On September 13th, 2018, officials of the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) named approximately 16,000 Semifinalists. This winter, 15,000 moved on to be named Finalists, including Jackson and Jacob. National Merit Scholarship winners of 2019 will be announced in four nationwide news releases beginning in April and concluding in July.
Jackson and Jacob have both displayed academic excellence, leadership, and a strong work ethic throughout their high school careers. They now have the opportunity to proceed in the competition among the 15,000 Finalists. 7500 will be selected for National Merit Scholarships worth about $32 million that will be offered this spring.
Congratulations to Jackson and Jacob on receiving this tremendous academic honor and good luck on becoming a National Merit Scholarship winner!
Over 1.6 million juniors in about 22,000 high schools across the nation entered the 2019 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2017 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT®), which served as an initial screening of program entrants. The nationwide pool of Semifinalists, representing less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors, includes the highest scoring entrants in each state. The number of Semifinalists in a state is proportional to the state’s percentage of the national total of graduating seniors.
To become a Finalist, the Semifinalist and his or her high school must submit a detailed scholarship application, in which they provide information about the Semifinalist’s academic record, participation in school and community activities, demonstrated leadership abilities, employment, and honors and awards received. A Semifinalist must have an outstanding academic record throughout high school, be endorsed and recommended by a high school official, write an essay, and earn SAT® scores that confirm the student’s earlier performance on the qualifying test.
From the approximately 16,000 Semifinalists, about 15,000 are expected to advance to the Finalist level, and in February they were notified of this designation. All National Merit Scholarship winners will be selected from this group of Finalists. Merit Scholar designees are selected on the basis of their skills, accomplishments, and potential for success in rigorous college studies, without regard to gender, race, ethnic origin, or religious preference.
Three types of National Merit Scholarships will be offered in the spring of 2019. Every Finalist will compete for one of 2,500 National Merit® $2500 Scholarships that will be awarded on a state representational basis. About 1,000 corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards will be provided by approximately 230 corporations and business organizations for Finalists who meet their specified criteria, such as children of the grantor’s employees or residents of communities where sponsor plants or offices are located. In addition, about 180 colleges and universities are expected to finance some 4,000 college-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards for Finalists who will attend the sponsor institution.
National Merit Scholarship winners of 2019 will be announced in four nationwide news releases beginning in April and concluding in July. These scholarship recipients will join some 338,000 other distinguished young people who have earned the Merit Scholar title.
Press release provided by NATIONAL MERIT SCHOLARSHIP CORPORATION