Will National Merit help at these schools?

Paying for College National Merit Aid
1

<p>My son is a junior in California. His scores were PSAT-240 and SAT-2320.
This is all new to me so I am not sure if he would be a NM commended, semi-finalist or finalist. Is it only a one time $2500 that finalists receive or are there more generous scholarships available for students with his scores?</p>

<p>He is considering applying to UCLA, USC, UC Berkeley UC Davis. Maybe Princeton.
What National Merit award would he get at any of these school, if any?</p>

<p>Our EFC appears to not qualify him for needs-based scholarships and it appears that we will have to pay most of his costs.</p>

<p>I am wondering if National Merit can help in any way to bring down the cost.</p>

2

<p>It will help at USC, which gives half-tuition merit scholarships to admitted National Merit finalists (with the possibility of more). NMF status doesn’t guarantee admission, but if the rest of your son’s application is as good as his test scores, he sounds like a strong candidate. The UCs don’t offer National Merit money, although they do give small merit scholarships and the fact that your kid is an NMF might help and certainly couldn’t hurt. Princeton doesn’t give National Merit money either.</p>