national merit essay character count

Jeff Widman

I enjoy hacking/optimizing systems. currently working as a software engineer focused on infrastructure/plumbing. founded/sold two companies., the magical 4.0–national merit finalist essay.

When I was a junior in highschool, I had to write a 500 word essay as part of the process of becoming a National Merit Finalist (remember the PSAT?). This is still o still one of my favorites:

——————————————————————————————–

The Magical 4.0

As I walked to the front of the class and began to read, I found it impossible to think; I could only read each word one at a time. It was the last day of finals, and I was presenting my narrative project to my English class. Only four days earlier, my dreams had been shattered. I had lost my 4.0. Struggling for an “A” throughout the quarter, it had come down to the very last test; I needed to get a 98. When the teacher returned my test, an 89.5 glared in red at the top of the page. Even more painful was the inner questioning that had immediately followed. My narrative project became my analytical tool as I struggled to make sense of my loss. Re-telling the event in the third-person, I shoved my emotions aside and asked the questions I previously had not dared to face.

As the quarter had progressed everything else had faded except this goal of maintaining my 4.0. Every spare moment had been spent studying Chemistry, or revising my World Literature essay. My friends had become strangers. Because I had been consistently going to bed after midnight, my performance in Track had suffered–I no longer had any chance of running in the State meet.

But how could I distill this experience into a narrative? Could I adequately describe the effort that had gone into my 4.0, or how close I had come to getting an A, only to see it pulled just out of my reach on the very last test? Would my audience even care? Would they understand how hard I worked for perfection, how I expected perfection–how I was used to perfection? Would they understand what it meant to lose perfection?

I labored over my narrative to shorten it–every time I started typing it would just grow and grow. The ending was the biggest challenge; it wasn’t until I started typing the last paragraph that I came up with the idea of a happy-ever-after ending, the ending I almost had, where I scored a 99 instead of an 89.5.

Not until after my presentation, as I shared my reflections on the experience, did I reveal to the class that I had really gotten the 89.5. Afterward my English professor would write, “This was one of my favorite moments of last year, Jeff. Maybe best of all was the brilliant move to have the ending different than what actually happened in your life, and then reveal that ‘real’ ending in your comments. The entire room was transfixed by your revelation; I could feel it. You both criticized yourself and elevated yourself by so bravely doing that.”

The contrast between the two endings–the dream and the reality–underscored what my narrative project had made me realize was my only question: Had I overvalued perfection? Even if I had achieved the 99, would my 4.0 have been worth so much sacrifice?

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National Merit Scholarship

About the scholarship.

National Merit Scholarship Program provides financial assistance for college to high school seniors who achieve outstanding scores on standardized tests.

• Essay Required : No
• Need-Based : No
• Merit-Based : Yes
• This program is open to students who are enrolled full-time in a secondary school, progressing normally toward graduation or completion of high school, and planning to enter college in the fall following high school graduation.
• Applicants must be a U.S. citizen or a permanent resident in the process of becoming a U.S. citizen and be taking the PSAT/NMSQT at the proper time in the high school program and no later than the third year in grades 9 through 12, regardless of grade classification or educational pattern.
• On the basis of the PSAT/NMSQT results, approximately 16,000 of the highest scorers are designated as semifinalists; they are apportioned among states based on the number of graduating seniors in each state, to ensure equitable geographical representation.
• Finalists for National Merit Scholarships must be graduating seniors who are selected from among the semifinalists on the basis of SAT scores, academic performance in all of grades 912, and recommendations by high school principals.
• Country : US

How to Write a National Merit Essay

Teresa j. siskin.

You’ve cleared the first hurdle once you’ve become a semifinalist for the National Merit Scholarship Competition. Continuing to compete as a finalist means completing an application, which includes an essay. While there is no one "correct” way to write this essay, you can help distinguish yourself from fellow semifinalists by offering a clear, concise 500-word piece that shares a perspective and leaves an impression.

Explore this article

• Structure and Inspiration

1 Structure and Inspiration

You can approach the National Merit Scholarship essay as you would any other scholarship essay. According to Kansas State University and Dr. Kay Peterson from the University of Florida, one way to structure your essay is to focus on a life altering or defining moment. Draw from a simple occurrence, such as falling off your bike as a small child or a book you read, or from a much more intense event, such as losing a home in a hurricane, as long as you relay what lesson you took from that experience. Use the introduction of your essay to recount this defining moment, and conclude with a thesis that summarizes how that event affected your outlook on life. Then, use your subsequent body paragraphs to highlight how this moment continues to affect your life personally or academically, and conclude by relating this experience to your goals for college, your desire for college scholarships, or your passion for becoming a National Merit Scholar. You can always ask others for help both in brainstorming for essay topics and in editing your final product.

• 1 University of Florida Office of Financial Aid: Writing the Scholarship Essay
• 2 Kansas State University: Writing Scholarship Essays

About the Author

Teresa J. Siskin has been a researcher, writer and editor since 2009. She holds a doctorate in art history.

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2023-2024 National Merit Cutoffs + Next Steps

What’s covered:.

• National Merit Semifinalist Cutoffs 2023-2024

How is the PSAT Scored?

What is the national merit scholarship, scholarships available, how does the psat impact my college chances.

The National Merit Scholarship Program is primarily based on the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT) which is taken during junior year of high school. For some students, the PSAT/NMSQT is just a test run for the SAT—which is one reason it’s commonly referred to as simply the PSAT—but earning a strong score is an impressive accomplishment to list on a college application and can lead to valuable scholarships. 

Over 1.5 million students take the PSAT annually, but only 16,000 students are recognized as semifinalists, who may apply for finalist status and compete for scholarships. Since the cutoffs for semifinalists are state-dependent and change from year to year, it’s important to stay up to date on this year’s cutoffs so you can know if you made the cut or not.

National Merit Semifinalist Cutoffs 2023–2024

Below are the projected National Merit Semifinalist cutoffs for the class of 2024, who took the PSAT in October 2022 or January 2023. These are not final cutoffs, but are predicted based on extensive research and data. 

The PSAT is scored on a scale of 320 to 1520 in ten-point increments and consists of two sections—Evidence-Based Reading and Writing (EBRW) and Math—with each section worth between 160 and 760 points.

Scaled scores are converted by the College Board—the group that administers the PSAT—from raw scores that account for variances in difficulty between different versions of the PSAT. Raw scores are equivalent to the total number of questions a student answered correctly. Students receive three raw scores:

• Writing and language 

The Selection Index is used to identify a student’s level of recognition from the National Merit program. Selection Index scores are calculated by adding together the three raw subsection scores and multiplying their total by two, with scores ranging from 48-228.

The National Merit Scholarship Program (NMSP) began in 1955 as a way to recognize students who had shown exceptional academic and personal achievement. It consists of several different levels and awards, which we will go into further detail about below. National Merit finalists compete to receive the National Merit Scholarship, which is a single-payment award of $2,500 that can be put towards any college of your choice. There are also corporate-sponsored and college-sponsored awards for students who meet specific eligibility requirements.

The National Merit Scholarship Program features three levels of recognition: commended students, semifinalists, and finalists.

Commended Students

Commended students are chosen nationally, rather than on a state level. Commended students are approximately the top 50,000 scorers on the PSAT. More than two-thirds of the Commended Students receive Letters of Commendation in recognition of their outstanding academic promise and while they don’t qualify for National Merit Scholarships, many will compete for special scholarships sponsored by corporations and businesses. 

Semifinalists

Semifinalists are chosen on a state-by-state basis to ensure equal representation across the country. Semifinalists are the highest scorers on the PSAT in their state, and qualifying scores can vary from year to year depending on the overall performance of students in a given state. If you are a Semifinalist, you can submit an application to become a finalist. The application includes your grades and transcript, extracurricular activities, and an SAT or ACT score.

Roughly 15,000 Finalists are selected from the pool of Semifinalists based on a variety of factors. All Finalists are awarded a Certificate of Merit. However, only about half of finalists will receive the National Merit Scholarship.

At each level of recognition, there are various scholarships available to students through the National Merit Organization. So, even though only a select few will receive the highly prestigious National Merit Scholarship, there are still plenty of other ways to receive financial support through this program.

National Merit Scholarship

A little more than half—about 7,600—of Finalists are chosen to receive a National Merit Scholarship. In addition to their PSAT scores, candidates are also evaluated on their abilities, skills, and accomplishments based on materials like their academic records, written recommendations, and essays.

Corporate-Sponsored Merit Scholarship Awards

Corporate-sponsored scholarships are available to students who meet certain criteria, such as children of employees, residents of the community where the corporation operates, or students with specific career plans as specified by the awarding corporation. Corporate-sponsored scholarships can either be one-time awards or renewable. Some notable corporations that participate include PepsiCo, Johnson & Johnson, FedEx, Walgreens, and more.

College-Sponsored Merit Scholarship Awards

College-sponsored scholarships are awarded by schools that Finalists have been accepted to and designated as their first choice. College-sponsored awards are renewable for up to four years of undergraduate study and scholarship amounts vary from $500 to $2,000.

Next Steps for Semifinalists

If you were lucky enough to meet or exceed your state’s selection index, congrats! You’re a Semifinalist! Here are the steps National Merit Semifinalists can take to become National Merit Scholars.

When Are Semifinalists Notified of Their Status?

Semifinalists are notified of their accomplishments through their high schools in early September of their senior year. Homeschooled semifinalists receive notice at their home addresses. Finalists are notified in February of their senior year and find out if they won an award between March and June.

What Do Semifinalists Need to Do to Apply to Be a Finalist?

Semifinalists must meet a handful of requirements to become Finalists. For example, they must maintain an exemplary academic record, write an essay, and receive a recommendation from their high school principal. Semifinalists must also meet certain citizenship requirements along with achieving and submitting an SAT or ACT score. Semifinalists must be enrolled in high school with the intention of enrolling in college or university in fall 2024. 

College choice is not considered when determining your status as a Finalist or scholarship recipient, however, the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) asks for this information because the awards are only available to students attending accredited U.S. colleges or universities. Applicants can mark undecided instead of listing their first-choice school, but the NMSC asks that you update them as soon as possible.

Note: The National Merit Program has specific requirements for students attending high school outside the U.S. or who are enrolled in college full-time. Check National Merit’s Requirements and Instructions for Semifinalists in the 2024 National Merit Scholarship Program .

Your PSAT score will not directly affect your chances of college admission. That said, if you do well on it, you have the potential to earn National Merit recognition, which will boost your application. While Finalists and National Merit Scholars will receive the biggest boost because of the competitive nature, being a Commended Scholar or Semifinalist is still an impressive addition to any college application.

Additionally, the PSAT can indirectly impact your college chances because it serves as a great source of practice for the SAT. For many students, the PSAT is the first time they will have taken an official, timed, and highly structured exam, and it provides excellent practice for standardized tests you will take for college admissions. The PSAT allows students to familiarize themselves with the structure and content of the exam and to identify strengths and weaknesses which they can use as they prepare for more consequential exams. More and more colleges are offering test-optional admissions , but sending scores is commonly believed to make you a stronger candidate. 

Curious to see how your odds of acceptance are impacted by your test scores or National Merit status? Collegevine’s free chancing engine can predict your chances of admission at over 1600 colleges and universities across the country. Our chancing engine uses factors like grades, test scores, extracurriculars, and personal demographics to help you find best-fit schools and refine your application strategy.

What If I Didn’t Score High Enough to be Recognized?

Don’t worry if you didn’t score high enough to earn recognition in the National Merit competition. The National Merit Scholarship isn’t a substantial financial award and there are numerous other ways to earn merit scholarships. Many colleges offer significant merit awards , particularly to students they think are incredibly impressive. Applying to schools where your profile is stronger than the average applicant is a smart strategy if you want to secure one of these valuable merit scholarships.

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Sat / act prep online guides and tips, 4 top tips for the common app honors section.

College Admissions

When you’re applying to college, each part of your application counts. You want to maximize every opportunity to make yourself stand out from the thousands of other applicants vying for a spot at the school of your dreams.

One of the many places you can distinguish yourself is in the Common App Honors section. In this article, we’ll talk about what the Honors Common App section is and how to maximize it to show your best work.

What Is the Honors Common App Section?

You can find the Honors section in the Education section of the Common App. The instructions for this section are simple: you can list up to five honors in 100 characters or less.

You’ll need to indicate the name of the honor, the years you received it, and the level of the honor: school, state/regional, national or international.  A school-level award means that only the students in your school could qualify for that award. A national-level award means that students in your country could qualify for that award.

The larger the pool of potential applicants, the more impressive your award will seem. You’ll want to lead with your most impressive awards first.

What Count as Honors for the Common App?

You might be wondering what should be listed in the Common App honors section and what should be listed elsewhere - in your activities, for example.

In general, honors that are tied to your extracurricular activities should be listed in the activities section, while those that aren’t connected to a specific activity should be listed in the honors section.

For example, if you earn a varsity letter for the football team, you can put that in the activities section, because it’s directly related to an activity at school.

If you’re a National Merit Semi-Finalist, on the other hand, you’ll want to include that in academic honors, since it doesn’t easily tie to a specific activity.

4 Tips for What to Include in the Honors Common App Section

You don’t have a ton of room on the Common App to list and describe your honors, so you should keep it brief and use the space allotted as strategically as possible. Here are tips for what to include and how to write in the Common App honors section.

#1: Lead With Your Most Impressive Achievements

You should lead with your most impressive achievements and make sure that only the best honors make it onto your application. Don’t, for instance, include that you were voted “Most Likely to Forget When Graduation Is” by your peers- stick to real honors that you had to compete to get.

#2: Describe the Award If It’s Unclear

While national awards like National Merit are self-explanatory and obvious to the admissions committee, city or school-level awards might not be. Use the 100 characters of space to describe what it is and why isn’t important, like so: “Julius Caesar Award for the Highest Latin Score in All of Rome.” You should avoid using acronyms unless they’re widely recognizable (think SAT-level recognizable); otherwise, they’ll just confuse the admissions committee and take away from your achievement.

#3: Indicate the Level of Competitiveness

Show off! Use your character limit to show why the award was important. If you won money, say so! If you were selected as one out of 15,000, own it! The more competitive you make the prize (particularly for city and school level honors), the more your application will stand out.

#4: Be Honest

It should go without saying, but don’t lie on your application just to make yourself sound better. Not only is that a scummy thing to do, it can result in some serious punishments. You’re already a stellar applicant - focus on your real achievements, rather than your fake ones.

Recap: Filling Out the Common App Honors Section

The Common App honors section is a great place to call attention to your different achievements. Don't be shy - celebrate the hard work you've done and the recognition you've received for said hard work!

What’s Next?

Wondering how to prepare for your college interview? Check out this list of college interview tips to be sure you know exactly what to prepare for during your interview.

Headed to an interview soon? This list of questions to ask a college interviewer will help you get the most out of your experience.

Are you worried about standardized tests and their role in your college application? Read this article to find out when these tests might not matter for you .  Also take a look at this list of colleges that don't require SAT scores.

Hayley Milliman is a former teacher turned writer who blogs about education, history, and technology. When she was a teacher, Hayley's students regularly scored in the 99th percentile thanks to her passion for making topics digestible and accessible. In addition to her work for PrepScholar, Hayley is the author of Museum Hack's Guide to History's Fiercest Females.

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Honors College Essay

I have a question about the essay for the honors college application. On the application web page, it states that National Merit Semifinalists will automatically be admitted to the honors college. Then there’s a spot for a “tell us about yourself” essay. That essay has a length limit of 2000 words! That’s a heck of a lot of essay about myself.

I plan to apply to the Alabama Fellows Experience as well as the CBHP. I assume both of those have essays as well (I can’t tell because until I finish the honors application I can’t see those). Will the “tell me about yourself” essay be used for admission to Fellows and/or CBHP, or can I write something pretty simple here since I’m automatically accepted to the honors college.

Sorry I meant National Merit Finalists, not Semifinalists, in the post above.

It’s a 2000 character limit. Just write something about yourself, as the HC will want to know about you. You will still be accepted. You probably have another essay you can re-use.

Both programs have different essay prompts. I believe the honors essay can be pretty basic. I know others will respond if I am not correct. Good luck to you and Roll Tide!

It’s definitely 2000 characters - and they count spaces and carriage returns lol.

My son put all of like 5 mins into the Honors essay. There was text that basically stated that admittance is based on statistics and not what you write. That was interpreted by my son as “this is a formality - don;t put effort into it”.

Honestly, 2000 characters is pretty darn short. He had two shor paragraphs for a brief 411 and then a single paragraph on his career goals. Lastly, he closed with why the concept of HC fits him (and the converse). He had to shorten it 4-5 times as the Word count and online/web character count varied a bit.

I wrote that essay extremely fast about what I want to do in my life. I quickly threw in the honors college’s four pillars and how that will help me grow. It even says they admit purely on stats.

Bonks self in head . My critical reading scores were good; you’d think I would have read that more carefully. Anyway, 2000 chars changes things a lot! I’ll knock it out and move on. Thanks all!

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WARNING: to all National Merit Finalists, make sure your essay is not cut off in the preview

I feel really stupid right now since the essay I submitted was cut off. The text box where you input the essay did not tell me I was over the limit and saved perfectly fine. However, my application preview had the essay cut off so the printed essay was 2/3 of the actual length, but I did not notice this until the next day after I submitted. NMSC has told me there is nothing I can do. Wow, I might be only one to not get finalist in my school. I am about to cry right now.

PS: sorry about my irrelevant username