This week, the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) announced that Washington-Liberty High School senior Rebecca E. Stewart and Yorktown High School senior Albert R. Johnson II earned National Merit Scholarships financed by colleges or universities. Nearly 4,100 students from around the country were named winners of the scholarship.
Stewart earned a National Merit University of Chicago Scholarship and Johnson earned a National Merit Purdue Scholarship. In addition, Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology* seniors Sabrina E. Atkin and Keegan P. Lanzillotta earned scholarships to the University of Southern California and Northeastern University, respectively.
Officials of each sponsor college selected their scholarship winners from among the Finalists in the National Merit Scholarship Program who will attend their institution. College sponsored awards provide between $500 and $2,000 annually for up to four years of undergraduate study at the institution financing the scholarship.
This year’s competition for National Merit Scholarships began in October 2018 when more than 1.5 million juniors in over 21,000 high schools took the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. Last fall, the highest-scoring participants in each state were named semifinalists.
To compete for Merit Scholarship awards, Semifinalists had to advance to the Finalist level of the competition by fulfilling additional requirements. Each Semifinalist was asked to submit a detailed scholarship application, which included writing an essay and providing information about extracurricular activities, awards, and leadership positions. Semifinalists also had to have an outstanding academic record, be endorsed and recommended by a high school official, and earn SAT® scores that confirmed the qualifying test performance.
* TJHSST is a Governor’s School for Science and Technology located in Fairfax County. The school serves students in Arlington, Fairfax, Fauquier, Loudoun, and Prince William counties as well as the cities of Fairfax and Falls Church. APS pays the tuition costs for students who attend the school.
