The National Merit Scholarship Program
Every year, one and a half million students apply for the National Merit Scholarship, which is one of the oldest and most respected scholarship programs available to high school students today. Of that staggering number of applications, approximately eight thousand of those students will eventually receive a Merit Scholarship. There are three different types of scholarships awarded to finalists, as well as special scholarships that are awarded to an additional 1,300 outstanding students who aren’t actually finalists. Those special scholarships are awarded by various business and corporate organizations based on their specific criteria. Regular National Merit Scholarships are awarded based on academic performance.
National Merit Scholarship Eligibility Requirements
To be eligible for a National Merit Scholarship, the student must take a test called the PSAT/NMSQT, which stands for “Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test”. These tests must be taken in the first three years of high school by students who are planning to attend college immediately after graduating and that are also citizens of the United States or legal residents who plan on becoming legal citizens. Once the tests are given and the scores figured, 50,000 of the highest scoring students are referred to two colleges or universities of their choice. About 34,000 of those students, or about two-thirds of the highest scorers, are referred as Commended Students. While Commended Students don’t go any further in the competition, they are still referred to the colleges and universities of their choice, and some of them are chosen to receive Special Scholarships.
The top-scoring one-third of test-takers in each state, together numbering about 16,000, are considered to be Semifinalists. These students have to meet stringent academic standards and meet all of the other requirements that are stipulated by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation. To become a finalist, these students must excel in their academics. They must also take their SAT and make sure that their high school submits their test scores to the NMSC.
Finally, the Semifinalists are whittled down to Finalists based on several criteria. The committee in charge of selecting finalists will review the student’s academic records along with information regarding the high school’s curriculum and grading system, the test scores from their PSAT/NMSQT and actual SAT, written recommendation from their high school principal or superintendant or other official, the student’s academic achievements and extracurricular activities, and an essay written and submitted by the student.
Ultimately, the 8,300 students who become finalists are notified at their home address that they will win one single-payment scholarship of $2500. The student’s school principal is also notified. But there are other types of scholarships available that can be awarded in addition to those one-type payments. About half of the finalists wind up winning either a corporate-sponsored scholarship or a scholarship sponsored by a specific college or university.
The Corporate-Sponsored Scholarships are designed by corporations for Finalists who have career plans associated with that corporation, or for students of employees or members of the corporation. Corporations will sometimes award their scholarships to students who live within a certain location, too. Corporations typically offer anywhere from 1 to 100 scholarships based on the same or slightly different criteria. These scholarships vary widely in dollar amount and in whether or not they are renewable. Corporate sponsors will announce the criteria that they are looking for, and the NMSC will work to find finalists who meet that criteria. The NMSC will also help the sponsor to choose winners from the pool of Finalists, and can even help the sponsor to announce the winner(s) that they select. The NMSC will then bill the sponsor annually (if it is a renewable scholarship).
Each year, there are also College and University Sponsored Awards. These are renewable scholarships that individual colleges and universities award to finalists who declare their intent to intend a specific institution. Each individual school will determine the amount of their scholarship. If the finalist chooses not to attend the school, the college-sponsored Merit Scholarship is canceled.
Then, there are the Special Scholarships. Special scholarships are awarded to students who do not make it to the final stages of the competition but who meet criteria specified by private sponsors.
National Merit Scholarships must be used for undergraduate programs at nationally-accredited colleges and universities. These scholarships cannot be used at military academies or at online campuses, and they cannot be applied to post-graduate degrees or certificate programs.
To receive a scholarship through the NMSC is considered one of the highest honors possible for a high school student. Finalists are students who stand out in virtually every aspect. These are students who consistently score top grades in all of their classes, show natural leadership abilities, are active in extracurricular activities, volunteer in the community, and show promise in their chosen career fields. These are students who show enormous potential. Students who progress all the way through the competition to become finalists are some of the brightest and most promising young people of their generation, and the NMSC’s goal is to identify these students and give them the absolute best start to their successful college career.
