Hi! First, there is not such thing as "merit status" if I got this system correctly (only if we are talking about "merit source" status, but that`s a whole another conversation). Second, you do need merit as well as certain activity number to rank up after "Jr. Member" status and TryNinja placed a full table with all info about ranks and merit needed to rich it. So, merit by itself do not grant you status growth, to up it you need both activity and merit to rich certian levels.