Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion National Merit advice

Hi all,

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Hello there! I’m sorry, but I don’t have any btdt advice- I mainly wanted to say congrats and best wishes to you and your DD as you navigate the upcoming months ahead. The college search process is complicated no matter what parameters one uses to narrow things down (but that is a very nice parameter to have in your pocket).

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Middle kid was an NMF. We looked at some places with good NMF merit, but our requirement was that she apply to at least one school that would give her good merit, NMF based or otherwise.

She was going to apply to a nearby school that offered full tuition for a certain SAT & GPA, but before she did, she received full tuition from another school she liked better. It is a good solid school (not elite) and she ended up there. She had a great experience there, and is now at a top grad school program.

College Confidential can give you some better information on NMF scholarships. They used to have a great list of NMF merit, but it hasn't been updated for a while. However, there are discussions of schools that kids are applying to, or attending, that provide good NMF scholarships. Go to Forums, Financial Aid & Scholarships, National Merit Scholarships.

NMF scholarships can change from year to year, and given the pandemic, schools might be cutting back on merit. I don't know where you live, but if your daughter likes Florida, for the past few years they have had the Benaquisto Scholarship. Currently, it is available to both in-state and out-of-state students, and provides cost of attendance at UF, FSU and other schools. UCF has long had a NMF scholarship covering cost of attendance.

No btdt advice here, either, although our DC also took a full scholarship from a nearby perfectly respectable non-name school (which turned out to be just as well, since everyone's in remote learning this year...). If I recall correctly, you can expect an influx of unsolicited offers from schools that subscribe to the College Board's mailing list. They're often more generous than name schools, but still provide a solid undergraduate education.

I guess you could look them up in some of the ranking lists, probably with an eye to the schools with more options for majors, if she doesn't have a specific one in mind. And there's no shame in pre-sorting them by bottom line.

And congrats to your DC!

My eldest was a NMF. She ended up getting a NM scholarship ($2500/year) from her school which then qualified her for a bigger merit scholarship that wasn't technically a NM scholarship. Except for the schools that sent her info through the mail, she found that you had to ask the admissions folks to get the real scoop.

ETA: FYI, you have to notify the schools when you qualify as a NMF. My daughter didn't do this initially and her first offer letter gave her zero scholarship money. She contacted her admissions rep who informed her that they only had her down as a semi-finalist, not a finalist. The rep was helpful and told her to write an appeal letter that included that she was a NM finalist. She ended up getting their max merit scholarship which is worth six figures over the four years.

My thought is to remain hopeful, yet not certain, that the scores qualify. I say this because the cutoff score can vary from year to year.

Families whose students are a decade or so older may also remember when receiving the "Presidential Scholarship" was a big deal... until it became unfunded... no scholarship money awarded... just a title or designation as "Presidential Scholar."

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Hi ultramarina,

I haven't posted much recently either, but nice to hear from you again.

This is a couple of years old, so you should verify, but I would start with this list:

https://www.collegekickstart.com/bl...cholarships-for-national-merit-finalists

College Kickstart is what I was going to recommend too.

There is a conversation going on College Confidential right now about this. Seems like some schools in certain states are more generous with NMF than others.

Congrats to your daughter.

Keep in mind there is more than just the score to being a finalist. One is earn a score that confirms PSAT/NMSQT performance on the SAT or ACT.

Go to Nationalmerit.org and find the Student Guide and it is listed on page 8
(To qualify as a Finalist, a Semifinalist must:)


ETA: Nice to see you post again.