Financial aid guide for students and parents

Rising cost of education is acting as a barrier for students who want to pursue college education and build up their career after high school. Even meritorious students are facing challenges in coping with high fees and other expenses while opting for a course, college or university of their choice. They are the future leaders and to ensure that their merit does not go waste, a number of merit based scholarships are available. One of these scholarships is the National Merit Scholarship which is available for high school juniors who wish to further pursue college education.

National Merit Scholarship Program, administered by a not-for-profit, privately funded organization National Merit Scholarship Corporation, was started in 1955. But getting this scholarship is not easy as it involves a series of steps. Any college bound student must appear for the preliminary SAT, also called National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (NMSQT), which acts as a screening test. It is attempted by more than million juniors from high school out of which top 50000 students are given recognition and their schools are notified. They are given a chance to choose two colleges they would like to pursue and NMSC sends their scores to the respective colleges. Then these students are notified by the colleges whether they have qualified as a ‘semi finalist’ or are ‘commended’. Commended students cannot compete for National Merit Scholarship but receive Letters of Commendation for their promising outstanding academics. Some of these students qualify for Special Scholarships which are sponsored by businesses and corporate. Around 16000 semifinalists are notified out of the top 50000 scorers out of which around 15000 reach the final stage. Based on their academics, skills, performance, talent, accomplishments, abilities and essay written by the person, around 8200 final merit winners are chosen from the group of finalists.

Merit winners get $2500 each at the freshman year of their college and it adds weight to their college admissions. Colleges boast of having a number of ‘National Merit Scholars’ enrolled with them. Many colleges also award large or full scholarships to National Merit Scholars to attract them to their college. They are awarded on state representation basis and do not consider the financial condition of the family.

The benefits are not only for winners, being a semi finalist or a finalist is also an appreciable position and carries lot of weight. It is a best way to gain recognition for college admissions and become eligible for different college and corporate sponsored merit based scholarships.

Though becoming a National Merit Scholar involves a stringent process, it is attempted by millions of high school students as more than the modest monetary scholarship it gives recognition to the students.