The National Merit Scholarship Program is an academic competition run by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) that uses junior-year PSAT/NMSQT scores to recognize high-scoring students and award scholarships.
The stages
- Entry. Students enter by taking the PSAT/NMSQT in the required year, which for a standard four-year student is grade 11. NMSC’s entry rules note that the PSAT 10 and PSAT 8/9 don’t count.
- Screening. NMSC ranks entrants by Selection Index, (2 × Reading and Writing + Math) ÷ 10.
- Commended Students. High scorers below their state’s Semifinalist cutoff receive letters of commendation and leave the competition.
- Semifinalists. Chosen state by state. Each state gets an allocation based on its share of graduating seniors, and the qualifying score is the one that most closely fills it.
- Finalists and winners. Semifinalists submit an application (grades, essay, recommendation, a confirming SAT or ACT score), and most advance to Finalist. Scholarship winners are selected from the Finalists.
The numbers
For the 2027 program, NMSC’s Semifinalist announcement reports that 1,254,659 students qualified by taking the 2025 test. More than 16,000 were named Semifinalists, about 34,000 of the roughly 50,000 high scorers became Commended Students, and about 6,700 Merit Scholarship awards were planned. The national Commended cutoff was a Selection Index of 208.
Why cutoffs differ by state
Because allocations are proportional to graduating seniors, a high-scoring state’s cutoff can sit well above a lower-scoring state’s. The same Selection Index can make you a Semifinalist in one state and Commended in another. Explore state-by-state school data on our states hub.
Planning for it
Run practice tests through the PSAT score calculator to see your estimated index, and use the SAT score calculator for the confirming score Finalists need. Comparing yourself with other test takers is what percentile rank is for.