is your student aiming for becoming a national merit scholarship finalist o maybe they found out that they did really well on this test and you want to know more about the program ultimately the national merit scholarship program is a united states academic competition that can qualify students not just for prestigious awards
but admissions as well as scholarship opportunities We are going to show you exactly what the perks are of becoming a national merit finalist or semi-finalist and also we are going to talk about what it takes in order to meet those criteria however this is a huge win if your students can accomplish it so let’s go ahead and get started what is the national merit
What is the National Merit Scholarship Program (NMSP)
scholarship program so national merit scholarship program or nsnmsp it can be a tongue twister is an
academic competition for prestige and admissions and scholarships and it started in 1955 so this actually has been going on for quite a while this is open to all students who meet requirements which i’m going to list out in just a moment why do we want to
Why Pursue the NMSP
pursue becoming a national merit semi-finalist or finalist ultimately it’s prestigious your student can put this on their applications when it comes to admissions or scholarships or even
internships and it shows that your student is of a certain caliber so it can increase their chances of receiving
whatever it is that they’re applying for in some universities becoming a national merit finalist can actually give them automatic admission so they may still have to apply but they might have to submit way less materials they just have to submit their national merit information and they’ll be admitted now
My favourite perk of becoming a national merit semi-finalist or finalist especially finalists is that it can lead to money so as far as the actual state-based scholarships it’s pretty much around 2500 so it’s not a huge amount there are also corporate sponsored scholarships that are focused around merit prestige however the big wins and there are over there’s dozens of schools that offer complete free rides if your student is a merit finalist
one example is university of alabama they offer up to 10 semesters of tuition they give four years of room and board they give a a book stipend which at the time of recording this is around 500 every single year and they also give a miscellaneous stipend every single year as well to for other expenses now my favorite perk of this is in addition to all of that they also give a one-time 2 000 stipend for a summer program or study abroad now this is just one university there’s multiple universities out there that do indeed offer these kind of perks if your student is a merit finalist so if your student is a merit finalist i would absolutely search for the schools that are giving out these perks because it can be a huge huge leap in the right direction towards their future and avoiding student loan debt.
so let’s talk about how the national merit scholarship program works
How the NMSP Works
so students can qualify for this they have to be a high school student in the united states or they have to be qualified living out of the united states i have to be a citizen and homeschool students can indeed do this as well but they have to take the preliminary sat or psat or the national merit scholarship qualifying test nmsqt okay again a little bit of tongue twister there with the acronyms and ultimately each state has their own ranking so actually it can vary depending on it’s not like they get one score and that just across the board puts them at the top they actually it depends on their competition within their own state so this varies state by state now comment below did your student already take the the psat or are they about to let me know in the comments below now like i said they do have to be in a high school in the united states or dc or our commonwealth territories and
if they are homeschooled they are indeed eligible now how it works is in september they notify high-scoring students that they are qualified as semi-finalists so they look at the top amount of students and they will notify them in september now at this point it’s already an honor your student has already done a great job if they have become a semi-finalist some states will actually send out a letter
Recognizing this outstanding academic achievement and so receiving this letter again it already looks good for applications for admissions or scholarships or above now again i keep mentioning scholarships i do want to say that even if your student doesn’t pull scholarships from this all students whether they’re a national merit finalist or not need to be applying for outside scholarships now if you want to learn where to find these outside scholarships that are actually legitimate that your student has a chance of winning
It is my six steps to securing scholarships it’s how i got six figures in scholarships and i was not a national merit finalist but i still was able to pull off that free ride by going after these specific types of scholarships
In february semifinalists are notified that in advance that they are in the moving towards the finalists standing and so from here they have to actually fill out an application including their involvements their sat scores some essays information on extracurriculars awards leadership positions etc so it’s just like kind of an admissions application that they will have to submit and from march to mid-june they notify 7 500 finalists that they’ve been selected to receive the national merit scholarship award.
There are over a million seniors every single year and this is narrowed down to only 7 500 that actually can receive this award so as you can see that is why this is pretty prestigious uh it is pretty difficult for students to receive this so again if your student has done this if they are notified that they’re a semifinalist or a finalist kudos to them congratulations i’m sure you’re so proud as a parent because it really is a huge accomplishment even if they don’t become a finalist but that said becoming a finalist does have a lot of perks as well now if your student misses the test
What to Do If You Miss the Test
for an emergency an illness some sort of circumstance that qualifies they might still be able to enter the competition so what they have to do is have a school official right to the national merit scholarship committee as soon as possible so that they can request information on how to apply outside of the normal testing period now just a fun fact
Previous NMSP Finalists
some previous national merit scholarship winners includes bill gates uh jim cramer jeff bezos uh linda rottenberg so there are a lot of successful people that are national merit finalists so overall the national merit scholarship program is an excellent opportunity for eligible students while not all students will become a finalist even reset receiving that letter of commendation or becoming a semi-finalist can lead to an improvement in their chances of admissions or scholarship money or even something that they can put on their internship applications so no matter what taking the psat and shooting for this is always a great idea now remember even if your student does not get anything through their psat or sat scores.