The National Merit Scholarship is an academic scholarship that recognizes students who received an outstanding score on the PSAT taken in their junior year. This year, senior Lun Jiang is a finalist for this prestigious award.

“Finalist means that, like I guess, my ability to take standardized testing has been recognized, and my academic achievements have been recognized which is great,” Jiang said of his accomplishments.

Jiang explains that the process of receiving this award starts in junior year with the PSAT. After taking the test, students receive their score and get a National Merit index, which determines whether an individual qualifies as a semifinalist or not.

“…with this index, they decide whether you qualify as a semifinalist. There’s the national and state index,” Jiang explained. “New Jersey is one of the hardest schools to become a semifinalist for because it has the highest index along with some other places like DC.  If you make it past this cutoff, you get named a commended scholar rather than a semifinalist, but you still receive recognition for your achievement on the test. So after that, if your index is high enough to be named semifinalist, you get access to a portal. And through this application, you have to name your extracurriculars, you have to write an essay.” 

While not all finalists will receive money, there are several types of scholarships available. 

“So there’s different types of scholarships you can receive through the National Merit Scholarship corporation,” Jiang said. “You could receive a one-time $2,500 scholarship, or you could receive a four-year scholarship. And there’s also company-sponsored ones. So National Merit Corporation has a bunch of companies that sponsor them and give them money.” 

In recognizing his ability to do well on standardized tests, Jiang said there is no need to prepare for testing by hiring or paying a tutor. He recommends using resources available online to help in preparing for upcoming tests. 

“The best advice I have for anyone trying to take an SAT or your PSAT regardless is you don’t need a book, you don’t need a fancy tutor, and you don’t need to spend money,” Jiang said. “Khan Academy has partnered with the College Board to give you basically a bunch of free SATs you can practice with and you see these types of questions on the SATs and PSAT as well.” 

Having recently committed to Dartmouth College, Jiang will be majoring in cognitive science in the fall.