In an initial entrance screen of about 1.5 million students, 16,000 students are chosen for the National Merit Qualifiers each year. During the selection process, three of the students that qualified came from the class of 2018 at Timber Creek.

The National Merit Scholarship Qualifiers for Timber Creek as announced by assistant principal, Jennifer Williams, are seniors Noah Anzaldua, Colin Sanders, and Gracy Whitaker.

In order to qualify for the National Merit Scholarship, students must take the National Merit Scholarship Qualifiying Test, also known as the PSAT/NMSQT, during their junior year of high school. To be considered for this scholarship, students must meet a qualifying score. This past year in Texas, the qualifying subscore cutoff was 221 – the highest it has ever been.

Many of the students chosen use this opportunity to get some recognition on college applications.

“I’m happy,” said Whitaker, “I’m glad I can put NMSF [National Merit Scholarship Finalist], on my college applications.”

After the students receive their scores, they are now considered a National Merit Semifinalist. The semifinalists must complete the application process which includes an essay, so they can be entered in the running to be a finalist for the scholarship. However, only about half of the semifinalists will actually continue to be finalists.

“It feels pretty good, [but] a little nerve-racking because I’m not sure I’ll go through to the next stage,” commented Anzaldua. “If I do go through, it’ll definitely impact my choice in school because some schools give bigger scholarships than others.”

Once the students advance to the finalist standing, they will then be entered into the competition to win either university based scholarships or official National Merit Scholarships. If the students accept the scholarship, they will then earn the title National Merit Scholar.

“Becoming a National Merit Scholar has been my goal since freshman year,” said Sanders. “So I’ve put in a lot of hard work to get there.”