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National Merit scholarship winners named
From staff reports
National Merit $2,500 Scholarship winners were announced Monday by National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC).
The 2,500 Merit Scholar designees were chosen from a talent pool of more than 15,000 outstanding finalists in the 2012 National Merit Scholarship Program.
Among those were: Marcus High School’s Jeffrey Nichols (probable career field in mechanical engineering). Lewisville residents David Chi, who attends Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science, Hebron High School’s James Creswell (physics) and Richard Creswell (science) are other finalists.
the strongest combination of accomplishments, skills and potential for success in rigorous
college studies. They were selected by a committee of college admissions officers and high
school counselors. These scholars may use their awards at any regionally accredited U.S.
college or university.
NMSC finances most of these single-payment National Merit $2,500 scholarships.
Corporations and company foundations that sponsor awards through NMSC also help underwrite
these scholarships with grants they provide in lieu of paying administrative fees.
All finalists competed for these awards. To select scholarship winners, a committee of
educators appraised a substantial amount of information submitted by both the finalists and
their high schools: the academic record, including difficulty level of subjects studied and grades
earned; scores from two standardized tests; contributions and leadership in school and
community activities; an essay written by the finalist; and a recommendation written by a
high school official. The number of winners named in each state is proportional to the state’s
percentage of the nation’s graduating high school seniors.
This year’s competition for National Merit Scholarships began in October 2010 when
approximately 1.5 million juniors in some 22,000 high schools took the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which served as an initial screen of program entrants. Last fall, the highest-scoring participants in each state, representing less than one percent of the nation’s high school seniors, were named semifinalists on a state representational basis. Only these 16,000 semifinalists had an opportunity to continue in the competition.
From the semifinalist group, 15,000 students met the very high academic standards and
other requirements to advance to the finalist level of the competition. By the conclusion of the
2012 program, about 8,300 finalists will have earned the “Merit Scholar” title and received a
total of over $35 million in college scholarships.
NMSC, a not-for-profit corporation that operates without government assistance, was
founded in 1955 specifically to conduct the annual National Merit Scholarship Program. The
majority of scholarships offered each year are underwritten by approximately 440 independent
corporate and college sponsors that share NMSC’s goals of honoring scholastically talented youth
and encouraging academic excellence at all levels of education.
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