Thank you! That was my perception as well. My daughter and I are excited about this. I think he’ll come around.
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Are there further benefits to being a National merit Scholar?
Do you mean in general or at a specific school?
In general, the benefit of being a National Merit Scholar (vs. just a National Merit Finalist) is minimal. Some people put it on a resume, I guess, but I would say that Finalist carries the same weight on a resume as Scholar would. And anyway, putting either on a resume is more something a person would do early in their career if they didn’t have many concrete accomplishments yet to fill the resume.
At specific schools it depends. For example it sounds like University of Tulsa is going to offer their National Merit students other benefits even beyond the full ride, like a special leadership class, special outings etc. But at the most tippy top schools like HYSPM, there are so many kids who get scores at or near the National Merit range, that being a NMS ceases to matter, they are a dime a dozen there.
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(moving question to other thread…)
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Curious where this list is from. Thanks!
Thank you!
Just to echo @fiftyfifty1’s great response, you only need to submit one score if you are applying through alternate entry. I only submitted my first SAT sitting (which I didn’t actually end up submitting to the unis I applied to), and NMSC used that single score to both calculate my semifinalist cutoff score as well as use in my finalist application.
Another note about the “confirming score” part of the finalist application: they’re only really looking for a score that shows that your PSAT wasn’t a fluke and that you can score reasonably similarly on the actual SAT. For alternate entry applicants, their SAT is guaranteed to pass this screening step, so with strong (> 3.85) grades, you can reasonably assume finalist status.
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Re my list of highest percentage schools: I have a spreadsheet that I’ve been keeping for a while of every school’s National Merit Scholars since 1989. The numbers from 1989 through (I think) 2014 I found somewhere fully formed as part as some research project by a professor. I downloaded that original and I’ve been updating it every year since. From there I just put in the enrollment numbers of any college that looked halfway promising and came up with that list of 10.
(Why do I even have the spreadsheet? Personal interest: I was a National Merit Scholar, my wife was a National Merit Scholar, my brother was a National Merit Scholar, etc.)
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Correlation vs causation question, interested in your opinion, having watched this for years: can you guess whether there are there schools that don’t offer merit scholarships to NMFs, but seem to value NMSF in admission beyond the obvious correlation with high stats? Or is any potential admission value only clear for those schools that do offer some form of merit to NMFs?
How about schools like UChicago, which I think offered some chance at small merit for NM years ago, but (AFAIK) don’t offer that anymore? Is it correct that NMSF would not have any importance whatsoever in the selection process there, say, between high-stats applicant A with NMSF vs high-stats applicant B without NMSF? Just trying to be realistic.
My general impression is that highly rejective schools that offer small National Merit scholarships (e.g. Carleton, Northwestern, Emory, UChicago once upon a time) tend to give a small bump to NMSFs, and that every other highly rejective school couldn’t care less.
Probably another good rule of thumb is that if you Google “national merit” and that school’s name, if there’s essentially zilch on their official website about National Merit at all – try it with MIT – it probably makes no difference in the application. Honestly, from the college’s perspective, that makes sense to me: If you have a 35 ACT/1550 SAT or similar, there’s very little additional that being a NMSF will add to their understanding of you.
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My D (NMSF) was rejected from her ED college which was her first choice listed in the NM application. Is there a way to change that?
There wasn’t a place for choosing colleges on the NM application - when colleges talk about listing a first choice, that’s done in May 2023 through the NM organization… How to Choose a National Merit First Choice College in 2021/2022
There was on my kids application. But we left it blank since no decision was needed until later.
This happened to me too… deferred → rejected from my REA school that I put on my Nat’l Merit app in October. When they sent me a notice in March that I had been selected for the award, they offered me a chance to change my “first choice college”, which I could change as many times as a I wanted whenever I wanted until the end of May. After I had made my college decision in mid-April, I changed my “first choice college” to the school I am now attending.
In short, don’t worry at all about the “first choice college” business, you will certainly be able to change it from the ED school.
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Can someone please explain how UCF selects its 40 OOS NMF scholarship awardees? Is it first come first serve, that is, the first 40 OOS NMFs or is it based on holistic review (GPA, scores, essays and so on)? TIA
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From what I’ve read here and elsewhere, first 40 to pay UCF deposit and to officially list UCF as their first-choice NM school.
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Thank you, that is helpful to know.
My D23 is interested in Michigan State University and is an out of state national merit semifinalist. Does anyone know how or when students would be notified if they have received the Merit Recognition Scholarship? “This scholarship is awarded to a limited number of non-Michigan residents who are National Merit finalists and name MSU as their first-choice institution;” It indicates that only a limited number of national merit finalists will receive the scholarship and it is not clear how they determine who will receive it.
My son is a semifinalist and he got accepted in the REA process at Caltech and I would like to change the choice of his prize to a cash amount instead of the college.
What is the process to do this step ?
This is my memory and correct me if I am wrong. 1) The top 2500 students receive NMF Scholar scholarship of $2500 designating one as a Scholar sent directly to the college of your choice. or 2) You designate your PARTICIPATING University as 1st choice by May 1st and then that school rewards the $ to the student broken down over 4 years ($2500?) or 3) you have a cooperate sponsored scholarship in which the Corporation elects to pay the University a certain amount of $ over 4 years. I am not aware of any other scenario. So a student announced as Scholar (top 2500) could use his $2500 at a non participating Elite school. But listing a non participating school as the number 1 (while not top 2500) would not result in one becoming a Scholar or result in receiving a scholarship as that school does not participate. Corporate is its own beast to tackle and if you were on that track I believe you would know. I am not sure there is a money payout option anywhere.