Winning the National Merit Scholarship?

Be aware that the official school-sponsored NMF scholarships (not the full-tuition ones) often result in more money than the ones that come from the corporation. For instance, USC provides a school-sponsored scholarship of $1,000 each year so students there could end with $4,000 total vs. $2,500 for corporation scholarships. BOTH result in being named a National Merit Scholar. The corporation is helpful about deciding which one to accept.

DS17 was a NMF and got the $2500 for one year. He was not interested in the full ride or big scholarship colleges. He did not have a perfect SAT score, but all A’s in a very rigorous HS and many other achievements. His school had 6 NMFs and 4 Corp sponsored NMFs, all of whom did not choose to go the high scholarship colleges.
I did not realize it was such a big deal, until now I thought ‘most’ of the NMSFs make NMFs.

@NCKris Most Semi Finalists do make Finalist, but only 2,500 of the Finalists are National Merit Scholars. Another 5,000 or so get scholarships from various corporate entities. Finalists and Semi-Finalists also get different scholarships from some colleges, with some colleges offering full tuition. The national Merit Scholar Scholarship award is only $2,500. I assume that your son is not just a finalist, but a National Merit Scholar.

NMF is a big deal, even though 90% of all NMSF make NMF, because it means that not only did the student score well on their PSAT, but they also did well in school, wrote a decent essay, and did reasonably well on their SATs. Being a NM Scholar is a bigger deal, since, as I wrote, only 1/6th of all NMFs achieve Scholar status (which would be, this year, only about 0.14% of all the kids that did the fall 2017 PSAT).

Being a NM Scholar is very impressive, however, by the time it’s announced, students have already been accepted to colleges, mostly know their financial support, and are already thinking about college. A Finalist status is enough to be eligible for almost all the big scholarships that are associated with National Merit, so a Scholar status does not make a big difference, financially. So the National Merit Scholarship, while prestigious, no longer affects acceptance, the amount is relatively modest, and it’s already moving into the category of “High School Things” which are being relegated to the past. That’s why it sometimes flies under the radar.

Will be interesting to see how the proportional state allotment will play in. Based on he numbers in our state approx 150 will make NMF so appropriately 25 give or take should make scholar. There are only 4 public IbS and 2 exclusive private high schools ( D does not attend either) which account for about 40 NMF so the general pool should still have a reasonable shot.

Has anyone received scholarship notification? From the national merit website: “On a rolling basis, beginning in March and ending in June, Scholars are notified at their home addresses. Their high school principals are also notified.”

As I understand the first ones are from corporations where students have ties. It is possible that applicants may have had a good idea about these since they were named finalists.

My S 2018 grad received it with a 4.7GPA/1550 SAT and a good essay. He accepted the Full Cost of Attendance to UF.

I have to say I was surprised, though of course pleasantly, when my son received a letter the other day saying he was selected as a NM $2500 scholarship recipient. DS is definitely at the top academically with a perfect GPA and a rigorous course load, but his SAT is “only” 1560 (commonplace among NMF in CA) and EC’s are good but not spectacular. He has limited leadership roles, and he has not started his own non-profit, has not participated in research, nor raised tens of thousands of dollars to cure cancer. (Our neighborhood newspaper is filled with stories of high schoolers like that.) I’m sure his counselor wrote him a good recommendation, but I think another of the 3 NMSF at his school is GC’s favorite. DS’s essay was interesting/fun/easy to read, but again not about anything spectacular. So I’m wondering, does NMSC prefer the kids in the valedictorian spot? My older son was also a NMF two years ago with similar stats and ECs, and that year the valedictorian at his school was selected as a NM scholarship recipient. Or in addition to distributing the scholarships by state, is there also some regional distribution that NMSC is trying to achieve? I read an old newspaper article about which high schools in our area had the most NM Scholars; they looked pretty well distributed.

Regardless, we are happy. Congratulations to everyone who made it anywhere in the NM selection process! I hope this encourages future students to continue in the competition even though you might feel that you don’t have a very good chance. And for those of you who do not make it as far as you hope, I’m sure you are all excellent students!

D got it to along with one other student. Both were about the same on scores, one perfect on psat and about same score on SAT ,another with slightly lower psat but higher SAT. Both were significantly higher than other 3 in school. I think it comes down to scores in state pool