National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) gives false promises. Every year my son has taken the PSAT test in Octobers since 9th grade, 2012. He scored among the top 1% nationwide and became a national merit semi-finalist in his 11th grade year (11th grade is the only year counts). After he submitted an application, an essay, recommendation letters and SAT scores, he advanced to be a national merit finalist. He received a letter from NMSC president in March 2016 which wrote he received a scholarship of $2000 per year for 4 years from Northrop Grumman and he “may only use this scholarship at a regionally accredited college or university in the United States”. Then in August 2016, NMSC informed my son he had lost his scholarship because he had chosen to go to a service academy.
A short sentence on the exclusion of service academies from scholarships was buried in a 56-page PSAT/NMSQT booklet that NMSC gave out to students when they registered for PSAT tests. NMSC failed to properly inform students the exclusion, then it continued to mislead my son with the president’s letter, followed by lies to cover its tracks. NMSC board of directors and Northrop Grumman are enabling these behaviors by choosing to do nothing.