<p>im finding a bit of difficulty in writing my national merit essay, but heres the perspective im going at so far:</p>
<p>What sets me apart: A willingness to challenge all commonly accepted beliefs/truths of todays society
Plans: To enter the vocational ministry. Most likely an emergent church seeking to find new ways to reach believers in todays world
Primary Interests: English/reading, as theres never one set answer in literary interpretation. Also, big time into music as its always found a way to evolve (not so much now though)
goal: to inspire the world to look inside and be willing to ask "what is truth? are we possibly completely wrong?"
accomplishments: development of several new ministries at my home church to reach out to a once lost portion of the community.</p>
<p>Just write the thing. This is not one you need to sweat. As long as you can put together some coherent thoughts, you will be fine. Most semi-finalists become finalists. The ones that don't either fail to fill out the paper work, have poor SAT scores or poor grades. The essay is not much of a factor.</p>
<p>that questions for the 2nd post, right? i think ive seen uve got a kid whos nmsf, as well, correct. congratulations on ur sons achievement. dont know if its as big a deal wherever u are as it is here in tx, but round these parts, it means almost guaranteed free college if u advance to finalist.</p>
<p>Yes, he's serious. The essay isn't going to make or break your finalist app. Just write one that's coherant and talks about some of the stuff you've done in HS and what you might plan on doing, and it'll be fine. Just sit down and write it, proofread it, and be done with it. It shouldn't take you much more than a few hours tops.</p>
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it means almost guaranteed free college if u advance to finalist.
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<p>That depends what school you're hoping to go to. For a state school, you might get scholarships, but anything more than that, it doesn't mean a whole lot. I was a finalist, I could have gone to Purdue free (I live in Indiana), but other than that, I don't know of anyone who got any real money (more than a few thousand towards 30k+ tuition) from it.</p>
<p>I have 2 kids who were NM finalists. Neither one spent a lot of time on the essay. They both wrote decent ones that were coherent and answered the question but not something that they worried over.</p>
<p>i meant for most publics and privates around my area. ie baylor, texas a and m, texas tech, ou, university of tulsa, smu (very large package), etc.</p>