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greeting to everyone:

i'm wondering if i should change my first-choice school for my national merit scholarship. i have it designated as uchicago, but i heard they only award $1000. other schools (that offer national merit scholarships) on my list include wash u, case western reserve, brandeis, emory, george washington, northwestern, tufts, and ut-austin. i really need more safeties and less reach schools, and it'd be awesome to have a near full to full scholarship package lined up from the national merit thing if i do qualify as i finalist (i think i do). usc's offer was compelling as well. does anyone know which schools offer the best packages for national merit scholars?

post-script-
as it is, i have no idea what i'm doing on applications or where i am going. i really want to go to harvard (went to the summer session and am decided that cambridge is not dorky, but decidedly awesome), columbia, upenn, and a few others. seeing some of the posts here scare the crap outta me, but i figure i might as well give everything a shot, and if nothing else, take my ticket to ut-austin (i live in texas and it's a good deal) and ride with it. thanks for any advice.

By Ellemenope (Ellemenope) on Tuesday, October 14, 2003 - 12:09 pm: Edit

Some schools offer full rides to NM finalists (like U of Houston). Check out those discussions on this board. You can change your NM school designation next spring when you decide where you will be going to college. No reason to fret now.

By Mstee (Mstee) on Wednesday, October 15, 2003 - 01:06 pm: Edit

Hey J Shen. My son did the summer session at Harvard too. He fell in love with the Boston area, in spite of the summer heat (California kid used to perfect weather). He's not applying to Harvard, but is applying to MIT, and Tufts. He is also starting to consider U of Chicago. After reading these boards, I feel that his chances aren't very good at MIT and Tufts. I don't know about Chicago. My husband and I both have undergraduate degrees from U Chicago, and son definitely would fit in there from what I remember, but that was way back in the 70's. He's going to just take the shot, too, and then if he has to settle, so be it.