National Merit Scholarship Question

shoe66
Tue, 23 Jan 2007 06:59:55 +0000

Why is so much weight being placed merely on the test and not on the overall student, regardless of the award granted by National Merit?<<




I’m somewhat playing the role of devil’s advocate here, but I think Fordham’s position is fair. It very clearly lists its guidelines for awarding merit-based aid, and it has chosen to use the National Merit designation to determine who gets some scholarships. It could easily have chosen, say, the ACT. And then, wouldn’t the students who scored well on the SAT and PSAT have had the same complaint as yours?

Many universities proudly boast of the number of NM finalists that they have. The designation means something. There is plenty of information on CC that can tell a student what score she/he has to achieve on the PSAT to be a NM semifinalist. If a student didn’t achieve that score, it smacks of sour grapes to complain of “so much weight being placed merely on the test” and to criticize Fordham for seeking to attract more NM students.