell you what all you get.
Ok, thanks!
@tgirlfriend We cannot say enough good things about the NMF program at OU. We had no ‘rooting’ interest in any particular college. S1 did not even really want to go to a school with a big sports program. They treat their Scholars very well. He lived his freshman year on the NMF floor and was surrounded by kids who shared interests and intellect. The college has a select group of advisers for NMF students. They also get to register for classes ahead of others in their ‘class’. This can be a huge advantage. Plus, unlike some schools mentioned earlier, every NMF gets the scholarship.
@Torveaux …thank you for the information. We just met with Texas Tech and they didn’t really seem that interested in him or his PSAT score. OU and Texas A&M seem to be way ahead on that situation. Texas Tech is a good school too. What was the out of pocket cost for OU out of state? Someone said that the scholarship doesn’t cover everything, We need the least amount out of pocket possible.
The first year, there was practically nothing out of pocket. It covered room and board, tuition, fees etc. Most of our expenses were just the sheets and other personal things that he needed for the dorm. Ours is in Engineering, so he got another 2500 to cover the added fees, so no issues at all.
He worked a summer job at home and that has covered his room and board for this year. It runs about 450-500 a month. He has great roommates and they make meals at ‘home’ so they don’t spend as much as some student might.
Our son also was fairly lazy coming out of HS. He could have received many more scholarships, but he figured he was ‘set’, so he did not bother applying. OU lets you stack pretty much any scholarship money with the Scholars one. I know of kids who are actually ‘making’ money.
@Torveaux…great information. Thank you so much for sharing. My S is looking at Engineering and Math minor. He would like to play in the band but he also wants to be in honors so that maybe a little much. I told him that he needs to apply for EVERYTHING!! He keeps looking at me like I am crazy. I will let him know that he needs more money than what we think. I have told him a full ride is not everything even though it sounds that away. Please if you think of anything else feel free to message me or post here. I appreciate all the information!!! Thank you again.
@Tgirlfriend "We just met with Texas Tech and they didn’t really seem that interested in him or his PSAT score. "
Would you mind elaborating on this? I know they just recently established a new NMF scholarship for full COA, which I found very attractive!
@bctnin1059 I asked and asked what the NMF scholarship covered and never got a solid answer. I was sent to several different people when I asked about if they had a NMF recuiter…still don’t know the answer to that question. My S and I just didn’t get the feeling that they were interested in him, which is upsetting because he was very interested in going to Tech.
I would contact Texas Tech (one of the people mentioned in this article/announcement) to find out specifics about their scholarship, and also to inform them about your frustrating experience. This article makes it sound like they are “so excited” to offer the full ride scholarship, so your experience should not have happened.
@4kids2graduate…No, that is not what we got from the meeting at all. They NEVER even mentioned NMF scholarship and when I asked I was sent to several different areas to try to find answers with no luck. The only college that seems to be on top of NMF scholarships is OU. Texas A&M is a close second. I think Texas Tech is a great school however if they aren’t willing to give us all the information needed so we can make an informed decision then we probably won’t end up there. I will contact the people in the article. Thank you for the information.
@Tgirlfriend Check out UT Dallas I was very impressed with our meeting with them. The honors college handles the National Merit Scholarships and they went over the scholarship and other benefits in detail. They don’t have a football team so they likely don’t have a marching band either. Not sure if that would be a deal breaker for your kiddo. UTD is #1 on S18’s list.
D16 (NMF) has committed to OU and we feel it is the perfect fit for her.
@3scoutsmom …yes I will look into UT Dallas. He wanting to major in Engineering and Math. I will have to check out what degrees they offer. Did your D16 visit OU campus? We are going up there this summer for a tour. We have family about 1 hour from the campus so that is a major plus for my S17.
Yes we visited the campus last year and again this year for the scholar2sooners event. She loves the campus and we spent some time exploring the general area too. I know she will be very happy there. This was s18’s first college trip he hated everything about OU except the food! But loved UTD.
UTD is a huge STEM school, very big on research. I’m sure they offer a variety engineering and math degrees. UTD was started by the founders of Texas Instruments as a post graduate research institution.They only started admitting freshman and sophomores in the 1990’s so it a very young school.
@3scoutsmom …what are the dorms like at OU? I have been looking on line however you can’t tell a lot from the information there. Did they tell you what your out of pocket will be for the freshman year? I know that the Full ride doesn’t cover some costs.
D plans to live on the National Merit floor of the towers (two people each room with two rooms sharing a bathroom in between). The dorms are OK not as nice as UTD. Food was wonderful!
We were told OU will cost about $6.5K for the first year with out any outside scholarships.Their scholarship is full tuition NOT full ride. They will stack outside scholarships and D has applied to several and hopes to cover this herself.
D has some personal savings and hopes to work at a Girl Scout camp this summer for more spending money. She also plans to work as a tutor second semester (if her schedule allows) for additional pocket money.
My daughter is looking like she has a shot at NMF next year based on her sophomore year scores this year. I’d love to find a suitable school for her that provides a great scholarship package for her to pursue engineering.
One problem is she prefers a smaller school…her dream school being Rice but I’m afraid affording that will be only in our dreams.
But the biggest problem is she is a competitive swimmer. She qualifies for sectional swim meets…not yet junior nationals as of her sophomore year. So, a lot of these schools with the full ride or close to it NMF scholarships either don’t offer swimming or are big D1 schools with swim teams outside of her skills. I suppose she might be able to walk on at ASU or Alabama but the odds of being taken to compete are small. She desires to be an active and point scoring member of a college swim team.
I feel like she has these high academic talents and skills and also high athletic skills and somehow we just can’t seem to find a way to make these two things help us out.
@bertiemom, sounds like your D wants a DIII school with a good engineering program and a competitive swim team, oh and that also offers NMF large scholarships. A tall order! I cannot think of many offhand, as most of the NMF large award schools are big schools in the South. Maybe U of Rochester? If I were you I would research DIII schools with engineering that are known for good merit scholarships in general, even if not NMF based.
Hi @BertieMom. My D18 is a competitive swimmer (not quite Sectionals times) and probable NMSF. @vistajay is right in that finding that perfect swim/merit school is tough. My D and I visited Rochester and she loved the swim coaches and the way they do things there. They have a $17K/year NMSF scholarship, but also some more valuable competitive merit scholarships, up to full tuition. They do not stack. Fantastic school.
Case Western could be a really good option. My D’s good friend who is in the same situation (but a little faster swimmer than my D) is high on Emory, although their merit scholarships are very competitive. Same with WashU in St Louis.
Tulane has very generous merit scholarships, and is a smaller school, but their swim program is DI. They seem to have an active club team on campus, though. Might be worth looking up.