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True to form, our school just gave out the letters today to juniors who made the N.M. 50,000 cut ... with apology, those receiving letters were told they had until Monday (dispensation for school error??) to respond on the internet - identifying two schools. Tried calling a few schools to find out if they give National Merit money (since from this board I've learned not to list the ivys), but most financial aid offices were closed. Can anyone out there tell me if it is worth listing: University of Virginia, University of Michigan, Washington University, Emory, Vanderbilt, Stanford,???????? Thank you.

By Dolce (Dolce) on Thursday, May 22, 2003 - 09:28 pm: Edit

Here's some advice that someone who has been through the NM process gave me. Not sure how valid it is, but it seemed to have some merit. She said don't worry too much in choosing these 2 schools as to whether or not they really give great NM scholarships, because regardless, this is a great way to get 2 of your child's top choice schools to really take notice of him. Now, ivies and others that are known for giving no merit aid whatsoever, probably wouldn't be good choices. But even if it's a school that gives only $1000 for NM, they might find some other merit schol's for him if there is a mutual interest. Later on, when the student has to pick 1st choice school, that's the time to pick a place that will really give the $$ that you need. But by then you should be already getting fin/aid numbers from all the schools applied to, so you can compare.

By Concerned (Concerned) on Thursday, May 22, 2003 - 10:23 pm: Edit

Dolce: Thanks for the insightful info.

By Calmom (Calmom) on Wednesday, May 28, 2003 - 04:48 am: Edit

You don't need to list any schools unless you are very cold and in need of combustable material for your fireplace. One way or another you will be deluged with paper.

Anyway, my son has a NM scholarship and never gave NM any schools until May of his senior year, after deciding on his college -- and at that point designating the first choice.

Every other obscure college and university in the country still found him and sent us mail, again and again and again.

By Dolce (Dolce) on Thursday, May 29, 2003 - 08:25 am: Edit

Ha-ha-ha! Isn't that the truth about every obscure college sending mailings repeatedly?!?! Oh my gosh, for a while, we saved them all, thinking "well, we just never know what school you might end up really interested in." But when we got to 4 grocery sacks stuffed-full, we began applying a bit more discrimination as to which to save and which to toss.
Calmom, did you find that the biggest blitzes of mail occurred junior or senior year?