Today, National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) announced over 2,900 winners of National Merit Scholarships financed by U.S. colleges and universities. Officials of each sponsor college selected their scholarship winners from among the Finalists in the 2024 National Merit Scholarship Program who plan to attend their institution. These awards provide between $500 and $2,000 annually for up to four years of undergraduate study at the institution financing the scholarship. An additional group of Scholars will be announced in July, bringing the total number of college-sponsored Merit Scholarship recipients in the 2024 competition to more than 3,600.
Paris High School is exceptionally proud to announce that Preston Thompson, the 2024 salutatorian, has been selected as one of the 2,900 Merit Scholar designees for this year's National Merit Scholarship. Through his exemplary academic performance and dedication, Thompson has earned the National Merit Texas A&M University Scholarship. Thompson was among a talent pool of approximately 16,000 outstanding Finalists in this year’s National Merit winners.
This year, 149 higher education institutions are underwriting Merit Scholarship awards through the National Merit Scholarship Program. Sponsor colleges and universities include 77 private and 72 public institutions located in 42 states and the District of Columbia.
College-sponsored Merit Scholarship winners announced today are a part of the distinguished group of more than 6,870 high school seniors who will receive National Merit Scholarships for college undergraduate study worth nearly $26 million. Earlier this spring, NMSC announced winners of corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards and National Merit $2500 Scholarships.
2024 National Merit Scholarship Competition
High school juniors entered the 2024 National Merit Scholarship Program when they took the 2022 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT®), which
served as an initial screen of program entrants. Last fall, more than 16,000 Semifinalists were named on a state-representational basis in numbers proportional to each state’s percentage of the national total of graduating high school seniors. Semifinalists were the highest-scoring program entrants in each state and represented less than one percent of the nation’s seniors.
To compete for Merit Scholarship awards, Semifinalists first 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® or ACT® scores that confirmed the qualifying test performance. From the Semifinalist group, over 15,000 met requirements for Finalist standing, and about half of the Finalists will be Merit Scholarship winners in 2024.
NMSC, a not-for-profit organization that operates without government assistance, was established in 1955 to conduct the National Merit Scholarship Program. The majority of National
Merit Scholarships provided each year are made possible by the support of approximately 320 independent corporate and college sponsors. These sponsors join NMSC in its efforts to enhance educational opportunities for America’s scholastically talented youth and to encourage the pursuit of academic excellence.
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