<p>To add to what book_worm says:</p>
<p>There are three sources of National Merit Scholarships.
- Corporations give scholarships mainly to children of employees but there are some exceptions i.e. people who live in a certain area or want to specialize in certain fields. The awards are determined by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) Staff using the criteria given by the donor. These scholarships can be one time or spread over 4 years.
- NMSC itself gives 2500 scholarships of $2500 each. These are one time scholarships determined by a NMSC committee.
- Colleges can give their own NM scholarships.</p>
<p>The first two types (Corporate and NMSC’s own $2500 scholarship) can be used at any accredited institution within the US. You could use it Harvard or Chico State or UCF etc etc. The money is sent to the institution you choose and they will act as intermediary. So if you choose MIT and get the scholarship, NMSC will send the money to MIT and MIT will give it to you.</p>
<p>The third scholarship is given the college or university. Obviously Arizona State or University of Chicago (who give a very small NM scholarship) will not give you money to go to a different school. So you have commit to attending that school for them to give you the money. So these scholarships are tied to a particular donor school.</p>
<p>MIT does not award any scholarship out of its own money, but will allow you to receive money from any other source.</p>
<p>Hope this clarifies.</p>