National Merit Scholarship Corporation

  • Deadline: Not Available
  • Renewable: Unknown
  • Number of Awards: Not Available
  • Award Amount: Not Available
  • Website: Not Available
  • Phone: 847 866-5100
  • Fax: Not Available
  • Email: Not Available
  • Address: 1560 Sherman Avenue, Suite 200, Evanston, Illinois 60201-4897

The National Merit Scholarship Program has been founded in 1955 and since then it has been helping students who need financial support by providing them with financial aid.

High school students who want to enter the National Merit Program are obliged to take the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test and the score on the test will separate those more deserving ones as possible candidates for scholarship.

Who's eligible?

There are certain eligibility criteria for this scholarship as well as for others.

So as to be able to participate in the National Merit® Scholarship Program, a student must:

  1. take the PSAT/NMSQT®in the specified year of the high school program and no later than the third year in grades 9 through 12.
  2. be enrolled as a high school student
  3. planning to accept admission to college no later than the fall following completion of high school; and
  4. attend high school in the United States, the District of Columbia, or U.S. commonwealth and territory;

In case the student does not attend the high school in the United States, he/she has to meet the citizenship requirements, meaning he/she must be a citizen of the United States or be a U.S. lawful resident and intend to become a U.S. citizen at the earliest opportunity allowed by law.

The answers to the PSAT/NMSQT questions will determine whether a student meets requirements to participate in the National Merit Scholarship Program.

How to Apply

During the test you will be asked whether you are enrolled as a high school student (traditional or homeschooled), when you will complete or leave high school and enroll full time in college and how many total years you will spend in grades 9–12.

The answers are there to make you a semifinalist or to determine that you are ineligible for the scholarship.

In early September, about 16,000 students will be notified that they have qualified as Semifinalists and those are the highest scoring entrants in each state.

Then, the scholarship application materials will be provided to Semifinalists through their high schools and they must advance to Finalist standing in the competition by meeting high academic standards.

All winners of Merit Scholarship are chosen from the Finalist group based on their abilities, skills, and accomplishments.

 


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