Comment by Mz
9 years ago
As far as I know, my scholarship was not portable. It was specifically for one university and when I failed to attend, no, I did not get to keep my scholarship.
No one gave me an extra kicker. I turned my scholarship down for personal reasons, not because I was bought out by some competing school.
At the time when I was in the NMS pipeline, if you listed a school that you wanted to attend when you took the PSAT/NMSQT, that school would give you the scholarship if you became a finalist. The best idea was to say "undecided" and to maintain the ability to designate any school once committed.
My older brother learned this the hard way—he listed a school (October of junior year) that he decided (April of senior year) not to attend. He lost the $8k in scholarship money that he could have gotten from the school he attended—which he could have gotten had he responded "undecided".
I am 51. Age 17 was long ago and far away. I have no idea how it worked.
Yeah, my experience is now 20 years old, but it looks like (to your sibling comments' point) the NMS amount has only gone up a little in that time—to $10k. Meanwhile, tuition+fees (at least at my alma mater) has gone up by over 75% during that time.
IIRC (circa 2009/2010) only certain schools are sponsors, where you are guaranteed the award. Some portion of finalists are awarded the scholarship from the National Merit program itself that can be used anywhere.
8 grand is, sadly, almost become insignificant in the long run with most colleges.
This is why I was so curious. Being a high school kid, you're completely ill-equipped to understand the nuances of these sorts of programs.