The National Merit Scholarship Competition
This week, thousands of high school students will take the PSAT. For all of these students, the scores from this test will serve as a useful springboard into preparing for the SAT and ACT in the coming months. The highest scoring juniors who take the test will earn further recognition and perhaps even a college scholarship as part of the National Merit Scholarship Program.
The National Merit Scholarship Program is directed by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation, which has partnered with The CollegeBoard to use the PSAT as an initial evaluation of participants. High school students who meet National Merit eligibility requirements are automatically entered into the National Merit Scholarship Competition by taking the PSAT. Of the eligible test takers, around 50,000 students are chosen for recognition of their academic talents and achievements. The approximately 16,000 highest scoring of these participants, proportionally allocated by state, are designated as National Merit Semifinalists and continue to the next stages of the competition. Overall, this amounts to less than one percent of the test takers in each state.
Participants’ PSAT scores are used to calculate a Selection Index, the criterion for selecting National Merit Semifinalists from the pool of recognized participants. A student’s number of correct answers in each of the Reading and Writing & Language sections converts to a section score from 8-38, as does the combined number of correct answers from the two Math sections on the test. A student’s Selection Index is twice the sum of these three section scores. For example, if a student’s PSAT section scores are 34 in Reading, 36 in Writing & Language, and 31 in Math, the corresponding Selection Index would be 2(34+36+31) = 202. Because Semifinalists are chosen from each state in proportion to that state’s percentage of all high school graduates nationwide, the cutoff for qualifying scores varies from state to state and from year to year.
Scores from the PSAT are typically released in December. This year, depending on the state you live in, scores will be released on December 6-7. Unfortunately, this marks a substantial pause in the process, as students will not be notified of their continued standing in the National Merit Scholarship Competition until September of their senior year. This can cause some confusion, since high-scoring students may not be aware of the next steps in the competition should they be chosen as Semifinalists. Students who advance to Finalist standing in the competition must maintain a high standard of academic achievement, submit their high school transcript and/or other academic records, be endorsed and recommended for a National Merit Scholarship by a school administrator, earn and submit a SAT or ACT score that confirms their PSAT performance, and complete an essay as part of the Scholarship application.
Approximately half of Finalists are awarded one of three types of Merit Scholarships: 2,500 National Merit $2,500 Scholarships, around 1,000 corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarships (for Finalists who meet specific criteria), and about 4,000 college-sponsored Merit Scholarships (for Finalists who choose to attend a specific sponsor institution).
For more information about the National Merit Scholarship Program, visit their website. If you’d like to discuss your child’s previous PSAT scores and whether he/she might be able to score high enough to qualify as a National Merit Semifinalist, contact us.
