National Merit Awards

<p>I just received a letter from National Merit Corporation saying that I didn't make it. This is quite unexpected, as my stats/ECs/recs got me to Yale, MIT, Columbia and a number of other top colleges, and I also made the Presidential Scholar semi-final list. Does anybody know what criteria they are using to select NM winners? Is it even more subjective than college admission process?</p>

<p>I got a letter saying the same. </p>

<p>Personally, it doesn't bother me because 1. selection for difficult programs like Merit and top notch colleges is pretty erratic. and 2. I applied to a huge number of scholarships, so being rejected again doesn't bother me. Think about it this way - you were smart enough to score high on the SAT, get into a great school, and have a very large quantity of other scholarship-titles attached to your name.</p>

<p>Thanks for the consolation :)</p>

<p>I just didn't think it was that difficult of a program since about half of participants are awarded and their rules says they do it on a strictly merit basis.</p>

<p>Most of the awards come from colleges or from businesses...NM doesn't give awards to half of finalists. I would guess that you didn't pick a college that gives NM scholarships. I don't remember exactly how many scholarships come directly from them, but I don't think it is very many.</p>

<p>It's really pretty random, unless you're involved with a corporation or are going to a National Merit sponsor-college.</p>

<p>
[quote]
I don't remember exactly how many scholarships come directly from them, but I don't think it is very many.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>There are 2500 NMSC-sponsored awards, which with 15,000 finalists gives reasonable odds of NOT winning. A lot of these applications hinge on the essay — with the September app deadline, your NM essay was probably one of the first ones you wrote; I imagine your later college and PSP ones were much better.</p>

<p>Nope, with very minor changes it was the same essay I used with my college apps.</p>

<p>I just found out I was denied the Byrd scholarship as well. The letter says they used an objective formula based on SATs and grades..</p>

<p>than I guess some people had higher SATs and grades...</p>

<p>and also conwoman, what did you get on your SATs and PSATs, if you dont mind saying, because from what i gather it is based heavily on that</p>

<p>I have 1580 SAT in one sitting, 800/800/800/800 SAT2, 4.98 GPA. I don't remember my PSATs, but I think it only matters for the initial selection of National Merit candidates. </p>

<p>I realize the National Merit awards are quite subjective, but the rules of the Byrd scholarship in our state are very clear - they take SAT scores and school rank and combine them into a final score. Candidates from each county compete against each other. The letter says they awarded 74 seniors, so I figured my county received 8-9 awards. Now, I know for sure that I have the highest SAT score in my county, as I was the only Presidential Scholar candidate from it (the list was available online). So being on top of my class, I don't see how could I get behind other contenders. Since it is a federally funded program, I think they have to provide all the details upon request.</p>

<p>conwoman, Byrd is tricky because they DO NOT USE YOUR REGULAR GPA</p>

<p>They take a few key subjects, take like the top 5 scores or something and use that. I don't know, it's the weirdest thing I've ever seen, try to google it, there's a whole complicated formula to get your Byrd GPA.</p>

<p>i also got a 1580 (and 236 PSAT) and i got it...so i guess that proves the subjectivity</p>

<p>The rules are clearly stated here:</p>

<p><a href="http://www.ctdhe.org/SFA/pdfs/ByrdScholarship.pdf%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.ctdhe.org/SFA/pdfs/ByrdScholarship.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>With the highest SAT in my county, I don't see how somebody could get a higher score, unless they consider rank 1/300 higher than 1/100.</p>

<p>I take back what I said before, as I was referring to NY rules not CT, I failed to remember that they varied by state.</p>

<p>Reading the CT rules, first off - Verbal scores count double math scores so an SAT of 780 verbal, 800 math = 2360, while 800 verbal, 770 math = 2370 so all of a sudden, you don't have the highest SAT score in the county (obviously this isn't valid if you had an 800 verbal).</p>

<p>Also they count class rank as double the value of SAT scores and most people would consider 1/300 a better rank than 1/100 because there's more competition.</p>

<p>If they consider 1/300 better than 1/100, then a kid from a small school (my class is 60) has no chance in winning the Byrd scholarship even if he/she has perfect SATs, GPA and the most difficult course load. This is really wrong. Btw, I do have 800 verbal, so this is not the factor.</p>

<p>conwoman: I would contact the people in charge of the program in Connecticut (at the phone number on that pdf, for example) and straight up ask them. It is of course possible that a mistake was made, in which case, it's possible that it could be reversed.</p>

<p>The disbursements are based on congressional district though, not county. Could there have been someone else in your gerrymandered district (assuming Connecticut is like so many other states in that matter) with a PSP nomination?</p>

<p>Also, was your class rank 1/60? If class rank is heavily weighted, while 1/100 might not be disadvantaged significantly compared to 1/300 (as I'm sure they take that into account somehow), something like 3/60 might be treated similarly to 15/300.</p>

<p>abc:</p>

<p>The document (see the link above) says: "Applicants with the highest composite score in each COUNTY of the state are selected for scholarship". CT has 8 counties, so if they have equal representation, there should be about 9 awards per county.</p>

<p>I don't think their formula has any space for a heavily weighted class rank vs not weighted one. Another problem is that our school doesn't do official ranking, so I am not even sure what has been reported. I know that for college applications they use "top 5%". The scholarship committee could have converted it into 3/60 thus ruining my chances.</p>

<p>I will certainly contact them. After all it's a federal program, and they should be accountable to taxpayers.</p>

<p>My son got the same letter. We took it not as a rejection letter but as more of a form letter and reminder saying that he wasn't among the recipients of one of the 2,500 National Merit Awards (which we knew) or any another award, but that more college awards were yet to come. He did not submit his college selection card until late April and expects to get an award from Vanderbilt (which they promised as long as he selects them as his first choice by the May 31st deadline.) I suspect that they just hadn't processed his selection yet. I hope this is all it means--I wouldn't worry. Like other posters indicated, some students might have great credentials, but if their first choice college didn't participate, they won't be getting any awards.</p>

<p>My dad called the Byrd's CT office, and they are going to give me an award! It was exactly what I suspected: the school gave them a "top decile" rank, and they converted it to the rank 6/60. Today they called the school, confirmed the real rank and recognized the error. I now wonder if this "top 10% rank" hurt my chances in National Merit and Presidential Scholar competitions.</p>

<p>hmm our school doesn't rank either. I wonder if that affected me.</p>