National Merit Semi-Finalists: 2008-2012 Cumulative Totals - plus 2013 NMSFs (Dallas: neighborhood, magnet school)

[mSooner]

And if any semi-finalists or their parents are reading this:

LOOK VERY CLOSELY AT YOUR COLLEGE OPTIONS!!!!

There's a reason I went to my alma mater--OU gave me almost a full ride (I basically paid for my food/apartment after freshman year and that was it) and carried me around on a silver platter. I always had a primo schedule because I registered for classes right after the athletes. Hell, I even got to keep my library books out longer!

Now you get money for study abroad and $1500 for a laptop in addition to the $$$.

It's worth a phone call to their National Merit Office and a visit. I'm 95% sure they will provide you with a hotel room and if you go on a game weekend, you might get lucky. That's all I'll say. You'll also get a personal meeting with the National Merit staff and they usually set you up with a professor in the field you are interested in studying.

I know the most about OU as I am a former student, but I know Florida and Arizona State offer nice packages too. Apparently Alabama does as well (cant confirm it) and there are many other smaller and larger schools that offer something substantial...look for them!

Conversely, there are schools that offer jack squat. Sadly UT is recently among the ranks of those they wont give you a dime for national merit. Many of the ivys are the same why. They'll still try and recruit you though, because they like those NM numbers...just not as much as David Boren, apparently.

FREE COLLEGE IS ALWAYS A GOOD THING...especially if you plan to go to grad school.

[Big G]

Word.

Here's a fairly complete (AFAIK) list of area universities offering free rides for all NMSFs that list them as first choice (additional perks vary by school):

OU
OSU
U of Houston
UNT
UT-Dallas
UT-Tyler
Texas Tech
Abilene Christian
Baylor
U of Tulsa

Are they the Ivy League? No. But you can pay later for a Wharton MBA with the money you save!

[FarNorthDallas]

The Dallas Morning News published this morning these additions:

Trinity Christian Academy - 3
Denton Guyer - 1
Denton Ryan - 1

It also said the complete list was on their website.

[stan4]

Uh...I disagree with the SF pretty much equals finalist statement.
At least in my year, that was not true at all. So this must be new.
And from what I recall, all it took was a PSAT score. So why not just report all the PSAT scores/averages of such?

PSHS grad, '93

[SMS_Parent]

Originally Posted by stan4

Uh...I disagree with the SF pretty much equals finalist statement.
At least in my year, that was not true at all. So this must be new.
And from what I recall, all it took was a PSAT score. So why not just report all the PSAT scores/averages of such?

PSHS grad, '93

I think that the drastic cuts you are thinking about are the cut from the top 50,000 test takers to the 16,000 Semi-finalists. In the spring of the junior year, 50,000 students are notified by mail that they have scored within the top 50,000 test takers. The following fall, based on PSAT score alone, the top 16,000 of those test takers are named Semi-finalists and the remaining 34,000 students are "Commended."

The Semi-finalists then have to write an essay, submit a school recommendation and transcript, and submit SAT scores that verify that their PSAT wasn't an anomaly. In February, the students who have successfully completed those requirements advance from Semi-finalist to Finalist. The National Merit Corporation itself releases the figure that 15,000 of the 16,000 Semi-finalists will advance.

Colleges, corporate sponsors and the National Merit Corporation begin making their selections of National Merit Scholars in March and in late May the names of the students who have been chosen National Merit Scholars are released.

This was the procedure when I went through the process in the early 1980s and it is still the procedure today.

[SMS_Parent]

Originally Posted by Big G

Word.

Here's a fairly complete (AFAIK) list of area universities offering free rides for all NMSFs that list them as first choice (additional perks vary by school):

OU
OSU
U of Houston
UNT
UT-Dallas
UT-Tyler
Texas Tech
Abilene Christian
Baylor
U of Tulsa

Are they the Ivy League? No. But you can pay later for a Wharton MBA with the money you save!

If a National Merit Finalist is willing to go a little further afield, he or she can get at least full tuition (and sometimes lots more -- plus the royal treatment as described by mSooner) guaranteed at several tier one national universities. Fordham, Northeastern, Alabama, Tulsa, Baylor and Auburn are all tier one national universities that guarantee at least full tuition for National Merit Finalists. Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Arizona State and LSU aren't too far behind in the national rankings and also offer at least full tuition.

Oklahoma City University offers full tuition, housing and board, and books to National Merit Finalists. It is a great choice for National Merit Finalists who are interested in the performing arts.

The University of Florida, though once known for offering great National Merit scholarships, no longer offers much, if anything.

[TX75007]

Originally Posted by mSooner

And if any semi-finalists or their parents are reading this:

LOOK VERY CLOSELY AT YOUR COLLEGE OPTIONS!!!!

There's a reason I went to my alma mater--OU gave me almost a full ride (I basically paid for my food/apartment after freshman year and that was it) and carried me around on a silver platter. I always had a primo schedule because I registered for classes right after the athletes. Hell, I even got to keep my library books out longer!

I agree 100%.

I got a full ride as a NMSF to UT.

I did get into an Ivy and Caltech, but those would have cost too much money. And after visiting each school and sitting in my first year's classes, I did not see much difference between the three programs in my major.

[mSooner]

Sad to hear about Florida

[compSciGuy]

Originally Posted by TX75007

I agree 100%.

I got a full ride as a NMSF to UT.

I did get into an Ivy and Caltech, but those would have cost too much money. And after visiting each school and sitting in my first year's classes, I did not see much difference between the three programs in my major.

UT-Austin discontinued that a couple years ago. Back in the 90s there were several hundred people a year that got funding because they were National Merit.

[Spree]

I am looking at the Sooner Bound Texans literature put out by OU and they list that OU is #1 in the nation among public universities in the number of freshman Nation Merit Scholars enrolled.