Scholarship

A scholarship is a form of financial aid awarded to students to further education. Scholarships are awarded based upon various criteria, such as academic merit, diversity and inclusion, athletic skill, and financial need. Scholarship criteria usually reflect the values and goals of the donor or founder of the award. While scholarship recipients are not required to repay scholarships, the awards may require that the recipient continue to meet certain requirements during their period of support, such maintaining a minimum grade point average or engaging in a certain activity (e.g., playing on a school sports team for athletic scholarship holders, or serving as a teaching assistant for some graduate scholarships). Scholarships may provide a monetary award, an in-kind award (e.g., waiving of tuition fees or fees for housing in a dormitory), or a combination.

What is an example of scholarship

An example of scholarship is when you study for a master's degree. An example of a scholarship is when someone pays your college tuition for you. A specific gift of money or other aid, as by a foundation, to help a student pay for instruction. The knowledge attained by scholars, collectively.

Scholarships vs. grants

US Aid scholarship certificates.

While the terms scholarship and grant are frequently used interchangeably, there is a difference. Scholarships may have a financial need component but rely on other criteria as well.

Academic scholarships typically use a minimum grade-point average or standardized test score such as the ACT or SAT to select awardees.

Athletic scholarships are generally based on athletic performance of a student and used as a tool to recruit high-performing athletes for their school's athletic teams.

Merit scholarships can be based on a number of criteria, including performance in a particular school subject or club participation or community service.

Grants, however, are offered based exclusively on financial need and determined using the applicant's FAFSA information.

A federal pell grant can be awarded to someone planning to receive their undergraduate degree and is solely based on their financial needs.

National Merit Scholarship Program

The National Merit Scholarship Program is a United States academic scholarship competition for recognition and university scholarships administered by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC), a privately funded, not-for-profit organization based in Evanston, Illinois. The program began in 1955.

Logo of the National Merit Scholarship Corporation

NMSC conducts an annual competition for recognition and scholarships: the National Merit Scholarship Program, which is open to all students who meet entry requirements. Until 2015, it also ran the National Achievement Scholarship Program (est. 1964), which was reserved for African-American students. The highest-achieving students in the National Merit Scholarship Program are designated as National Merit Scholars. Finalists and Semifinalists are also given recognition for their academic and extracurricular achievements. Commended Students are named on the basis of a nationally applied Selection Index score, which may vary from year to year and is typically below the level required for participants to be named Semifinalists in their respective states. Each year's Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT) is the qualifying test for a student's entry to a particular year's competitions.

About 1.6 million students in some 22,000 high schools enter the National Merit Scholarship competition annually when they take the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT). This serves to screen program entrants, measuring critical reading ability, mathematics problem-solving ability, and writing ability, rather than existing knowledge.  Semifinalists are designated on a state representational basis, contingent on the total number of entrants and in proportion to each state's percentage of the nation's high school graduating seniors.  Semifinalists are the highest-scoring program entrants in each state and represent the top 0.5 percent of the state's senior students.

To be considered for a National Merit Scholarship, Semifinalists have to fulfill requirements to advance to Finalist standing. Each Semifinalist submits a detailed scholarship application, which includes essays and information about extracurricular achievements, awards, and leadership positions. Semifinalists also have to have an outstanding academic record, be endorsed and recommended by a school official, and earn SAT scores that confirm their qualifying test performance. From the Semifinalist group, a certain number of students, varying from year to year, advance to Finalist standing depending on the above criteria. By the conclusion of the competition, a select group of Finalists are chosen to receive prestigious National Merit Scholarships totaling nearly $35 million. Winners are the Finalist candidates judged to have the strongest combination of academic skills and achievements, extracurricular accomplishments, and potential for success in rigorous university studies. Scholarship winners represent fewer than 1% of the the initial pool of student entrants, based on official statistics released by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation.