Benilde-St. Margaret’s senior Charlotte Feller and another student who has chosen not to be recognized have qualified as semifinalists for National Merit. Students earn this impressive distinction by earning a high score on the PSAT/NMSQT standardized test.
Earning National Merit is a very difficult and impressive feat. Only the approximate top 1% of scorers become semifinalists. “After you take the PSAT, you get this number called the selection index number, and then, based on the selection index numbers in your state, the top scorers are semifinalists,” Feller said.
There is no one score students must earn. Instead, it depends on the other scores students earn that year. “The score is a little bit different each year. When we get students’ scores back in December, after they take it in October, we don’t actually know who might be in the running until the spring, when they give us a sense of where they think the range is going to be for National Merit,” college counselor Kate Berry said.
The PSAT has two sections: math and reading/writing. The math section tests algebra, problem-solving, and data analysis skills. The reading/writing section includes reading comprehension, grammar, and standard English skills. “I was kind of surprised by the vocabulary questions and weird, specific sentence types,” Feller said.
Feller spent some time preparing for the test. “I had a book from one of my friends who took it the previous year that I did a lot of practice problems in for both math and English,” Feller said.
After receiving an adequate score to be a semifinalist, students complete and submit a more comprehensive application to actually earn a National Merit scholarship. The application is very involved and requires a lot of components. “I had to enter kind of like a mini college application. I filled out my activities, awards I’ve received, I had to write an essay, and then I submitted my test scores from the ACT to confirm my PSAT score is accurate,” Feller said.
Feller’s college counselor also filled out a component of the application. “I basically had to confirm all the classes that we offer and how many Charlotte has taken, write a letter of recommendation, and fill out some other general information like personality questions,” Berry said.
Additionally, being a finalist doesn’t guarantee a scholarship. However, most finalists receive some sort of financial aid. “Most finalists will receive $2,500. There are also certain companies or corporations that fund different scholarships for different amounts and specific interests, like, maybe you indicated on your application you’re going into medicine, there might be a corporation that funds a medicine scholarship,” Feller said.
Semifinalists will find out if they earn finalist status sometime in the winter. Once they become finalists, students become eligible for many different scholarships. Scholarships can provide large assistance to high school students applying to colleges. “Getting a scholarship would be really helpful to me and my family to help pay for college,” Feller said.