<p>I'm curious how past winners used (or didn't use) their National Merit standing.</p>
<p>Questions:
If your son or daughter was a National Merit finalist, what did they do with the award?
Where did they go?
What sort of scholarship did they get? (National Merit or other)
What led them to make this choice?</p>
<p>Go to [National</a> Merit Scholarship Corporation](<a href=“http://www.nationalmerit.org/]National”>http://www.nationalmerit.org/) and download their annual report. Within it you will see where all of the winners for that year went.</p>
<p>The Scholars are in the annual report, but if your question is about NM Finalists, then the simplest answer would be “Everywhere”. Not all NM Finalists end up collecting a NM Scholarship.</p>
<p>I was a NM Finalist but did not get the guaranteed scholarship. I ended up turning down a school that would have given me $2,000 a year for this standing to attend Brown University, which did not award anything for this result. I made this decision because, after a visit to the school, I could not see myself there, and the scholarship money was minor, especially because transportation costs would have greatly increased.</p>
<p>My D recvd $2500/yr from the David Sarnoff Corp, and she went to Brown.</p>
<p>Many who can afford full price go to elite schools and revieve no financial benefit from their NM status. However, lots of schools are out to “buy” NM scholars and we know a few who are at nice-if not elite schools - on full rides.</p>
<p>One of my sons was a NMF. He declined the school offered scholarships and now attends Penn.</p>
<p>Another son received a National Merit Scholarship. He took his $2500 to Notre Dame.</p>
<p>DD was a national merit finalist, and will attend RPI, which will give her 2k per year for it (and shes a B Arch, so she gets that all 5 years). RPI was her first choice among the schools she was admitted to anyway, but this confirmed the choice.</p>
<p>D got the NMS and she is at Williams.</p>
<p>My S received $2500/yr NM Scholarship from the company I worked for, and went to CMU. He also received a small grant from CMU as a partial match to a peer institution financial aid offer but that was unrelated to NM status.</p>
<p>DS got a $1000/4yr, employee scholarship from wife’s company, which is based in Pittsburgh, and has a CMU building named for one of its founders. Didn’t receive any NMS money but the NMF status help win the employee scholarship.</p>
<p>USC has MANY NMFs. They generously give a minimum of 1/2 tuition scholarships and sometimes other awards. About 10-15% of my kids’ graduating class go there each year, many of them NMFs because of the great merit aid (& weather). A friend’s S got at full-tuition merit award there, so he chose it over many other options he was offered, including some full-rides.</p>
<p>DD1 was NMF but didn’t get a NMS. She did get a full tuition scholarship to Denison (Paschal Carter reserved for NMFs). DD2 was a NMF and did receive a NMS. She took that to Lewis and Clark to go with her 1/2 tuition scholarship from the school.</p>
<p>As to why those choices - they applied to schools they wanted to attend and those were their top choices from where they were accepted. Fortunately they were also among the lowest final cost as well.</p>
<p>Son is NMF and went to Williams.</p>
<p>My S got $4K/ year from my company for NMF - he is at Cornell.</p>
<p>NMS daughter took her $1000/per year corporate scholarship to the University of Pittsburgh. The check arrives after her tuition scholarship and room and board are paid, so she saves it each semester. She just bought a new laptop.</p>
<p>She chose Pitt so that she could graduate debt-free.</p>
<p>D. is at UGA with a small National Merit grant from the institution. Not much as we have no financial “need” at our state flagship.</p>
<p>Note in 1968 my own corporate sponsered National Merit scholarship was a full free ride to my state flagship; tuition,fees, room, board, and books.</p>
<p>they go everywhere
i know a lot of people who were national merit scholars and scattered after graduation
state schools, private, ivy league, lacs, even cc. everywhere</p>
<p>The NM scholars in my graduating year ended up at Columbia, Penn, GT (two of those), and Chicago. I can’t find records on who the NMFs were. Off the top of my head: CMU, Tulane, Furman, Wheaton (IL), Vanderbilt, UGA (on one of their special scholar programs), GT. There were probably multiple students to UGA and GT each–we don’t get a lot of kids who take NMF full rides and the like, because of Hope.</p>
<p>…I can’t believe I still remember this.</p>
<p>
Huh?
What is “Hope”?</p>