The National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) recently released the names of the first group of winners in the 62nd annual National Merit Scholarship (NMS) Program. More than 1,000 distinguished high school seniors have won corporate-sponsored NMS awards financed by about 200 corporations, company foundations and other business organizations.
Among the recipients are four students from York High School including Amy Choi, Noah Neidigh, Amelia O’Halloran and Mateo Sanchez.
Amy, who is planning to study bioengineering, received her scholarship sponsored by the University of Minnesota. Noah, who expects to study biomedical engineering, is receiving a scholarship provided by Purdue University. Earlier this spring, Amelia, who expects to study computer science, was named a $2,500 National Merit Scholar. Mateo, who plans to study engineering, was named a corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship winner for 2017 by CBS Corporation.
Most awards are renewable forum to four years of college undergraduate study and provide annual stipends that range from $500 to $10,000 per year. Some provide a single payment between $2,500 and $5,000. Recipients can use their awards at any regionally accredited U.S. college or university of their choice.
More than 1.6 million juniors from as many as 22,000 high schools entered the 2017 NMS Program by taking the Preliminary SAR/NMS Qualifying Test, which serves as an initial screen of program entrants. In September of 2016, some 16,000 semi-finalists were selected by state, proportional to each state’s percentage of the national total of graduating seniors. Semifinalists were the highest-scoring in each state and represented less than one percent of the nation’s seniors.
By the conclusion of the 2017 competition, about 7500 finalists will have been selected to receive scholarships totaling more than $32 million.
