<p>I have been looking at scholarships for different colleges and I see National Merit Scholar on some and National Merit Finalist on the others. On the Texas A&M site both are listed so I don't believe they are the same thing. Can someone tell me the difference?</p>
<p>A National Merit Scholar is a National Merit Finalist who was awarded a scholarship through the National Merit Corporation (whether that scholarship is sponsored by the Corporation itself, by a corporate sponsor, or by a college designated as the student’s first choice – all of those scholarships go through the NM Corporation, and all of those recipients are then designated National Merit Scholars).</p>
<p>A Finalist can only receive one scholarship through the National Merit Corporation.</p>
<p>If you receive/accept a NM scholarship from a sponsor other than TAMU (hence, a NM Scholar), you can keep that one and get the other scholarship from TAMU (the Director’s Excellence or Director’s Supplemental), because the Director’s X scholarship is not a NM sponsorship – just a regular institutional merit scholarship.</p>
<p>If you don’t receive/accept a NM scholarship from a sponsor other than TAMU (hence, a NM Finalist), you can get one of the sponsored scholarships from TAMU (the NM Sponsorship or NM Recognition). When you accept it, NM Corporation will then call you a NM Scholar.</p>
<p>Make sense?</p>
<p>yes thank you so much. I understand now.</p>