<p>Does anyone know what the National Merit Scholarship Competition requests top college, major, and career choices? Am I more likely to win the scholarship if I don't enter "undecided" for major and career choices? And should I choose a college I think I'll get in to, or should I choose my number one reach school?</p>
<p>You should be strategic about the first choice thing. A lot of colleges award scholarships based upon being designated as the “first choice” school for NMS Finalists. I was a National Achievement Finalist, and I selected a school that was not actually my first choice because they were offering a substantial scholarship in return for being designated as “first choice”, whereas my actual first (and second, and third) choice didn’t have NMS/NHS/NAS specific scholarships and didn’t care about that.</p>
<p>As for the major…I don’t know. I don’t remember that being important at all.</p>
<p>You don’t need to name a college now. You can be undecided…that is fine. It won’t change your chances for a one time 2500 award. </p>
<p>Te major isn’t important either.</p>
<p>Bowdoin College has a relatively modest (several thousand dollars) NMS Finalist award that requires the student to have named Bowdoin as the first choice school.</p>
<p>How do I determine which of the colleges I plan to apply to offer large scholarships (half-tuition or full-ride) to any NM Finalist who picks them as his/her first choice? </p>
<p>^^^
First place to look is the college website. If you can’t find anything there, call the FA office and ask.</p>
<p>You can change the first choice schools anytime before May.</p>
<p>@JakeTH
<a href=“http://nmfscholarships.yolasite.com/”>http://nmfscholarships.yolasite.com/</a>
This list is updated pretty often, but always check the school website </p>