A Brief Guide in National Merit Scholarships

Knowing to A Brief Guide in National Merit Scholarship

The National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) is a private, non-profit organization that conducts a yearly competition for highly qualified high-school graduating students across the United States to avail scholarship programs for college. There are two programs under the NMSC: the National Merit Scholarship Program and the National Achievement Scholarship Program.

Looking for National Merit Scholarship

The National Merit Scholarship Program is open to all high-school students who are US citizens or permanent resident. The National Achievement Scholarship Program, on the other hand, is open only to African Americans. Although the two programs may be distinct, the overall criteria, eligibility and process of selection for both programs are the same.

Learning about National Merit Scholarship

To qualify for the scholarship programs, a high-school student in his or her junior year (11th Grade) has to pass a qualifying exam known as PSAT/NMSQT (Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test). Yearly, around 1.5 million students take the exam and only the top 50,000 with the highest score (around 200 or more) will move on to the next level. Of the 50,000, only 16,000 will become semifinalists, while the remaining 34,000 will receive letters of commendation, but will also be eligible as candidates for Special Scholarships which are given by sponsoring corporations.

 

The list of students who became Semifinalists will then be checked and those that rank highest per state will be selected to advance to Finalist status. The number of students may vary per state, and may change each year. Once a student is notified that he or she is a Semifinalist, the student has to display consistent academic excellence in his or her senior year and must be active in volunteer or extra curricular activities. The Semifinalist should be endorsed and recommended by any official of his or her high-school and will be asked to submit an essay.

 



Once all requirements are submitted, the Semifinalists will then be reviewed and the Finalists will be chosen. There will be 15,000 Finalists chosen which will be divided into two groups, the Merit Scholarship winners (around 8,200 of them) and the Special Scholarship Recipients (remaining 1,300).

 

There are three types of Merit Scholarship Awards:

1. The National Merit $2,500 Scholarships, which is available to any passing Finalists

2. Corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarships, which are given to their employees' children, or Finalists who resides in the community where the company operates or Finalists whose career path is in accord with what the corporate sponsor encourages.

3. College-sponsored Merit Scholarships, which are given to Finalists who has chosen that particular college as his or her first choice. To qualify for this, Finalists need to inform beforehand the NMSC their first choice college before a designated deadline.

 

The Special Scholarship Recipients are students who pass a qualifying criteria provided by a sponsoring corporation and who was able to submit an entry form.

 

Additional information and schedules can be found in the NMSC's website, www.nationalmerit.org. National Merit Scholarship