National Merit kids . . .

[StephanieZ]

We got our official National Merit Finalist letter today . . . YAY!!

 

I've been through this rodeo before (college girl, also a NM Scholar), and I thought I'd start a current thread to discuss some things that are specific to NM students (scholarships, etc.)

 

If your kiddo is in this spot this week (yay!!), or if you anticipate maybe being in this spot next year (yay!!), then I thought I'd share a couple tips:

 

This is a pretty comprehensive listing of colleges that offer generous scholarships to NMSF and NMF:

 

http://nmfscholarships.yolasite.com 

 

http://nmfscholarships. yolasite. com   (omit the spaces -- for folks who can't follow the above link)

 

It's great for brainstorming schools to consider. A little late for some this year, but important to look at for the Class of 2018 kids. 

 

Also of note, many of the schools that recruit NM students will *gladly* accept late applications. My son is already committed to attending U Alabama (joining his big sister), so he's not tempted by the other schools. . . But, nonetheless, many schools are still soliciting him to apply and advertising their NM scholarships. Specifically, U Oklahoma and U KY have sent him emails in the last couple days (he hasn't applied to either, but both offer very generous scholarship packages). 

 

I think it's really smart to go ahead and apply to one or more generous NM schools even if your kid has their sights set on another school or an elite school . . . It can be a sad spot to be in as a stellar student to get turned down from the Ivies and then "only" have the local in state school as an option . . . Go ahead and apply to a couple of the NM schools (Alabama, Oklahoma, Kentucky, UT- Dallas, etc, etc.) -- the applications are quick, cheap, and painless. Then you can make your final decision later. Worst case, you've wasted $50 and an hour of time. 

 

And, I'll make a plug for U. Alabama. My dd has been very happy there and my ds is excited to be joining her. They give NMF 5 years (10 semesters) of free tuition (along with other money, too) and allow students to apply it towards grad school . . . A million opportunities to do a million super cool things. Very wonderful. 

 

 

Anyway, hope this info is helpful to others. Feel free to add more tips/links/insights!

 

 

Edited February 11, 2017 by StephanieZ

[Job121]

We got one here today too. Since this my first child, any information would be helpful.  My DS applied more than handful schools already, but applying for couple more for generous scholarship doesn't sound bad as long as they are not binding. Thank you for starting this thread.

[StephanieZ]

Here's another great place to ask questions and browse for ideas:

 

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/national-merit-scholarships/

 

(This board is where I learned about the generous NM schools 2-3 years ago when going through it with college girl)

[RootAnn]

I'm getting thrown right back here when I click your link. Can you check it?

 

This is a pretty comprehensive listing of colleges that offer generous scholarships to NMSF and NMF:

 

http://nmfscholarships.yolasite.com 

 

[8filltheheart]

I'm getting thrown right back here when I click your link. Can you check it?

Here is the link http://nmfscholarships.yolasite.com

 

ETA: keep in mind that schools change scholarships every yr and what is on the list might be outdated. There is talk right now about UKY dropping its NMF scholarship.

 

There are schools that have competitive awards for NM, like Fordham and USCalifornia. Then there are schools like USCarolina that offer guaranteed smaller NMF scholarship, but let other admissions' scholarships stack on top of it. (That stacking is why we know that our Dd has pretty much a full ride at USCar right now.)

Edited February 11, 2017 by 8FillTheHeart

[Gratia271]

DD received hers as well. Congrats to everyone! :)

[Gratia271]

Here is the link http://nmfscholarships.yolasite.com

 

ETA: keep in mind that schools change scholarships every yr and what is on the list might be outdated. There is talk right now about UKY dropping its NMF scholarship.

 

There are schools that have competitive awards for NM, like Fordham and USCalifornia. Then there are schools like USCarolina that offer guaranteed smaller NMF scholarship, but let other admissions' scholarships stack on top of it. (That stacking is why we know that our Dd has pretty much a full ride at USCar right now.)

 

That is so wonderful, especially since it is your daughter's first choice.. right?

That is just fabulous!!! Happy for you both. :)

[8filltheheart]

That is so wonderful, especially since it is your daughter's first choice.. right?

That is just fabulous!!! Happy for you both. :)

Thanks! She is very interested in their IB program. I really like the way USC does their scholarship weekend. They know before they go that they will receive one of 3-- Stamps (new this yr, 5 students), McNair (20 students), or Horseshoe (21 students). So even if she only receives the Horsehsoe combined with the NMF scholarship, I think our remaining balance is around $3000. If she gets one of the others, it is just that much more of a blessing and opens up more opportunity for study or interning abroad.

 

I like that a lot better than when they are 1 of 70 for something like 10 big dollar scholarships and the rest are too low to make the school financially feasible for us, and the weekend is high pressure. (She faced that last weekend and thinks she did a pretty poor job of presenting herself at that weekend.)

[wapiti]

If I can tack on here to NMF, just as a public service announcement, I recently found out about another possible benefit to the PSAT, the National Hispanic Recognition Program.  It is based on PSAT and GPA (3.5 minimum).  From what I understand, the PSAT cutoff for this varies by region, top 2% Selection Index (among the group aiming for this, I imagine).  This designation probably doesn't help most of the time, though there are a few colleges that offer non-need-based merit scholarships, small and large.  The Hispanic/Latino angle involves having one grandparent (1/4 ancestry) from a specific list of countries.

Edited February 11, 2017 by wapiti

[Gratia271]

Thanks! She is very interested in their IB program. I really like the way USC does their scholarship weekend. They know before they go that they will receive one of 3-- Stamps (new this yr, 5 students), McNair (20 students), or Horseshoe (21 students). So even if she only receives the Horsehsoe combined with the NMF scholarship, I think our remaining balance is around $3000. If she gets one of the others, it is just that much more of a blessing and opens up more opportunity for study or interning abroad.

 

 

 

That sounds perfect!

[StephanieZ]

I'm getting thrown right back here when I click your link. Can you check it?

 

Weird!! Try this: http://nmfscholarships.yolasite.com  

[StephanieZ]

Here is the link http://nmfscholarships.yolasite.com

 

ETA: keep in mind that schools change scholarships every yr and what is on the list might be outdated. There is talk right now about UKY dropping its NMF scholarship.

 

There are schools that have competitive awards for NM, like Fordham and USCalifornia. Then there are schools like USCarolina that offer guaranteed smaller NMF scholarship, but let other admissions' scholarships stack on top of it. (That stacking is why we know that our Dd has pretty much a full ride at USCar right now.)

 

Yes, schools change their offers, but this list is the most comprehensive and up to date out there . . . Some folks on college confidential used to keep an updated list on a board there, but that was pretty unwieldy, so they moved the "official" list off to this yolasite and they do update it regularly. Follow the links (or find them yourself) for the specific schools you are considering to confirm changes/etc. 

 

It seems to me that the next year's NM offers seem to generally be updated by summer prior to the fall application cycle. Also, having been watching these schools/lists for 3 years now, it seems that the vast majority of big NM schools don't make drastic changes in a year. As long as you have 2-3 schools on your NM list, you should be in good shape, especially if you confirm current offers by summer before the senior year. 

 

Also, if you go to that CC board and scope things out there, that's where the most intense NM researchers seem to be talking/chatting/etc about upcoming changes, new good offers, etc. 

[Sebastian (a lady)]

I'll admit we were rather disappointed in the school based offerings.

 

Once we narrowed the schools down by degree offering and who had Navy ROTC it seemed like there were either schools with low scholarship levels $500-2000/year or larger discounts off of a large price. $20k off of $60-75k cost of attendance didn't seem so grand.

 

There were schools with larger grants, but they didn't meet the degree and career goals, even with no geographic restrictions on the search.

 

Ds was offered much more based on his general application than on MMS. Sondont assume that being a finalist will solve the tuition question and don't dispair if your kid doesn't get National Merit.

[8filltheheart]

I'll admit we were rather disappointed in the school based offerings.

 

Once we narrowed the schools down by degree offering and who had Navy ROTC it seemed like there were either schools with low scholarship levels $500-2000/year or larger discounts off of a large price. $20k off of $60-75k cost of attendance didn't seem so grand.

 

There were schools with larger grants, but they didn't meet the degree and career goals, even with no geographic restrictions on the search.

 

Ds was offered much more based on his general application than on MMS. Sondont assume that being a finalist will solve the tuition question and don't dispair if your kid doesn't get National Merit.

 

I agree.

 

To really benefit the most from the scholarship offers, you have to go down in rankings. Only certain types of schools tend to offer big NM scholarships.  Dd really struggled with finding schools that met her academic needs for foreign languages even though she might have liked the school over all. Also pay attention to the GPA requirements for maintaining the scholarship.  Some are high, 3.5+. 

 

But I fully agree that NMF and NMSF scholarships should only be the tip of the iceberg in researching scholarships.  There are lots of other opportunities out there, and some of them don't tend to be well publicized, and most are not connected to NM at all.  Then you also have schools like FSU that offer OOS tuition waivers for a certain threshold score. Dd didn't end up applying b/c of their lack of good Russian study abroad opportunities, but I think it was something like a 31 or a 32 when I checked.  FL in-state tuition is a lot lower than many other states.

 

The scholarship hunt can take a tremendous amt of time, but the research can pay off.  (Ds's scholarships at Bama according to the most prevalent posters on CC do not exist, but that does not make them correct.   :) )

Edited February 11, 2017 by 8FillTheHeart

[Sebastian (a lady)]

I agree.

 

To really benefit the most from the scholarship offers, you have to go down in rankings. Only certain types of schools tend to offer big NM scholarships. Dd really struggled with finding schools that met her academic needs for foreign languages even though she might have liked the school over all. Also pay attention to the GPA requirements for maintaining the scholarship. Some are high, 3.5+.

 

But I fully agree that NMF and NMSF scholarships should only be the tip of the iceberg in researching scholarships. There are lots of other opportunities out there, and some of them don't tend to be well publicized, and most are not connected to NM at all. Then you also have schools like FSU that offer OOS tuition waivers for a certain threshold score. Dd didn't end up applying b/c of their lack of good Russian study abroad opportunities, but I think it was something like a 31 or a 32 when I checked. FL in-state tuition is a lot lower than many other states.

 

The scholarship hunt can take a tremendous amt of time, but the research can pay off. (Ds's scholarships at Bama according to the most prevalent posters on CC do not exist, but that does not make them correct. :) )

I don't want to come off as complaining.

 

Ds has gotten some generous merit aid. I'm hopeful that a little more is still coming. But the NMS wasn't a big payoff for the studies he is looking for.

[Vida Winter]

If I can tack on here to NMF, just as a public service announcement, I recently found out about another possible benefit to the PSAT, the National Hispanic Recognition Program.  It is based on PSAT and GPA (3.5 minimum).  From what I understand, the PSAT cutoff for this varies by region, top 2% Selection Index (among the group aiming for this, I imagine).  This designation probably doesn't help most of the time, though there are a few colleges that offer non-need-based merit scholarships, small and large.  The Hispanic/Latino angle involves having one grandparent (1/4 ancestry) from a specific list of countries.

 

 Do you know of any schools that offer merit awards for this program?

[StephanieZ]

 Do you know of any schools that offer merit awards for this program?

 

Many big NM schools offer the same NM package to the Hispanic Scholars.

 

For instance, UA - B offers full tution++   https://www.uab.edu/students/paying-for-college/scholarships/national  

 

If your kid is in the running for the Hispanic Scholars program, I'd start with the NM list, follow links, and browse the school's web information. 

[wapiti]

 Do you know of any schools that offer merit awards for this program?

 

There are some discussions over at CC; see e.g this one.  Boston University offers 20k.  Northeastern offers up to 30k, though I'm not sure what the "up to" language means exactly.  Texas A&M offers a little something.  U Chicago might offer a little something; the website gives a range, so it's unclear whether that relies on need or further merit.  U of South Carolina offers 6k plus in-state tuition.  RIT offers 18k.  Fordham, U Tulsa and U Cincinnati offer big scholarships where NHRP puts the student in the running though the scholarships are competitive.

 

Available scholarship info for many schools seems to be on the sketchy side, but I imagine that schools with a category of merit scholarship involving diversity just *might* offer something for NHRP.  For example, I noticed that Santa Clara has such a category ("incentive grant"), though there aren't any specifications given.  It's worth poking around the websites for schools your student may be interested in and maybe even calling to ask.

 

I was focusing on merit-based awards.  Note that there are other organizations that might help with need-based scholarships; I don't remember what they're called (HSF?).  I'd suggest browsing the forum over at CC.

Edited February 12, 2017 by wapiti

[Woodland Mist Academy]

If the schools a student is interested in don't offer money for NMS, is there still a reason to pursue it? If NMS is not listed on an application, will it automatically be presumed the student didn't get it, as opposed to the student just didn't apply? In other words...are the steps worth it if there won't be money at the end? Taking PSAT, SAT, getting NM recommendations, etc...)

[Hoggirl]

If the schools a student is interested in don't offer money for NMS, is there still a reason to pursue it? If NMS is not listed on an application, will it automatically be presumed the student didn't get it, as opposed to the student just didn't apply? In other words...are the steps worth it if there won't be money at the end? Taking PSAT, SAT, getting NM recommendations, etc...)

The National Merit Scholarship Corporation itself offers a one-time award of $2,500. Not all NMFinalists get it. It certainly pales in comparison to some institutional awards, but if you attend a school that gives no money for NMF (as my ds chose to do) it's certainly better than nothing. A National Merit Finalist and a National Merit Scholar are not the same thing.

 

http://www.nationalmerit.org/s/1758/interior.aspx?sid=1758&gid=2&pgid=424

Edited February 12, 2017 by Hoggirl

[Woodland Mist Academy]

Thanks, Cynthia!

[snowbeltmom]

If the schools a student is interested in don't offer money for NMS, is there still a reason to pursue it? If NMS is not listed on an application, will it automatically be presumed the student didn't get it, as opposed to the student just didn't apply? In other words...are the steps worth it if there won't be money at the end? Taking PSAT, SAT, getting NM recommendations, etc...)

Imo, the application is very quick and easy to complete and worth pursuing even if the schools of interest don't offer money for NMS. I have read medical schools and other grad school applications specifically ask if the student was a National Merit Finalist, but I have no first-hand experience with this.  Also, as Hoggirl mentioned, students that are named NM Scholars are awarded $2500, which makes the time to fill out the application definitely worth it. 

[Vida Winter]

Thanks, wapiti. Our EFC is a joke so I'm exploring all merit options. Dd definitely has a chance at NMF but may also qualify for the other one you mentioned.

[Sebastian (a lady)]

If the schools a student is interested in don't offer money for NMS, is there still a reason to pursue it? If NMS is not listed on an application, will it automatically be presumed the student didn't get it, as opposed to the student just didn't apply? In other words...are the steps worth it if there won't be money at the end? Taking PSAT, SAT, getting NM recommendations, etc...)

I also think it wasn't that difficult a process. The student has an essay. The rest of the app is pretty similar to other apps that use menus to build a transcript. It was actually good practice for the other apps.

 

The PSAT is fall of junior year, so school choices can change a lot in the following 14 months. You can use a wide range of SAT scores to substantiate the PSAT score. My kids typically take the SAT a couple weeks after the PSAT. If they have a great score they are done with that test . If not they have a couple chances to improve for college applications if not for the PSAT.

[Woodland Mist Academy]

Thanks, snowbeltmom and Sebastian! 

[JoJosMom]

If the schools a student is interested in don't offer money for NMS, is there still a reason to pursue it? If NMS is not listed on an application, will it automatically be presumed the student didn't get it, as opposed to the student just didn't apply? In other words...are the steps worth it if there won't be money at the end? Taking PSAT, SAT, getting NM recommendations, etc...)

 

The University of our state offers a full ride to NMS finalists, so we're pursuing that as a goal.  We'd like to have a virtually cost-free option as a back-up, at least.  So, for us, it looks to be worth it.

[Woodland Mist Academy]

The University of our state offers a full ride to NMS finalists, so we're pursuing that as a goal.  We'd like to have a virtually cost-free option as a back-up, at least.  So, for us, it looks to be worth it.

 

Absolutely! My question was more along the lines of if neither a student's reaches nor financial safeties were on the list. It looks like it is still probably worth it, though. 

[Gwen in VA]

Congratulations to all! That's great news!

 

I've had two NMF, one of whom made it to NMS. I figure having the NMF status looked good on the college application, regardless of money involved. And remember that students do transfer, so even if your kid is 100% positive he's just applying to a school that doesn't care about NMF status, NMF status may be relevant if he transfers in a year or two!

 

Dd attended top-20 LAC that gave her a full-tuition scholarship so she didn't get any more money from the school because of her NMS status, but she did get the $2500 NMS amount towards room and board.  She figures that she earned $2500 for the ten hours it took her to fill out the application. $250/hour isn't a bad rate of pay.

 

Ds was awarded a full-ride scholarship from a top-20 LAC, so his NMF status didn't matter, but we figure it may have helped him get the full-ride scholarship in the first place.

 

 

[Sebastian (a lady)]

Congratulations to all! That's great news!

 

I've had two NMF, one of whom made it to NMS. I figure having the NMF status looked good on the college application, regardless of money involved. And remember that students do transfer, so even if your kid is 100% positive he's just applying to a school that doesn't care about NMF status, NMF status may be relevant if he transfers in a year or two!

 

Dd attended top-20 LAC that gave her a full-tuition scholarship so she didn't get any more money from the school because of her NMS status, but she did get the $2500 NMS amount towards room and board. She figures that she earned $2500 for the ten hours it took her to fill out the application. $250/hour isn't a bad rate of pay.

 

Ds was awarded a full-ride scholarship from a top-20 LAC, so his NMF status didn't matter, but we figure it may have helped him get the full-ride scholarship in the first place.

Thanks for the reminder of that. It's as much as mybds is likely to get from any local scholarship.