Two local students named National Merit Scholarship Winners
More than 1,700 additional winners of National Merit Scholarships financed by colleges and universities have been announced by National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC). These Merit Scholar designees join over 2,900 other college-sponsored award recipients who were announced in late May.
Andrew W. Gillespie of Conway and a Homeschool student with a probable career field in Engineering and Taylor C. West of Conway and a Conway High School West student with a probable career field in Government Service were named was named to the National Merit Baylor University Scholarship.
Baylor University, with its main campus located at Waco, Texas, is a coeducational institution whose trustees are elected by the Baptist General Convention of Texas. Christian influence and ideals are emphasized. Established in 1845, Baylor offers undergraduate and graduate degrees in a wide range of fields. Baylor maintains colleges of Nursing and Medical Research in Dallas and Hospital Administration in San Antonio. Enrollment on all campuses is over 12,000.
Officials of each sponsor college selected their winners from among 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 198 colleges and universities are sponsoring about 4,800 Merit Scholarship awards. Sponsor colleges include 118 private and 80 public institutions located in 45 states and the District of Columbia.
This is the last group of National Merit Scholar designees to be announced in 2011 by National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC). In three spring releases, NMSC announced winners of National Merit $2,500 Scholarship awards, corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards, and the first group of college-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards.
Additional College-sponsored Merit Scholarship Winners
This final group of winners brings the number of 2011 National Merit Scholars to approximately 8,300. These distinguished high school graduates will receive scholarships for undergraduate study worth a total of nearly $35 million. In addition to college-sponsored awards, two other types of National Merit Scholarships were offered—2,500 National Merit® $2,500 Scholarships for which all Finalists competed and over 1,000 corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards for Finalists who met criteria specified by their grantor organizations.
2011 National Merit Scholarship Competition
This year’s competition for National Merit Scholarships began when approximately 1.5 million juniors in some 22,000 high schools took the 2009 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT®), which served as an initial screen of program entrants. In September 2009, some 16,000 Semifi nalists were named on a state representational basis, in numbers proportional to each state’s percentage of the national total of high school graduating seniors. Semifi nalists were the highest-scoring program entrants in each state and represented less than one percent of a state’s seniors.
To become a Finalist, each Semifinalist had to submit a detailed scholarship application, which included writing an essay and describing contributions and leadership activities in high school and the community, have an outstanding academic record, be endorsed and recommended by a high school official, and earn SAT scores that confirm the qualifying test performance. From the Semifinalist group, about 15,000 attained Finalist standing, and more than half of the Finalists were chosen to receive National Merit Scholarships.
