FOSTER CITY, CA — Two Foster City teens have been awarded $2500 National Merit Scholarships, as the organization behind the scholarships announced a new round of 2024 winners on Wednesday.
Rachel W. Ma, a senior at Aragon High School and Zaee A. Shah, who attends San Mateo High School, will each receive $2500 scholarships. Ma ixpects to go into engineering while Shah is still deciding on a career path.
The National Merit Scholarship Corporation announced that 2,500 high school seniors will receive the scholarships, chosen from a talent pool of more than 15,000 outstanding finalists.
“National Merit $2500 Scholarship winners are the Finalists in each state judged to have
the strongest combination of accomplishments, skills, and potential for success in rigorous college studies,” the organization announced. “The number of winners named in each state is proportional to the state’s percentage of the nation’s graduating high school seniors.”
They were chosen by a committee of college admissions officers and high school counselors who poured over information submitted by both the finalists and their high schools.
This is the second announcement of winners in the 2024 National Merit Scholarship
Program. On April 24, about 770 recipients of corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards
were named. On June 5 and July 15, some 3,600 college-sponsored Merit Scholarship winners
will be announced.
All told, more than 6,870 high school seniors will receive National Merit Scholarships worth approximately $26 million.
Students may use their awards at any regionally accredited U.S. college or university.
This journey began in October 2022 when high school juniors took the PSAT/NMSQT, which served as an initial screen of program entrants. Last fall, the highest-scoring participants in each state, representing less than one percent of the nation’s high school seniors, were named Semifinalists on a state-representational basis.
From the Semifinalist group, over 15,000 students met the very high academic standards
and other requirements to advance to the Finalist level of the competition.
The majority of scholarships offered each year are underwritten by approximately 320 independent corporate and college sponsors.
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