MHS Senior Naomi Brill is one of the National Merit Scholarship finalists this school year.
The National Merit Scholarship Program, run by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC), is an academic competition for recognition and scholarships. Around 50,000 students who earned the highest selection index scores on the PSAT will gain recognition and go through the selection process for the scholarships.
Semifinalists are notified through their schools towards the beginning of the school year. In order to be able to become a finalist, semi-finalists have to complete an application, have a consistently very high academic record, write an essay, and take the SAT and earn a score that matches their performance on the PSAT. Around 7,500 finalists will receive either the National Merit Scholarship, corporate-sponsored Merit scholarship awards or college-sponsored Merit scholarship awards.
Brill mentioned that she didn’t realize that the PSAT was a National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test when she took it in her Junior year. She had found out about it when she got a letter from the NMSC that said that she was qualified to apply for the scholarship as her PSAT scores were very good.
Brill mentioned that the application process for the scholarship was fairly long. “At the beginning of the school year, [her] application got lost in the mailroom” as it is sent to the school’s principal, and because of this, she “[did not] find out that [she] needed to apply until the deadline had already passed.” Luckily, the NMSC had emailed her that she didn’t apply but still could and she was able to finish the application in a few days as she already had the basis of an essay from her English class.
Brill was very happy when she found out that she was a finalist as she was “worried that [she was not] going to move on because not a lot of the semifinalists very few people become finalists.” She hopes that she can get either one of the scholarships toward her college.
Brill mentioned that she “is going to miss [her] friends and playing music” with the Malden High School Band the most as she heads to college in the fall.
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