What is National Merrit and how do I get into it?

Answer 1

National Merit refers not to an organization, but to a Scholarship Program which is based upon your performance on the PSAT, so what you need to do is to take that sometime between 9th and 12th grade. From what I can tell on their website, the National Merit Scholarship Corporation notifies the high schools of those with the 50,000 or so highest scores that they are either recipients of commendations or finalists for the scholarships. The school then tells you.

Answer 2

The National Merit Scholarship Program is an academic scholarship competition for recognition and college scholarships administered by National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC), a privately funded, not-for-profit organization. Go here for more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Merit