National Merit, Hispanic and Achievement Scholars

The National Merit Program is for students who have had high achievement on their PSAT test. When students achieve a minimum score, The National Merit Program notifies students and their families. Names are then sent to the schools, and counselors provide requested information through the format provided by the National Merit Program. The NMSQT Program is tasked with determining who is eligible, notifying the campus, providing qualification documents. The campus provides the NMSQT program with requested information.

National Merit Scholarship Program

The National Merit Program honors individual students who show exceptional academic ability and potential for success in rigorous college studies. An estimated 16,000 semifinalists, less than 1 percent of high school seniors nationwide, were chosen based on their scores from the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test and are among the students scoring the highest in the state.

Those students selected as finalists will compete for a total of $50 million in scholarships from the National Merit Corporation, corporate sponsors and college/university sponsors. There are three types of Merit Scholarship winners, which will be announced the following fall.

National Hispanic Recognition Program

The National Hispanic Recognition Program identifies outstanding Hispanic/Latino high school students and share information about them with interested colleges and universities. In order to be eligible, you must be at least one-quarter Hispanic/Latino as defined by the NHRP, meet the minimum PSAT/NMSQT cutoff score for your state, and achieve a minimum grade point average (GPA) requirement.

National Achievement Scholarship Program

The National Achievement® Scholarship Program is an academic competition established in 1964 to provide recognition for outstanding Black American high school students. Black students may enter both the National Achievement Program and the National Merit® Program by taking the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT®) and meeting other published requirements for participation.