(Evanston, Illinois) National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) announced over 3,100 winners of National Merit Scholarships financed by U.S. colleges and universities.
Andrea G. Miller, of Caldwell, a graduate of Greenbrier East High School, earned the National Merit West Virginia University Foundation, Inc. Scholarship.
West Virginia University’s tradition of academic excellence includes 25 Rhodes Scholars, 26 Goldwater Scholars, and 16 Truman Scholars.
Over 25,000 students are currently enrolled in 171 majors at the undergraduate, graduate, and professional degree levels, and in
professional schools of dentistry, law, medicine, and pharmacy. The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching ranked WVU in
the Doctoral Research Extensive Classification–one of only 151 in the nation.
Officials of each sponsor college selected their scholarship winners from among the Finalists in the 2021 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 2021 competition to about 4,000.
This year, 160 higher education institutions are underwriting Merit Scholarship awards through the National Merit Scholarship Program. Sponsor colleges and universities include 85 private and 75 public institutions located in 42 states and the District of Columbia.
This announcement is the third National Merit Scholar release in 2021 by National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC®). NMSC named recipients of corporate-sponsored awards on April 21 and winners of National Merit ® $2500 Scholarships on May 12. Additional recipients of college-sponsored awards will be announced on July 12. By the conclusion of this year’s competition, about 7,500 academic champions will have won National Merit Scholarships worth approximately $30 million.
College-sponsored Merit Scholarship winners announced are a part of the distinguished group of about 7,500 high school seniors who will receive National Merit Scholarships for college undergraduate study worth nearly $30 million. Earlier this spring, NMSC announced winners of corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards and National Merit $2500 Scholarships.
Over 1.5 million juniors in about 21,000 high schools entered the 2021 National Merit Scholarship Program when they took the 2019 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT®), which served as an initial screen of program entrants. Last fall, approximately 17,000 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, and be endorsed and recommended by a high school official. From the Semifinalist group, some 16,000 met requirements for Finalist standing, and about half of the Finalists will be Merit Scholarship winners in 2021.
NMSC, a not-for-profit corporation 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 400 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.
