Impact of National Merit Scholarship consideration?

Applying to College
1

<p>I got a (legit) letter saying that my PSAT score placed me in the highest scoring 50,000 students who took the PSAT. The letter said that since I am in that 50,000 students, I am offered the service where they refer me to two colleges/universities of my choice. </p>

<p>My question is this: What is the impact of National Merit Scholarship consideration on one's college admissions? Also, does anyone know which colleges more emphasis on this than others? </p>

<p>I am looking at colleges on the West and East coasts in general. Some colleges I had in mind were Pomona, USC, NYU, Colombia, Boston College...</p>

2

<p>Not much of an impact, besides showing interest.</p>

3

<p>Don’t worry - you’ll start getting mail from the colleges where NM is important. Hint: It’s not the elite colleges you listed.</p>

4

<p>I won’t do anything but show interest. </p>

<p>I sent one of my two to Amherst though, and they sent me a nice letter acknowledging it, along with viewbook, application etc. I never ended up applying to Amherst though</p>

5

<p>Actually, USC does give significant merit aid (1/2 tuition) to its NMFs, if you ultimately decide to go there. You just need to name them as your 1st choice by sometime in April, I believe. They have LOTS of NMFs. BostonU also can be generous to NMFs, but you have to choose them as #1 much earlier (they admitted S but offered him 0 because he hadn’t listed them as 1st choice–he was undecided). Pomona gives very little, if any, to NMFs but still attracts a lot of them. Have no 1st hand knowledge about the rest of your list.</p>

6

<p>Pomona gives nothing to NMFs, but I will be able to use my NM $2500 scholarship to cover my work-study for my first year.</p>

7

<p>Don’t know if it was from NM recognition, but mail came in by the box full in the summer and it included all those names you listed. College Board sells their lists all over the place. I would assume that colleges in their participating list put more emphasis on NM. At least you’ll get some money from them (more than the $2.5k).</p>

8

<p>If you make NM finalist, some schools will offer you a full ride. I believe U of Oaklahoma is one, there are others. However, if I remember correctly, the decisions are pretty much over about the time those are announced.</p>

9

<p>OK, let me clarify. Colleges purchase several mailing lists from SAT (and ACT), but the main one they use is from the list of PSAT takers. Colleges set the parameters for the lists, such as scores above x, zip codes, intended majors, etc. Mailings from this list will start arriving sometime in January after the October PSAT. NM scholarship info from colleges will start arriving to semifinalists in late September of the senior year.</p>