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So, I'm looking at the prompt for the National Merit essay. The prompt is straight forward (...describe you personal characteristics, accomplishments, primary interests, plans, and goals. What sets you apart?). 500 words. Right next to it is the totally inadequate space for awards, activities, and employment. In 500 words, I need to communicate who and what I am, what I've done, what I want to do, and why I'm different than the 16000 other semifinalists. There's not much angle for spin. Furthermore, I don't have any clue what they're looking for. "Merit"? What is that? Is that motivation, drive, ambition? Ability, talent, intelligence, intuition? Do these people think like colleges, and go for the people they think are interesting or unique, or simply those they think are accomplished or impressive? "Merit" is a vague word, like "worthy" or "deserving." What deserves not just laud, but money, in this society? Hard work, in line with American, egalitarian idealism, intelligence or academic ability, given that they are indeed saying that some people are better at some things than others, or some, foggy convergence of the twain? So my question (at long last) for all of you people on the web, is this: If YOU had to give out scholarships, what would you be looking for in the applicants?

By Asianalto (Asianalto) on Friday, September 03, 2004 - 08:06 pm: Edit

Yeah, I'm not sure, because not much sets me apart academically from most of the other semifinalists, but since NM is an academic award thing, I feel like I should write about that. My brother wrote about how he was a jerk in middle school and he was a finalist...so I guess you can really write about pretty much anything. So...I'm not sure, I haven't written mine yet, and I don't have any topic ideas and I have to have mine in in a week, so yeah, I think it would help if someone had a better idea of what they were looking for.

By Nike1800 (Nike1800) on Friday, September 03, 2004 - 11:41 pm: Edit

Isn't the Semifinalist essay just a formality? I'm asking this because I know out of 16,000, 15,000 people advance to Finalist standing. Or is the essay for Semifinalist used to determine who will recieve scholarships?

By Asianalto (Asianalto) on Friday, September 03, 2004 - 11:46 pm: Edit

Yeah, it seems like a great essay would just be superfluous, but I don't want to blow it off and miss the cut.

By Abeppu (Abeppu) on Saturday, September 04, 2004 - 01:52 am: Edit

No, because the form that the essay is on says "Merit Scholarship Application." This doesn't just advance you to finalist standing...it's used to judge whether or not you get money. And I could really use the scholarship. I'm just concerned that academics can be seen in one of two ways. Are they looking for hard work, or intrisic ability?

By Northstarmom (Northstarmom) on Saturday, September 04, 2004 - 10:22 am: Edit

My guess is that what determines finalist is mainly grades and scores. The essay, however, would help determine who gets the scholarships that are designed, for instance, for students who look like they're heading for certain fields.

I would bet that students whose essays indicate they are interested in business or science would have an edge when it comes to many NM scholarships. These wouldn't be the ones that specific universities sponsor. The primary factor for such scholarships is whether the students have chosen a sponsoring college as their first choice school (and of course whether the students applied to the school). The scholarships that companies sponsor for kids of their employees also probably don't depend upon the essay much unless they have a choice between employees kids who seem to plan to go into the company's field and employees' kids who don't have such plans.

From what I have seen, the majors/professions attracting the most merit aid tend to be business and the sciences, so I anticipate that students whose essays demonstrate an interest in either field will have an edge.

By Esmeralda1 (Esmeralda1) on Monday, September 27, 2004 - 01:29 pm: Edit

My college counselor told me that I should brag about as many of my achievements as possible in my essay. I read a sample one at: http://www.statementofpurpose.com/ee/scholarship_essay_sample_2.html that supposedly won a scholarship. It think it's not that good, but there's an example if you want.