Jacob Rushing

1. How did you feel when you heard that you were the finalist for the National Merit Scholarship?

I was happy and proud of the achievement when I heard I was a finalist.

2. What are some characteristics you believe helped you achieve this award?

I generally hold myself to high standards, which has helped me maintain good grades, which is one of the requirements to become a finalist. Over the years, I have developed good test-taking skills, which allowed me to get the qualifying score on the PSAT.

3. What is your academic area of passion and why?

I am passionate about both math and science, but my main area of interest is medicine. I want to be someone who can help people overcome their health problems. I like the fact that there is so much to learn in the field of medicine and that a lot of it is very practical information that can be applied to help improve the quality of life of many different people.

4. What are you planning to pursue in college?

In college, I plan to pursue biomedical engineering on a pre-med track.

5. Do you know where you are going to college?

I will be going to Washington University in St. Louis.

6. What did you choose to write about in your main essay for the National Merit application? And why was it meaningful to you?

My essay topic for the National Merit application was free will. I talked about how we are all just the culmination of our experiences and how every action has a motive. It is important to try and understand these motives before judging people, even your own past self. I talked a bit about regret and how you shouldn’t feel embarrassed or regretful, how you should instead just learn from the past and understand that you had a reason for acting the way you did. This topic is meaningful to me because I believe in second chances. I think that instead of jumping to judgment and punishment, it can be better in many cases to try to understand the person’s motives and then try to help that person with the newfound understanding. 

I didn’t end up using this essay as my college essay because I didn’t feel it was personal enough, but I think it was a decent essay for the National Merit application.