DD is not so swift

Anonymous wrote:I was also a national merit scholar in the early 90’s.
The application was brief & I also got $2500 per year.
It was nice, but really no big deal, and no one has ever commented on it or seemed to care (no one cares about phi beta kappa[i], either - except my mom).

I had iNMS on my CV for years, but finally took it off when I was about 40.

I also wasn’t all that great academically - I only got a 1400 on my SATs and didn’t have a 4.0 - but I was from Delaware, which probably gave me a huge advantage since 1) there’s like 100 people in the whole state and 2) the public high schools in DE weren’t exactly churning out kids destined for the Ivy League - they were more focused on athletics.

Ironically, my high school friends (who were great at field hockey and all went to UD) mostly make more money and are happier and more content than me, but that’s a whole other issue!

DD is a senior and adamantly opposed to the Greek system. Somehow we got into a conversation recently on academic awards at dinner and I said, "Oh, yeah, I was Phi Beta Kappa." DD: "You lied to me - you told me you were never in a sorority!"

I was also a national merit scholar in the early 90’s.
The application was brief & I also got $2500 per year.
It was nice, but really no big deal, and no one has ever commented on it or seemed to care (no one cares about phi beta kappa, either - except my mom).

I had iNMS on my CV for years, but finally took it off when I was about 40.

I also wasn’t all that great academically - I only got a 1400 on my SATs and didn’t have a 4.0 - but I was from Delaware, which probably gave me a huge advantage since 1) there’s like 100 people in the whole state and 2) the public high schools in DE weren’t exactly churning out kids destined for the Ivy League - they were more focused on athletics.

Ironically, my high school friends (who were great at field hockey and all went to UD) mostly make more money and are happier and more content than me, but that’s a whole other issue!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How many high scholars graduate American schools every year? Million or more? Getting selected by foundation as one of their 2500 scholars is tougher than getting admitted into Harvard and MIT.

Really? I was a national merit scholar ages ago. It didn’t seem like such a big deal. Has it gotten harder?

Same. In 1999, I did zero prep and got a 235 PSAT. 1570 on the real SAT. I was a UMD Banneker Key and then got 2500/yr in National Merit money on top of that. I'm surprised this still exists given that standardized testing is no longer widely regarded as a useful metric.

Anonymous wrote:Everyone and there cousin around here takes hours and hours of tuitions and test prep center classes for multiple years but hardly few make semifinalist or finalist let alone an actual scholar. What’s the secret sauce for this?

I had a National Merit Scholarship, funded by 3M.

It's fun to have the scholarship, but the amount is small, and selective schools don't care.

The main impact on my life is that I'm a little more likely to spring for the brand name 3M sponges and tape.

To put this in perspective, Harvard’s acceptance rate was 5.2% in 2021. However, this is pure merit, Harvard considers race, income, location, legacy, athletics, donations, extra so merit only plays a part of it.

Anonymous wrote:Only about 1.7 million kids take the qualifying PSAT so it’s not 3.3 million.

Even then less than 1% make semifinalist and just 0.15% get selected by foundation as scholars. Almost all good students who expect to do well take it. However, it’s a waste of time unless you have a decent chance to be competitive.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like it's an honor to be selected as a National Merit Scholar but not much direct money as a result? (Schools may decide to shell out a bunch of cash to get a NMS, but that's indirect and not guaranteed).

My son didn't take any test prep and is a semi-finalist. He's pretty smart and a good test taker. Feel pretty good about his chances to become a finalist (his SAT was very good and he completed the application - so I think that gets him most of the way from semi-finalist to finalist). I highly doubt he'll be selected as a scholar.

Right. It's an honor but money is only $2500

The real moeny could come from the schools for finalists.
https://www.nationalmerit.org/s/1758/images/gid2/editor_documents/merit_sponsor_leaflet.pdf?gid=2&pgid=61

The list is not that impressive, but there are some good schools like Vanderbilt USC BC BU NEU, Tufts, Case Western, Florida, Emory, Harvey Mudd etc.
The money each school give you varies. A lot of them just give you $2K $3K. Schools like Florida give you FullRide!
USC gives you 50% tuition for all 4 years.

Another thing to note is that it's an indication that these schools value the National Merit selection, so if you put it on your college resume, it can help.

Florida no longer gives a full ride to out of state kids. That changed this year.

Only about 1.7 million kids take the qualifying PSAT so it’s not 3.3 million.