No Ivy League college sponsors a National Merit Scholarship, Oriel Admissions finds

Oriel Admissions counted 137 colleges that sponsor National Merit Scholarships ahead of the first PSAT/NMSQT score release on Oct. 22. None of the Ivy League schools, Stanford, MIT or several other elite private universities are on the list, while public universities like Alabama account for the biggest share of awards.

Why it matters: - National Merit is one of the most visible academic honors in U.S. college admissions, but the scholarship money is concentrated at a relatively small set of schools. - Families targeting elite private universities can win the title without getting college-sponsored National Merit money. - The sponsor list can shape college-list strategy before PSAT/NMSQT scores are released.

What happened: - Oriel Admissions counted the colleges that sponsor National Merit Scholarships using the Fall 2026 PSAT/NMSQT Student Guide. - The guide lists 137 colleges and universities as sponsors for the 2028 National Merit Scholarship Program. - None of the eight Ivy League colleges appears on the sponsor list. - Stanford, MIT, Duke, the University of Chicago, Northwestern, Johns Hopkins, Rice, Caltech, Notre Dame, Georgetown and Washington University in St. Louis also are absent. - College Board begins releasing fall PSAT/NMSQT scores on Oct. 22, with additional release dates on Nov. 5 and Nov. 12 depending on when schools submitted answer sheets.

The details: - A college-sponsored National Merit Scholarship pays $500 to $2,000 a year and can be renewed for up to four years. - Finalists must name a sponsor college as their first choice to receive the award. - Several sponsor colleges add their own institutional packages on top of the National Merit payment. - The University of Alabama’s published package for qualifying Finalists includes tuition value for up to five years, four years of on-campus housing and a $4,000 annual supplemental scholarship for four years, subject to the university’s stated conditions and deadlines. - A Finalist who enrolls at Harvard, Princeton, Stanford or MIT receives no National Merit money from those colleges. - Those students remain eligible for the one-time National Merit $2,500 Scholarship or a corporate-sponsored award. - The National Merit Scholarship Corporation expects roughly 3,500 college-sponsored awards overall. - The sponsor list’s expected minimums total 1,898 awards across the 137 colleges. - The University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa expects to offer 250 awards, the most on the list. - Texas A&M University expects 110 awards, the University of Texas at Dallas 100, Arizona State University 85, the University of Oklahoma 80, the University of Kentucky 60 and the University of Arizona 55. - The top three sponsors account for 24% of the expected total. - Among the 50 most selective colleges Oriel Admissions tracks, 13 sponsor National Merit awards: Harvey Mudd, Emory, Tulane, Vanderbilt, Boston University, Tufts, Davidson, Claremont McKenna, Pomona, Bowdoin, Colby, Northeastern and the University of Southern California. - Those 13 colleges list 147 expected awards combined, fewer than Alabama alone. - Sixty-two of the 137 sponsors list three expected awards, the lowest figure on the list. - In New Jersey, Rutgers lists 15 expected awards and Princeton is absent. - In New York, Stony Brook lists 15 expected awards and Columbia and Cornell are absent. - More than 1.3 million juniors enter the competition each year by taking the PSAT/NMSQT. - More than 16,000 become Semifinalists in September of senior year. - More than 15,000 advance to Finalist, and roughly half of Finalists win an award. - For the Class of 2027, the Semifinalist cutoff was 223 in New Jersey, 220 in New York and California, and 208 in Alaska, Montana, North Dakota, West Virginia and Wyoming, according to Compass Education Group’s state cutoff tracker. - Juniors tested this month enter the 2028 competition, and their Semifinalist standing will be announced in September 2027.

Between the lines: - The data highlight a split between academic prestige and scholarship availability. - Elite private colleges often carry the strongest admissions signaling value, but many do not sponsor National Merit awards. - Large public universities dominate the sponsor list because the awards are more likely to function as enrollment incentives. - NMSC says the sponsor list is not a guarantee of future awards, so families should treat the list as a current-year guide rather than a long-term promise.

What's next: - Students will see PSAT/NMSQT score releases beginning Oct. 22, which will start the next phase of National Merit screening. - Semifinalist standing for the 2028 competition will be announced in September 2027. - Oriel Admissions says it also publishes guides on Semifinalist standing, state cutoffs and PSAT score release dates. - Families comparing scholarship opportunities will need to check whether a target college sponsors National Merit before finalizing application and enrollment plans.

The bottom line: - National Merit can boost an application anywhere, but the college-sponsored dollars are concentrated far from the Ivy League and the most selective private universities.