National Merit!

I just got word that I was selected as a National Merit Finalist. Phew. That puts a big load off my chest. This award is my ticket to scholarship at The University of Oklahoma, where I plan to attend. Scholarship as in $65,000 scholarship. In case you don’t know about the National Merit Competition:

  • Students in each state take the PSAT (Preliminary SAT) their junior year.
  • Approximately the top 1,000 from each state are selected as Commended Students. This means a score of approximately 210 - 218, based on the state you live in. The highest possible score on the PSAT is 240. (My score was 238.)
  • The 55,000 Commended Students are pared down to 16,000 Semi-Finalists based on GPA and PSAT score.
  • 15,000 Finalists are selected based on an essay, community service requirements, and extracurricular activities.

I’ve already picked OU as my first-choice school, so it’s ever so likely that that’s where I’ll be heading this fall. Getting paid to go to college isn’t a bad thing… and if I can just get a couple more scholarships I applied for, like the Most Valuable Student scholarship from The Benevolent and Protective Order of the Elks or the Helping Hands Book Scholarship, I’ll really be sitting pretty.

Dewdles by Sam