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Comment by Mz | Hacker News Reader

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.

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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.

8 grand is, sadly, almost become insignificant in the long run with most colleges.

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.

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.

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