Anonymous wrote:These aren't tied to which college you would attend or which company your parents or grandparents work at. These are purely merit based. All $15,000 finalists are considered and top 2500 are selected by a committee of college admissions counselors and high school counselors.

"The National Merit $2,500 Scholarship is a one-time award for National Merit Finalists, given to about 2,500 students annually from each state proportionally, recognizing outstanding academic achievement and potential, with funds provided by NMSC's own funds and corporate sponsors, usable at any U.S. college. To win, students must first qualify as a Finalist by excelling on the PSAT/NMSQT and completing further requirements, competing against other finalists in their state for this specific award."

Anonymous wrote:This is a great resource

https://lookerstudio.google.com/u/0/reporting/0db1fc2e-a739-4596-b425-419c2cfac963/page/dFARD?s=mOFFrRi-cYg

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Texas A&M - obviously not in the same league as Duke, Vandy, etc bit still a very respectable T20-T30 engineering school - offers very generous merit scholarships based on PSAT National Merit Semi/Finalist recognition.

$7000k per year and in-state tuition. That’s an equivalent of an additional $27k per year.

plus direct admit to engineering major and admit to honors program.

DC isnt sure about texas, but the overall package is really tempting. we will visit and decide.

just mentioning it here in case folks didnt know about this.

But ofno use to most reading here in DMV because Texas A&M has a tough 12 month residency requirement. https://aggieonestop.tamu.edu/billing-and-payments/residency-for-in-state-tuition/establishing-residency

Anonymous wrote:Texas A&M - obviously not in the same league as Duke, Vandy, etc bit still a very respectable T20-T30 engineering school - offers very generous merit scholarships based on PSAT National Merit Semi/Finalist recognition.

$7000k per year and in-state tuition. That’s an equivalent of an additional $27k per year.

plus direct admit to engineering major and admit to honors program.

DC isnt sure about texas, but the overall package is really tempting. we will visit and decide.

just mentioning it here in case folks didnt know about this.

Anonymous wrote:If you looked at LinkedIn or something like that, it maybe just because that’s not their complete profile.

Basically, schools like Duke, Vandy , JHU and other slightly lowers ones like Rice, Emory, etc, use merit scholarships to pull students from Ivies. Generally those applicants have offers from Ivies too.

Generally, state colleges give merit based on stats, like SAT, GPA. Private schools will consider leadership, community impact and etc. it’s hard to believe they are ordinary.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The handful of merit scholarships available at Duke, Vanderbilt, Rice, Chicago, Notre Dame, WashU, and Northwestern are basically lotteries for every admitted student. The Ivy league schools don't offer merit scholarships. Nor do Stanford and MIT.

Honestly those who get merit at these schools are pretty indisguishable from those who don't.

Obviously clueless

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The handful of merit scholarships available at Duke, Vanderbilt, Rice, Chicago, Notre Dame, WashU, and Northwestern are basically lotteries for every admitted student. The Ivy league schools don't offer merit scholarships. Nor do Stanford and MIT.

Honestly those who get merit at these schools are pretty indisguishable from those who don't.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most of these scholarships are need-aware. Most recipients probably come from high schools where no one has ever heard of that alphabet soup of acronyms OP cares so much about.

Robertson (Duke), Ampersand (Wash u), etc are not need based. These schools meet full needs anyway, so what would be the point? A handful of the top 20 offer a very few merit scholarships, probably to lure truly exceptional kids away from HYSP.

Anonymous wrote:Seeing the profiles of the scarce merit scholarship recipients at Duke, Hopkins, Washu etc and is anyone else underwhelmed?

They are surprisingly average and do not stand out academically. No presidential, national merit scholars even let alone top awards like IMO or IPO gold / ISEF winners.

Anonymous wrote:The handful of merit scholarships available at Duke, Vanderbilt, Rice, Chicago, Notre Dame, WashU, and Northwestern are basically lotteries for every admitted student. The Ivy league schools don't offer merit scholarships. Nor do Stanford and MIT.