<p>How much does it help/hurt you if you are/are not a National Merit Scholar when looking at the Ivies?</p>
<p>i don't think it helps or hurts. (you don't find out about being a ntl merit scholar until after you get admitted, so its only semi-finalist status that shows up on your app). it's just like another honor/award. they reject tons of ntl merit semifinalists, finalists, and scholars, and accept them as well. It only really matters for lower tier schools like NYU.</p>
<p>I really don't think it matters either.
All the National Merit Semifinalists at my school (including me) were either deferred or rejected from their early schools, except one (Wharton- she had legacy). One of the deferred ones had double legacy at the school she was applying to. And other people got into Ivies without being NM Semifinalists.
It's just another award to put on your app, but I don't think top colleges take it too seriously.</p>
<p>little to none - it's just that being an NSM implies that your test scores are high.</p>
<p>i'll have more legit imput in a few months when i find out from my schools, but what i will say is that "# of national merit scholars" is a statistic SOMETIMES used to rank quality of a school (ex. USC enrolled the most national merit scholars of any college except Harvard). also, lesser colleges will all but roll out the red carpet for finalists - more poor colleges offer full rides + stipend than you'd believe. however, NOT being a NMS will not hurt you much at all if your SAT/ACTs are high, and i can't imagine the ivies are influenced much either way, what with their huge pools of qualified applicants.</p>