The merit based scholarship for college students will include financial assistance as awards who establish their excellence in academic curriculum. Merit-based scholarship is given through different sources like foundation establishment, public and private universities.
Since 1955, every year The National Merit Scholarship Corporation conducts academic competition for the students studying in high school and residing in U.S. The students who choose the preliminary SAT test will enter into the competition. The winners are picked out not only on the basis of their test scores but also on the basis of their accomplishments and abilities. Three kinds of National Merit Scholarships are presented to the winners. It includes $2500 National Merit Scholarship, College-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards and Corporate-sponsored merit scholarship awards.
National Merit Scholarship:
All finalists who compete for this scholarship, which is a single payment, are granted on state representational basis. The winners are chosen without considering their family financial conditions, their plan about career, college choice and their major.
Corporate-sponsored merit scholarship awards:
The corporate sponsors will provide scholarship to their employees children, for the residents of a particular local area where the company is operated and for the finalists who has a career plans which the sponsors likes to promote. These scholarships will be either extended for four years to complete the undergraduate study or it will be as one-time awards.
College-sponsored merit scholarship awards:
The functionaries of Sponsor College will select the winners of their scholarship awards from finalists and who have been approved for admission. They should have informed National Merit Scholarship Corporation NMSC, that the sponsor university or college is their number one choice. These awards are extended not more than four years to complete the undergraduate study.
Almost all universities in U.S. provide merit based scholarships. The financial resources for these awards are from different kinds of sources. Private colleges also furnish merit-based scholarships.
The finalists can go for merit grants also. It is a free money award given for higher education which need not be paid back. These grants are mainly based on the income of the finalists who applies for grants and their academic performance. Grade Point Average, GPA has a vital role in deciding whether the finalists will obtain the grants or not.
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The Academic Competitiveness Grant, ACG:
The Federal government provides this ACG. This grant is given to the finalists who are now in first or second year of post-secondary study but had a strict course in their high school education. The finalists can apply for grants through online or can get information from the school guidance office.
Though both grants and scholarships have similar features like giving money for education which need not be paid back, the measures to obtain them are different. The scholarships are given on a basis of community service, academic, extra curricular and athletic achievement. But grants are allotted to finalists on the basis of their financial requirement.
