The National Merit Scholarship Corporation announced on Wednesday, Sept. 13, its 2024 list of semifinalist high school students who will now compete for a share of about 7,140 scholarships worth almost $28 million. Winners will be announced nationally between April and July next year. This is the 69th annual competition.
High school juniors, 11th graders, in the United States entered the academic competition by taking the 2022 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. More than 1.3 million juniors, in about 21,000 high schools, entered the competition by taking the qualifying test.
The highest-scoring students in each state represent the pool of semifinalists who, according to the National Merit Scholarship Corporation, represent less than 1% of United States high school seniors.
The next step for a semifinalist to become a finalist is to complete the required application that includes their SAT or ACT scores, an essay and a letter of recommendation by a high school official.
Finalists are then chosen on the basis of academic record, their participation in community and school activities, how they have demonstrated leadership ability, employment, awards and honors received.
From a group of about 16,000 semifinalists, an expected 15,000 advance to finalists. Students are notified in February 2024 if they are finalists and about half of those win a scholarship from three categories.
The categories of scholarships: National Merit $2500 Scholarships; corporate-sponsored scholarships; college-sponsored scholarships.
The National Merit Scholarship winners, chosen on the basis of accomplishments, skills and potential for college success, are selected from the February finalists group. Winners are notified, on a rolling basis, in 2024 from April to July.
The 2024 scholarship winners join the nearly 375,000 past winners who have earned the title of Merit Scholar.
Here is the list of semifinalists in the 2024 National Merit Scholarship…
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