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<p>~8000 National Merit Scholarships are awarded per year, split between the ones sponsored by businesses (~1000), ones sponsored by colleges (~5000), and ones sponsored by the National Merit Corporation itself (2500.) The National Merit Scholarship Corporation has said they call recipients of any of these “National Merit Scholars”.</p>
<p>Whether your son is one of the 2500 awarded by the National Merit Corporation, I don’t really know. Maybe businesses help to pay for some of the ones awarded by the corporation, sort of like adopting a kid ha ha. Anyway, even if someone did win the one sponsored by business, I’ve heard they may take you out of the running for the one awarded by the NM Corporation, so the contest may not include the 1000 which win the business-sponsored ones.</p>
<p>In any case, I think the award would be improved if it was changed as I specified in my previous post.</p>