When are students notified of college-sponsored National Merit Scholarships?

Paying for College National Merit Aid
1

This might be a little complicated, but I’m looking at College A and College B, and the determining factor is going to be whether or not I’m lucky enough to get the sponsored scholarship for College A. The thing is, the letter I received notifying me of my finalist status said they wouldn’t be mailing college-sponsored decisions until after May 1, which is the deadline for accepting or declining admissions offers. That means if I accept College A’s admissions offer and then don’t get the scholarship, I’m screwed financially, but if I accept College B’s admissions offer and then do get the scholarship, I missed out. Does anyone have any experience with this? Do they notify students privately before May 1?

Thanks!

2

Most college-sponsored scholarships through NMSC are very small. For example, Bama’s is $1k per year. Is your financial situation one where $1-4k will screw you, or is there some other misunderstanding here?

3

When my son received his admission to Florida State University his Benacquisto scholarship was offered at the same time, as long as he went from NMSF to NMF, which he did. This scholarship is a full ride, cost of attendance at FSU.

4

My college didn’t tell me about mine until April 28. However, according to my counselor, this is not normal. Most colleges will notify you much earlier. And they still got back to me before May 1, so I suppose I can’t complain.