<p>Is the national merit essay supposed to show how unique I am (like college essays) or should it be more of a creative list of my accomplishments and awards???</p>
<p>I've heard its more like the list, since there's not much room to do that elsewhere on the app.</p>
<p>Mine is mostly list-ish.</p>
<p>Mine was written like a college essay (cute attention-grabbing intro, general theme, etc.), but I wrote it about my development of an interest in science (we only got one essay, so I didn't feel the need to pick a unique topic, just one that was important to me and that could be writen well), so I did talk about a lot of relevant events/activities/what-have-yous.</p>
<p>lol mine was a really personal focused one that talked about how one of my experiences demonstrated my talents, achievements, goals, etc.</p>
<p>mine was like cantwaittoleaveky's</p>
<p>What do you mean really focused? What did you talk about?</p>
<p>Is this essay kind of an all-or-nothing thing? Like, if you get Finalist, you automatically get X scholarships, no matter how good or bad your essay was. Right? Or do potential givers of scholarships actually get to read your essay?</p>
<p>all-or-nothing, I think.</p>