<p>^^^^^ NMSC’s own awards for the most part have already been awarded. </p>
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<p>My observations seems to be that colleges are cutting back on scholarships rather than more colleges adding their own NMF scholarships. Possibly your college was awarding NMF scholarships even previously but they may have an either or policy i.e. if you get the $2500 award you will not get the college award. There are colleges that do that. You can check on the college website or the FA office as to their policy on how they handle this situation i.e. a student who gets the NMSC’s $2500 award.</p>
<p>No letter yet from Northeastern-but they told me they were notified by NMSC they were first choice and when I talked to NMSC a few weeks ago they had Northeastern as the first choice as well.</p>
<p>Do these come out in waves-obviously we can’t make a May 6 deadline since we haven’t received anything yet.</p>
<p>My old high school (I left early to attend college) called me to tell me they are awarding me a medal for being a NMS, but I can’t go to the ceremony because I have a final exam that night … :(</p>
<p>My son got a letter from NMSC today saying he was not a Scholar, but noting that 'in the next few weeks, we will be offering some additional NM Scholarships. The majority of these awards will be scholarships sponsored by colleges and universities. "</p>
<p>Yes, they have for the most part completed the corporate and NMSC’s own awards. Only college awards are left and it will depend upon which college your son is going. If he is going to one that does not award scholarships then you cannot expect one.</p>
<p>There is a posting by Scholade and he has shown through examples how this handled by different colleges. Colleges have different policies and every college has different policies. There is also the official and un official component. You may want to read the thread as that explains a lot of the process.</p>
<p>I’m really curious about the full ride scholarship your son received at Rose-Hulman. I don’t see any mention of full ride scholarships on their website. I was under the assumption that they didn’t offer very much aid because I see the average indebtedness after 4 years is <em>very</em> high. Am I missing something?</p>
<p>Guess this continues to be a highly individualized process, based on each school’s rules. My d competed for and received a full merit award, and the college sponsors NMS. Her full merit (and some other scholarships she received) have been adjusted so that NMS “claims” a portion (in her case, the $1000 NMS and an additional $4000 from the school), then the other award dollar amounts have slid around so that it all adds up to fully funded. She did not receive the one-time $2500 award. Complaining? NOPE!! Confused? Less so than I was…but I have come to the conclusion that it’s a very individual thing, and am very happy that d has become a NM Scholar…and thrilled that she will graduate with zero debt. As for figuring out how NM works…</p>
<p>Other than our specific case I don’t know any details other than what I found on their site … They do mention they provide merit scholarship but provide no details as to the criteria, amounts, etc. </p>
<p>S received a letter on the 8th of March 2011 from RHIT Office of Admissions stating: </p>
<p>"On behalf of the Scholarship Committee of Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, I am pleased to inform you that you have been selected to receive one of our full four year scholarships for Math and Science! Congratulations!</p>
<p>The competition for these scholarships included some of the best and brightest students in the nation. We based our decisions on GPA, class rank, test scores, rigor of academic curriculum and extracurricular activities. You are to be commended for belonging to such an exclusive group.</p>
<p>As noted earlier, your scholarship will cover tuition, fees, room and board, and a
laptop computer."</p>
<p>The 1st paragraph would lead me to believe that RHIT provides more than one full scholarship. </p>
<p>There were two conditions in this letter … 1st his intent to accept the scholarship had to be received by 4 April. Second condition was he had to enroll and make enrollment deposit not later than 1 May to attend RHIT.</p>
<p>Since this is a bit off thread topic please send me PM if you have any other specific questions I’ll happily try to answer.</p>
<p>If she has got a college NMS scholarship, it is better than the one time $2500. College scholarships have to be for 4 years. So it is a $1,000 a year or $4,000 over 4 years. The rules are that you cannot get more than one source to give the scholarship. </p>
<p>At the end of the day, most colleges will pay more than COA and they can use different buckets to give the aid. Using the NMS bucket allows your D to call herself a National merit scholar. Even if she had got the $2500, the package would have been adjusted accordingly and she might not have got $1000 per year. </p>
<p>Yes there is some randomness for award of the $2500 scholarship, but there is a method in the madness for NMS awards, but it takes a lot patience to figure it out.</p>
<p>I wish they would just reduce the award to an amount per student so everyone could get something. It seems ridiculous that you can be an NMF but not be a scholar unless you get a monetary award. </p>
<p>Give every NMF $500 so they can all be Scholars and call it a day. If you have 15K NMF’s that would cost and additional 1.25 million-but how much does this holistic approach cost to administer? I wonder how much method there is to this madness anyway.</p>
<p>I can’t say that I agree with that. Everyone can’t be a winner. It’s something I’ve learned early in life, and that my parents drilled in to me. Do I feel for people who didn’t get a college or 2500 award? Yes. But that 1.25 million is a lot of money, and it is an honor to be picked for college or for the 2500.</p>
<p>Don’t you think that anyone who reaches the status of National Merit Finalist is already a winner-I do. Just because someone goes to a school that sponsors an award or has a family member who works for a sponsoring corporation gets money, they are allowed to be called a Scholar? What about the criteria for chosing the $2,500 winners? As someone posted on another thread they have three children who were NMF’s and the student with the highest scores and ended up doing very well was the one who didn’t get the award? </p>
<p>I agree everyone can’t be a winner at everything in life-that’s not reality. But these students in my opinion all deserve that title. If you cut the monetary award to $400 you could give all the finalists something and just call them all Scholars-get rid if the NMF designation and just go from the first cut using the PSAT scores and if the students fill out the application and have the grades, SAT scores and everything else make them scholars.</p>
<p>Agree that it makes no sense that a kid can end up at an Ivy and not be scholar but could have gone to his/her least prestigious state U and be one.</p>
<p>The thing is though, that $400 really will buy about 2 books these days. $2500 makes a lot more of a difference, I know it did to my family when my brother got the award.</p>
<p>Why not make all of the semi-finalist scholars too? Slippery slope. The NMSC have subjective/objective criteria they use to determine scholars. If you start making all of today’s finalists, scholars then all of the semi’s today would be a “finalist” … and then what about the future parent who makes the point that all future “finalist” should get 100$ vice the 500$ so that their S/D can be scholar too … At some point the NMS designation gets watered down to a point as to not differentiate the apex of the applicants.</p>
<p>The point here is that some of these kids do not become scholars simply because they choose a non-participating college. If you are not awarded $2,500 directly from NMF and don’t have corporate-employed parents, your only route to becoming a Scholar is through a college award. Many of the most selective schools do not participate (probably because so many of their applicants are NMF). It is a personal choice, but to suggest that these kids don’t become NM Scholars because they don’t meet NM criteria is misleading.</p>
<p>There are corporate scholarships that are awarded to students who have no family members employed there, or any other affiliation with the corporation. How do I know… my son was awarded one. He got a letter from NMSC that said basically ‘You’ve been chosen for XYZ award sponsored by ABC company. You have until April 4th to let us know if you accept.’ </p>