<p>What significance does being selected as a National Merit Scholar have?</p>
<p>$2500 significant</p>
<p>when do we find out?</p>
<p>Today, my daughter received a letter from the National Merit Corp. that she won a $2,500 one-time award.</p>
<p>Hindoo, congratulations to your daughter. Is she a senior in HS?</p>
<p>What I meant by signficance, is will this help my admissions chances at elite universities, or is it just something that's almost expected of that applicant pool?</p>
<p>Thank you, tdn! Yes, she's a senior in HS.</p>
<p>so if we haven't gotten a letter by now, does that mean we probably haven't won any scholarships/been made a national merit scholar?</p>
<p>Not necessarily. The postal service is strange. I'm sure people will be receiving their letters next week as well.</p>
<p>If someone could answer my question - what significance does this have on the admissions process, especially at elite universities?</p>
<p>I think you can put National Merit Scholar on your awards list on the application. It should help, although I don't see why. What does it matter if you get a 220 on the PSAT. There are no awards for 2200s on the SAT.</p>
<p>Do a search here on CC. There are a number of universities (not elite) who award merit scholarships to Nat'l Merit Scholars...if you get to semi-finalist status (notified in the fall), you'll get lots 'o mail. I'd guess that the majority of people who apply to elite universities are Nat'l Merit Scholars...the same ones who have really high SAT scores likely had really high PSAT scores, which is really the only factor in Nat'l Merit. However, it's still an awesome claim to fame to have, and something to be proud of.</p>
<p>i think there are only 2500 national merit scholars so its not "expected". but its too late, so it has no effect on the admissions process.</p>
<p>Right--the NM scholar notification comes after most schools have already made their decisions. In fact, the official announcement is sometime in May. A number of schools do give some extra $$ (on top of the National Merit Finalist money) for NM scholars, but I don't think it's all that much.</p>
<p>Yes, I should have said that I think the majority of applicants to the HPYS of the world are National Merit Semifinalists. (about 16,000 of them)... Finalist notification comes after apps are due...</p>
<p>National Merit Finalists and National Merit Scholars are two different things. National Merit "Scholar" is the next step after finalist status. About 2,500 of the approximately 15,000 NM finalists receive this one-time award.</p>
<p>Okay, so looks like being named a semi-finalist isn't much of a distinction at all, and finalist/scholar decisions come out too late to be of any help to the app process. Thanks much.</p>
<p>Correction: Being a National Merit Semifinalist isn't much of a distinction ON COLLEGECONFIDENTIAL! But being in the top 16000 out of 1.4 million is still pretty impressive, at least when it comes to state colleges, smaller liberal arts schools, etc. And even some of the top schools offer scholarships for NM, schools you might not have expected to do so. Carleton College, for example.</p>
<p>anyone from texas get a letter yet??
im nervous..i really wanna be one!</p>
<p>If you're a junior, you won't get a letter until September. Otherwise, letters for this year's seniors should have arrived...several months ago.</p>
<p>Edit: never mind, emily, I thought you were talking about NMSF. Stupid me.</p>
<p>Kind of related question: Does being a semifinalist help you in admissions at top-teir schools, or is it a pretty common thing that doesn't carry much weight?</p>