Guide to the National Merit Scholarship Program

Every fall, high school juniors across the country take the PSAT/NMSQT (Preliminary SAT and National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test). While it’s often considered to be “practice” for the SAT, it also serves another purpose: it’s the first step in the National Merit Scholarship Program.

If you’ve heard of National Merit before but aren’t quite sure how it works (or how much effort or time it actually involves) you’re not alone. The process can be a little confusing, and the benefits vary widely depending on a student’s goals and the colleges they’re considering. 

Here’s what families need to know about how the National Merit Scholarship Program works from start to finish.

How the Program Works

About 1.3 million juniors take the PSAT/NMSQT each year, and approximately 50,000 students earn recognition based on their scores. Do all 50,000 receive a scholarship? Not exactly.

From there, the field narrows through several stages:

• Commended Students

• Semifinalists

• Finalists

• National Merit Scholars

At its core, National Merit is a recognition program, and there’s no separate test or fee beyond taking the PSAT to be recognized. But for students who continue through the later stages, it can become a more substantial process involving essays, recommendation letters, and documentation.

Who Qualifies?

Eligibility is based primarily on the PSAT/NMSQT score taken during a student’s junior year of high school. Sophomore scores (the PSAT10) don’t count. To participate, students must also:

• Be U.S. citizens or legal permanent residents

• Be enrolled full-time in high school in the U.S. or a U.S. territory

• Plan to enroll in college full-time after graduation

That’s it! There’s no application at the start. Taking the PSAT/NMSQT as a junior automatically enters a student for National Merit consideration.

The Selection Index Equation

Now, time for some slightly confusing math.

National Merit recognition isn’t based on a student’s total PSAT score but on a special calculation called the Selection Index (SI). Here’s how it works:

1. Add together the three PSAT section scores: Reading, Writing and Language, and Math. Each section is scored from 8 to 38.

2. Multiply that sum by two.

For example, if a student earns 34 in Reading, 35 in Writing, and 36 in Math:
(34 + 35 + 36) × 2 = 210 Selection Index

Each state has its own cutoff score to qualify as a Semifinalist, which typically ranges from the mid-210s to mid-220s. These cutoffs change slightly each year depending on how students in that state perform overall. A Selection Index that qualifies in one state may not in another.

Commended Students

Of the 1.3 million test-takers, about 34,000 students earn Commended Student status. Their scores place them roughly in the top 3-4% nationally. Commended Students receive a formal letter of recognition (which can be added to a resume or the Honors section of the Common Application), but they do not continue in the scholarship competition.

Note: Some colleges or organizations may still offer small scholarships for Commended Students, but this recognition is largely honorary.

Semifinalists

Roughly 16,000 students (about 1% of U.S. seniors) qualify as Semifinalists, and this is where the process becomes more involved. Again, each state has a specific cutoff score that determines who advances to this level.

Semifinalists are notified early in their senior year. To move on to Finalist status, they must complete a separate application through the National Merit Scholarship Corporation, which includes:

• An essay

• A recommendation (typically from a school counselor or administrator)

• A high school transcript

• SAT or ACT scores that support their PSAT performance

It’s a meaningful recognition but also a commitment. The application process takes time to ensure every part is complete.

Finalists

From the pool of Semifinalists, about 15,000 students become National Merit Finalists. Finalists are announced in February of a student’s senior year.

At this point, all Finalists are technically eligible for National Merit Scholarships, but not all will receive one. Finalist status itself is still highly respected and can open scholarship doors at certain colleges.

For example, Semifinalists and Finalists are eligible for sizable merit scholarships at the University of Alabama.

National Merit Scholars & Types of Scholarships

Roughly 7,000 students ultimately earn the title of National Merit Scholar and receive a scholarship. These awards come from three main sources:

1. National Merit $2,500 Scholarships: One-time awards given directly by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation. Recipients are chosen based on academic record, test scores, activities, leadership, and their essay.

2. Corporate-Sponsored Merit Scholarships: Funded by businesses, foundations, or professional associations. These are often given to children of employees or students planning to pursue certain fields of study.

3. College-Sponsored Merit Scholarships: Provided by participating colleges to students who list that institution as their first choice with the NMSC. The amounts can vary widely: some are modest, while others are full-tuition or more.

The most significant financial benefits typically come from college-sponsored awards, especially at universities that use National Merit recognition to recruit top students.

Why It Matters (& When It Doesn’t)

For some students, National Merit recognition is an impressive achievement that can lead to major scholarships, particularly at certain public universities in the South and Midwest. 

At others, especially highly selective private colleges, it’s viewed more as an academic honor than a financial opportunity.

Because the competition is based (at least, at first) on a single test taken on a single day, it’s important to have perspective. A strong PSAT score can certainly open doors, but it’s just one piece of a much larger college application.

Timeline: From PSAT to Scholarships

October (Junior Year) 

• Take the PSAT/NMSQT. 

December-January (Junior Year) 

• PSAT scores are released online. Students can see their section scores and Selection Index.

September (Senior Year) 

• NMSC notifies schools of Semifinalists and Commended Students.

• Semifinalists begin working on their National Merit Finalist application, including essays, recommendations, and taking the SAT or ACT..

October-January (Senior Year) 

• NMSC applications are due.

• Students designate a “first choice” college for scholarship consideration.

February (Senior Year) 

• Finalists are announced.

• Students and schools are notified.

March–June (Senior Year) 

• National Merit Scholars are named, and scholarships are awarded.

• Corporate and college-sponsored awards are finalized throughout the spring.

Putting It All in Perspective

The National Merit Scholarship Program rewards academic excellence, but it’s also a long process for the few students who make it to the end. 

For most families, it’s best understood as a bonus opportunity rather than a goal to build your entire testing strategy around.

If a student scores high enough to qualify, that’s something to celebrate! And it’s worth following through on. 

But if not, remember that there are many other paths to scholarships and recognition. Colleges evaluate students holistically, and strong grades, essays, and activities still carry the most weight.

In short: take the PSAT seriously, but don’t let National Merit define your college planning process. An excellent college experience is still entirely within reach, with or without being a National Merit Scholar.

Scholarships 101: Measuring A College's Financial Generosity

This is Part 3 of our 3-part Scholarships 101 series. In Part 1, we covered our thoughts on private scholarships. In Part 2, we covered how students can position themselves to earn more merit-based financial aid.

At Advantage College Planning, we have a thriving work book club. Together, we read about 6 books a year (yes, even during application season). Most are related to college admissions, but some aren’t (we all enjoyed Glennon Doyle’s Untamed), and right now, we’re reading Mindful Admissions by Laurén Carter.

One of our book club picks in 2020 was Jeff Selingo’s Who Gets In and Why. In his book, he coins the idea of colleges as “buyers” or “sellers.” Summarizing from his website, colleges that are “sellers” have plenty of competitive applications to choose from to fill a class. They don’t need to use financial aid as any sort of incentive to attract admitted students into accepting their acceptance. These schools may still offer financial aid, but maybe it’s need-based only or to a very small percentage of students. Simply put: they can be generous with their financial aid (especially when we’re talking about need-based aid), but they may not be generous to all families or to your family.

Colleges that Selingo terms as “buyers,” on the other hand, take a different approach to awarding financial aid. They may award larger scholarships to attract competitive students to attend their college. Or maybe they award generous merit aid to students with little or no financial need, which can be a welcome relief to families who won’t qualify for much or any need-based financial aid but are still facing a hefty tuition bill.

Whether or not you like Selingo’s terminology, an important piece to understanding the financial aid puzzle is understanding a college’s financial generosity. Knowing which colleges award financial aid generously to which students will help your family determine if a college is a good overall financial fit.

Here are some tools for measuring a college’s financial generosity:

NET PRICE CALCULATOR

Any college or university participating in a federal financial aid program is required to have a Net Price Calculator accessible on their website. Filling out this calculator will give you an estimate of what your family can expect to pay for one year of college at that institution based on individual factors like your family’s income and your student’s GPA and/or test scores.

A net price calculator only gives an estimate, but it’s a personalized one. That’s important because the definition of financial generosity will vary from family to family. Harvard, for example, awards full financial aid packages to students whose families earn less than $65,000 per year. That’s extremely generous for those families and life-changing for those students. Filling out Harvard’s Net Price Calculator would let you see if Harvard is a financial fit for your family too—provided it is also an academic and social fit!

Pro Tip: Sometimes, a Net Price Calculator will let you skip a lot of the financial data entry if you know your Expected Family Contribution (EFC). You can get this number through the Federal Student Aid Estimator.

COLLEGEDATA.COM

A college profile’s “Financials” tab on CollegeData.com is my favorite tool for understanding how a college awards financial aid. This page is packed with information and clues about a college’s financial generosity. Here’s just a snippet of the profile for Wofford College, a private liberal arts college in South Carolina:

Let’s look at what we can learn from Wofford’s profile. Around 85% of applicants in the 2020-2021 cycle applied for financial need and around 72% were found to have financial need (meaning their EFC was less than the total cost of attendance a Wofford).

100% of applicants who had demonstrated need received financial aid. That’s great!

Wofford met the full need (not the same as the full cost of attendance!) of around 44% of students. Hmm. Is that good or bad? Let’s see… On the one hand, it could be higher, but if we look at schools that are similar to Wofford, it’s not too bad (Elon University - 19.7%, Furman University - 51.4%, Presbyterian College - 34.4%).

Average percent of need met is 90%. That’s very good! But remember—this doesn’t mean 90% of the total cost of attendance is met. It’s an average of 90% of each family’s demonstrated need (that’s the total cost of attendance minus the EFC).

College Data lists out the average award and breaks it down a step further so you can see how much of it is need-based gift (scholarships, grants, etc… based on financial need) and how much of it is self-help or work-study.

Finally, the profile lists merit-based gift awards so you can see if the college awards merit-based financial aid to students, even students who do not qualify for any need-based aid. And if they do award non-need-based merit aid, how much and how frequently. Compared to many colleges, Wofford does pretty well here!

Further down the page, College Data breaks down the same information for the entire school instead of just freshmen. It also shows the percentage of students taking out loans and the average student loan debt of a recent graduating class.

Like I said, my favorite tool!

COLLEGE FINANCIAL AID OFFICE

I’ve mentioned it in every part. of this series so far, but a college’s financial aid website and their office are a great tool for getting any additional questions answered about financial generosity at any point during the college planning or application process. Here are some financial generosity markers to look out for as you’re learning more:

• Outside Scholarship Policy - I covered this in Part 1, but some colleges will reduce a student’s financial aid package if that student is bringing private outside scholarships with them. It’s important to know this information ahead of time! And if the college does reduce a financial aid award, it’s important to know how the package will change. Ideally, they would reduce loans first before grants and other gift aid.

• Loan Limits - Some colleges are starting to limit or even eliminate loans from their financial aid packages. If that’s an important factor for you, look for language indicating some kind of policy around loan limitations.

• College Financial Health - Understanding the financial health of colleges in an underrated part of the college search process (it’s a lot less fun than seeing the dorms on a college visit or picturing yourself in the student stands on game day!). But a college generally has to have a healthy endowment in order to afford to be financially generous. In recent years, there have been major studies into the financial health of universities.

  • Edmit does a deep, deep dive for those of you who love data (for those of you feeling a little overwhelmed, it’s a lot of the same information as College Data, but let me direct your attention to the bar graph labeled Average Cost where you’ll see an average yearly cost of attendance by family income range. The section right below it, Financial Health, also gives a nice snapshot.

  • If I lost you with “bar graph,” Forbes has simplified things and given colleges a Financial Health Grade. Scroll down, and you can search by college name.

COLLEGE CONSULTANT

Your last tool for understanding a college’s financial generosity—and financial fit as a whole—is to speak with a college consultant. We have years of experience with the financial aid process and can help guide your family through the process from beginning to end.

If you want to take what you’ve learned in our Scholarships 101 series to the next level, look for one of our free 10 Keys to College Affordability webinars!

Scholarships 101: How Can I Get More Merit Aid From Colleges?

This is Part 2 of our Scholarships 101 series. In Part 1, we covered our thoughts on private scholarships. In Part 3, we’ll cover how to research the financial generosity of colleges.

College is expensive. Like really expensive. And while there are headlines in the news all the time about tuition costs rising or the student debt crisis, many families don’t think too closely about the cost of college until far too late in the college planning process.

Anyone in this industry will tell you that the hardest conversations about financial fit are with families whose students have been admitted to their dream school only to realize that they cannot afford it. We all wish for a time machine at that moment so we can go back and make financial fit a larger part of that student’s college search.

We begin the conversation around financial fit early because we want families to be prepared and to be preparing! Part of the conversation revolves around need-based financial aid, which is a separate process determined by a family’s income. But part of the conversation is about merit-based aid.

Merit-based aid is not tied to a family’s income but is instead awarded based on something that the student is bringing to the college, such as high performance in academics, athletics, the arts, or other extracurricular involvement. For the sake of this blog post, I’m going to be talking about merit aid determined by academic achievement. Sometimes referred to as “scholarships,” these are the types of scholarships we encourage our students to pursue as opposed to the private scholarships covered in Part 1 of this series. Here are a few reasons why:

1. Institutional Scholarships are often renewable for up to 4 years—As long as the recipient maintains certain requirements like a minimum GPA

2. Institutional Scholarships can be for much larger amounts—Up to full tuition, though larger awards will be more competitive

3. Institutional Scholarships are usually worth the time investment to apply—And many have no application at all because students are automatically considered when they apply to the college

We’re often asked how students can maximize their opportunities for institutional merit aid. Simply put: How can students get more scholarship money from colleges? Here are 4 tips to help students in their scholarship search:

RESEARCH COLLEGE FINANCIAL AID POLICIES

When researching college websites, students and families generally visit the Admissions page, the departmental pages for any majors they’re interested in, the Residence Life page, and so on… but don’t forget the Financial Aid page!

Colleges provide a lot of information about their school’s financial aid policies—including how they award merit aid and scholarships—on this section of the website, and families can learn a lot!

For example, some colleges are very clear that they do not award merit scholarships (like Georgetown with a total cost of attendance of $82,080 for 2021-2022) or only award merit aid to a very small amount of students (like Vanderbilt—2021-2022 cost of attendance of $79,538—whose merit scholarship recipients “represent the top 1% of all freshman applicants”). They focus funds on need-based aid instead.

Other colleges are more transparent about the way they award their merit scholarships. The University of Alabama (2021-2022 cost of attendance for an out-of-state student: $51,398) has a chart showing the automatic award out-of-state applicants can expect to receive based on their test scores and GPA, as do a number of other colleges.

If a college’s policies are not clear from their financial aid webpage, reach out to their financial aid office by phone or email. These knowledgeable staff members can be a huge help to families throughout the application process and during a student’s time at the college.

APPLY TO MORE “LIKELY” COLLEGES

We recommend students apply to a balanced list of colleges. That means there is a balance of likely schools, target schools, and reach schools in terms of college selectivity and the student’s academic profile.

A well-balanced list is important all the time, but few lists are perfectly balanced. More often, students will add more reach schools onto their lists, and as long as they are applying to enough likely and target schools that are a good fit for them, that’s usually okay! But if the question is “how can I get more merit aid from colleges?”, the college list needs to shift in the other direction.

Merit aid is hard to come by at colleges that are reach or even target schools for a student because the student is generally not in the top of that college’s applicant pool. If financial fit is a driving factor in your student’s college search process, encourage them to consider adding more likely colleges to their list. They have a better chance of being a more competitive applicant for institutional merit aid.

EARN STRONG GRADES AND TEST SCORES

For merit aid awarded based on academic achievement, colleges are looking at academic factors like GPA and standardized test scores. Students hoping to earn merit aid should work hard in the classroom throughout high school, and test prep for the SAT and ACT certainly won’t hurt their chances.

With the rise of test-optional policies, some colleges are not using standardized scores as a factor in merit aid, but other colleges either consider test scores or give students the option to have their scores considered for an opportunity to potentially earn more scholarship money. For example, at the University of Tennessee, an out-of-state student without test scores can earn an award starting at $4,000 per year, but a student with test scores can earn a minimum of $6,000 per year.

Colleges that are more transparent with their merit aid policies (like Alabama mentioned above, Tennessee, and the University of South Carolina) show that hard work can pay! Slight increases in GPA or standardized test scores can earn students several thousand more dollars per year to help pay for college.

FILL OUT SCHOLARSHIP APPLICATIONS

For some colleges, students are automatically considered for merit scholarships just by submitting an application for admission, or the scholarship application may be included in the general application. But other colleges have an additional scholarship application that is only accessible once a student has submitted an application or maybe even once they’ve been admitted.

Many students never bother to fill out a college’s scholarship application. It’s easy to skip this extra step because it comes along once a student is out of “application mode.” Students may not want to put in more time and effort if they haven't been admitted to a college yet. Even if they have been admitted, they may not be certain that’s where they want to attend. But this can be a missed opportunity!

Students should also review their college’s scholarship portal each year because their college might offer departmental scholarships to returning students. Students may be able to find additional funding after their freshman year!

DETERMINE GENEROSITY

The last tip is to look into which colleges are generous with their institutional dollars… and which colleges aren’t. Some colleges, like the ones I’ve mentioned above, put handy charts on their websites, but that’s not exactly the norm. Stay tuned for Part 3 of our Scholarships 101 series as we dive into how to determine the financial generosity of a college!

Scholarships 101: The Scoop On Outside Scholarships

This is Part 1 of our Scholarships 101 series. In Part 2, we’ll cover How Students Can Maximize Institutional Financial Aid. In Part 3, we’ll cover How to Research the Financial Generosity of Colleges

There’s a ton of college misinformation out there, and a lot of it has to do with how to pay for college.

Haven't we all heard stories about a neighbor’s cousin’s kid who got a full-ride scholarship just for being left handed or being a twin? Do those low effort/maximum reward scholarships really exist? 

And each year, new websites pop up promising "exclusive access to millions of dollars in unclaimed scholarship money!" For a fee, of course. 

Many families new to the college planning process think their student can apply for private or outside scholarships (that is: scholarships not coming from third-party organizations rather than the college itself or the state or federal government) to make up the difference between a college’s total cost of attendance and the amount financial aid doesn't cover. But it would be a mistake to ignore Financial Fit or rely on outside scholarships to cover that gap.

In our Scholarships 101 series, we’ll cover:

• Why applying for outside scholarships may not be worth a student’s time

• How students can maximize merit-based aid and institutional scholarships

• How to research the financial generosity of colleges

Today, we’ll answer:

Is applying for outside scholarships worth it?

Depending on the student, it probably isn’t. Here are a few reasons why:

The Time Commitment (part 1)

Embarking on an outside scholarship search is no small feat! Students have to comb through thousands of scholarships to determine: whether a scholarship is legitimate or spam, whether it is still active, and whether the student meets the eligibility requirements.

The Odds

Let’s mythbust the “millions of dollars in unclaimed scholarship money” claim. While there may be some scholarships that receive few (if any!) applications in a given year, they are often local scholarships for small amounts. More well-known scholarships or scholarships for large amounts of money often receive tens of thousands of applications each year, making them extremely competitive. In some cases, more competitive than your most competitive colleges! The Coca-Cola Scholarship, for example, receives around 100,000 applications but only awards 150 scholarships for an “acceptance rate” of around 0.15%!

The Time Commitment (part 2)

Say a student has already devoted hours to their scholarship search and built the perfect balanced list of competitive and less competitive scholarships to apply to. They still have to fill out the applications. That means filling out activity lists, writing multiple essays, sometimes conducting interviews, and… wait a minute… Doesn’t this sound a lot like the college application process?! Applying for scholarships can take as much time, work, and energy as applying to college!

The Return on Investment

After all the time and effort that goes into the scholarship search and application process, most scholarships are for fairly small amounts (a few hundred to a few thousand dollars) compared to tuition costs and most are not renewable after a student’s first year of college. So even if a student earns several scholarships for their first year, that student will need to “find” that money again for the following years. And there aren't as many scholarships available to returning students. Colleges may also alter a student’s financial aid package based on outside scholarships, so don’t assume that students can “make up the difference” with outside scholarships! Colleges and universities require students to disclose any private scholarships they receive, and many institutions then reduce their financial aid award by the scholarship amount. Every college is different, and some will first reduce loans before reducing grants/scholarships. Families will need to ask each college about their policy.

For the majority of students, outside scholarships are not the best way to pay for college. But for students who are tackling a scholarship search, here’s some advice:

• Use trusted scholarship search databases like Fastweb, CFNC (for NC students), or check with the high school counseling department to see if they keep a list. Your school counselor can be a great resource!

• Students have a greater probability of being awarded scholarships when they keep the scholarship search local. These awards can often be smaller but just remember: if you’re seeing that website banner flashing with Unigo’s $50,000 No Essay scholarship, so are thousands of other high school seniors.

• Check with a parent or guardian’s place of employment to see if they offer any scholarship programs for employees’ children.

• Study hard! Doing well in school and even on standardized tests can increase your eligibility for some outside scholarships as well as make you more competitive for merit scholarships coming from colleges and universities!

• Before putting in time and energy into applying for scholarships, check with the financial aid offices of each college on your list to see how they handle outside scholarships!

And for the record, from what I can find, there was once a scholarship for left-handed students… but even it was an institutional scholarship!

Decoding Your Financial Aid Package

We spend a lot of time talking with our students about finding the right fit. We encourage students to look for a college environment that fits them socially and academically. And we talk about which colleges have a price tag that fits their family’s financial situation. 

This is the time of year when all those conversations come to life. Most acceptance letters have flowed in and, with them, financial aid award letters. Award letters reveal a student’s financial aid package, showing the full cost of one year’s attendance, as well as any grants, scholarships, and loans that can be applied to a student.

Financial aid award letters can be confusing. It isn’t always easy to tell what is free money (scholarships and grants) and what is borrowed money (loans that will have to be paid back). And because few letters look exactly the same, it can be difficult to look at all of your options and be sure you’re comparing apples to apples instead of oranges.

Let’s take a look at what’s usually included in a financial aid award letter, clear up some confusion about types of money, and address steps you can take if your financial situation has changed.

DECODING THE AWARD LETTER

Most financial aid award letters include the following information:

• Cost of Attendance (COA) - The price of one full year of school. This includes tuition and fees, room and board, and even estimates of other expenses like books and transportation. If the COA is not listed, try to find it on the college’s financial aid website.

• Institutional Grants - Free money that does not have to be paid back. Usually need-based.

• Institutional Scholarships - Free money that does not need to be paid back. Can be need-based or merit-based 

  • While students can apply for outside scholarships, these will not appear in a financial aid award letter from a college.

• Federal Work-Study - Earned money in the form of a part-time job on campus. It does not need to be paid back but is not paid upfront. 

• Federal Student Loans - Money borrowed from the federal government that is paid back with interest. Federal Student Aid explains the different types of loans and the amount you can borrow per year.

So what do you do with all of this information? 

You’re looking to determine the college’s Net Price.

The Net Price for one year of college is the full COA minus any free money. Remember, student loan amounts lower the COA in the short term, but you will have to pay them back over time and earned money (work-study) is paid to students over time to supplement their income.

COA - FREE MONEY (IE: GRANTS & SCHOLARSHIPS) = NET PRICE

The easiest way to compare financial aid award letters is to make a spreadsheet that compares each college and the types of aid offered. Make a copy of our template to use for yourself.

The difference between COA and any financial aid leaves families with an uncovered amount of money called a gap. This is the amount a family will have to pay from savings, outside scholarships, and/or private loans.

APPEALING YOUR FINANCIAL AID PACKAGE

If your financial aid package is insufficient or if your family’s financial situation has changed, you might consider appealing your financial aid package. It’s important to communicate these changes to colleges as soon as possible because they may be able to offer more money.

To appeal your financial aid package, you’ll want to contact each financial aid office to learn their appeals process. In many cases, parents will write a concise, polite letter that explains the special circumstances your family is now in.

How can we help?

We see our students through the entire college planning process, including navigating the waters after being admitted. If you have questions about your financial aid offers, get in touch with us so we can help!