Abstract
T HE National Merit Scholarship Corporation through a highly selective screening program in i956 granted 556 scholarships to high-school Seniors throughout the United States. This group of students, Merit Scholars, were awarded an average stipend of $628 a year for four years.' A second group of Seniors, the near winners, were awarded Certificates of Merit. The caliber of the latter group of students can be indicated best by a review of the survival odds for the entire sample of high-school Seniors. Of an estimated senior population of 1,196,500, the top 5 per cent were selected by their teachers and principals as participants.2 Consequently, the chances of being a participant were only about i in 20. The winners of the Certificate of Merit numbering 4,226 were selected in turn from the participants. The chances for becoming a Merit winner are then about i in 276. This is roughly equivalent to being in the top .3 of one per cent of the high-school senior population of the nation, in scholastic ability and promise for colleg;e work.
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