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Consolation
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| Joined: | Mon Apr 9th, 2007 |
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Posted: Tue Feb 12th, 2008 01:04 am |
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My S got the finalist letter today. (Quite a spread of notification dates!) He also has applied to several schools that give scholarships if you name them as your first choice--including Carleton and the U of C, mentioned above--and he also has an Ivy that doesn't give anything listed as his first choice. His chances of admission to Yale are, of course, significantly slimmer than his chances of admission to the others.
So, should he switch, and will it hurt his chances of getting into Yale, such as they are?
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Wendy (wjb)
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Posted: Tue Feb 12th, 2008 02:09 am |
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| Bumpyroad -- Entomom's post is from Feb. 2007. This is a resurrected thread.
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riviera
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| Joined: | Tue Jan 30th, 2007 |
| Location: | California USA |
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Posted: Tue Feb 12th, 2008 03:11 pm |
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Consolation,
My son also wanted to put Yale as his first choice but I don't think it is useful as it is not a sponsor college. So right now he has Harvey Mudd, a college that is particularly generous in awarding National Merit Scholarships (52 in 2007).
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NCEph
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| Joined: | Sat Jun 23rd, 2007 |
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Posted: Tue Feb 12th, 2008 03:25 pm |
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Congrats to all of the other NMFs! My son got his notification yesterday, and his first choice school is currently listed as "undecided." I thought I had figured out the strategy for all of this two years ago, when my D went through this, and at the last minute we were scrambling to change from a named school to "undecided." In the end, it didn't matter for her, because she ended up going to a school that didn't award anything for NMF anyway.
My S has applied to two schools that award a little money for NMF, which is why he is currently "undecided," and now I'm wondering whether to designate one of them now or just wait. He's into one of the schools (UNC) but not the other (Carleton). The instructions on the notification were not terribly clear, especially as far as figuring out the timing of the notifications to schools. They seem to suggest that if one school makes the student an offer, that it's all over as far as being able to change schools and get an offer from the other school, but Shennie's experience suggests that I'm reading that wrong or perhaps that schools can do what they want. (?)
Also, I'm wondering about the value of notifying the schools of the award. It's extra contact with admissions, which is probably good, but for schools that get thousands of NMFs applying, wouldn't it seem to be kind of pointless? No harm I suppose.
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bumpyroad
Member
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Posted: Tue Feb 12th, 2008 03:49 pm |
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| The way that I read the letter is that you have until April 30th to change your choice of schools - that they send out notification of a scholarship on May 1, and after that you're stuck. I guess the game is to decide whether declaring a school first choice increases the odds of getting in or for merit aid.
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NCEph
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Posted: Tue Feb 12th, 2008 03:57 pm |
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Yes, I read that part of the letter the same way. As you asked, might it increase the chances of getting in or getting an award at all from a school if you name them early? When would the schools make their offers of NMF awards to those who've named them as a first choice? And then, if you named one school now, what if that school offered you a NMF award before you even heard from the others? Would there be any hope of changing later. I think we'll stick with undecided for now
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Consolation
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| Joined: | Mon Apr 9th, 2007 |
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Posted: Tue Feb 12th, 2008 04:57 pm |
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The thing is that some of the schools seem to say that they will only make the award if they are listed as the first choice. Whether that has to occur before they inform you of their admissions decision seems to be a somewhat open question...
I can't believe I'm worrying about this, although money doesn't grow on trees.
I wish there was someone who had dealt with this already.
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Shennie
Member
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Posted: Tue Feb 12th, 2008 06:31 pm |
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Consolation - You will only get an award if you name the school as a first choice school. However, you don't need to name the school until after you have been accepted. Once you name a school as your first choice, you can change it up until the date that is given in the packet. After that, your first choice is final.
When I read the info in the packet it states that once a school has made an award, it is a done deal. I was surprised that my #3 got his award from the school he attends. I believe the reason that happened was because the original school made the award before the change deadline and son made his change before the deadline as well.
My gut feeling is that naming a school as your #1 is not going to help much in admissions. Let's face it - if you are an NMF it is highly likely that you are an exceptionally strong candidate anyway. Schools that sponsor NMFs do so because they are trying to attract those folks. So unless the school has a huge case of Tufts syndrome, I think it likely that you are likely to be admitted even if you don't name the school as your #1. (Please note, I am only talking about schools that participate in NM, not schools that don't.)
I think where the strategy might come into play is if you are looking for merit money in addition to NM money. Will a school be more likely to give you merit money if they think that you are their number one school? I don't know the answer to that. Do schools realize that just because a student names them as their #1 doesn't make it so? Probably.
Ultimately, I think the best choice is not withhold naming a school as #1 until you know where you have been accepted. The only exception to this will be schools that say you must name them as #1 by a specific date. I believe schools that award significant scholarships to NMF usually require that you name them as #1 well before the deadline. I don't know what happens if you change your mind.
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bumpyroad
Member
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Posted: Tue Feb 12th, 2008 06:37 pm |
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| It's clear that the schools you've applied to already know your NMF status, so I agree that it's unlikely naming a school as first choice is going to make much difference. I do worry about the Tufts syndrome, although my D pooh-poohs it - if a school like Whitman sees that a student has a good chance at an Ivy League school, are they less likely to offer merit money? I'm not sure there's any way to find these things out without working in admissions at a particular school - they're certainly not going to publicize something like that.
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bumpyroad
Member
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Posted: Thu Mar 13th, 2008 08:39 pm |
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I got a call today from the NM folks about my D's choice of school. It sounds like she's getting one of the NMF $2500 scholarships. What I don't quite understand is how those relate to the college sponsored scholarships. The schools that do give NMF scholarships give more than $2500 since they're renewable for 4 years. About half of her schools give NMF scholarships, half don't.
So, if they offer the $2500 I presume you wait to accept it until you decide on a school - because you can only have one or the other of these awards, not both.
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Fireflyscout
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Posted: Fri Mar 14th, 2008 03:11 pm |
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| Check with the colleges; many colleges that offer their own NM scholarships will "extend" their scholarship to the NM student, less what they receive from NM.
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Shennie
Member
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Posted: Fri Mar 14th, 2008 09:57 pm |
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My son's friend got one of the $2500 awards and elected to go to Carleton, which is a NM school. He was awarded the $2500 for the first year. Each year after, Carleton gave him an additional $2000 which is what he would have gotten if he had taken the school scholarship. So he ends up ahead by $500 and the school ends up ahead by $2500.
Congrats, by the way!
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skibum
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Posted: Sat Mar 15th, 2008 12:46 am |
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| DS needs to change his status from "undecided" to his college choice. I did ask one of the counselors at a recent accepted students event if the NMF award could be combined with the other full tuition award he received. She said yes, which was a pleasant surprise! I am assuming DS will be getting the school sponsored award, not a corporate award. If so, She satates that it is an additional $2k/yr. This would be great news, if it is for sure. Last edited on Sat Mar 15th, 2008 12:48 am by skibum
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HImom
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Posted: Tue Mar 18th, 2008 06:03 am |
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Congrats to all the NMFs & all the other students who have worked hard & done well. I'm sure their accomplishments will help them get into schools that will guide them toward wonderful futures. For what it's worth, I'll share the NMF experiences we had in 2006.
My S was a NMF in 2006. He designated "undecided" as his 1st choice because he truly was undecided. He was accepted by several schools, 3 of which told him that he would get $__________ if he designated them as his 1st choice school by the deadline (I believe it was 4/31).
One of the schools he applied to accepted him but gave him no money because he didn't designate them his #1 choice when he applied in December, so he threw their acceptance away.
The other schools were content to let him mull over his options & designate his 1st choice later in April after he had time to weigh his options & attend an accepted students' reception.
Strategically, we'll never know if he might have been able to be considered for better merit awards if he designated his 1st choice earlier, but we're very happy with the merit award of 1/2 tuition he got from his 1st choice, as well as a $1500/year engineering merit + a NM $1000/year; all are renewable for 4 years!
Last edited on Tue Mar 18th, 2008 06:05 am by HImom
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