MONROE, CT — The National Merit Scholarship Corporation on Monday announced over 800 additional winners of scholarships sponsored by colleges and universities, and included are two students from Monroe.
Lucas D. Cottrell, of Information Technology and Software Engineering High School in Bridgeport, won the National Merit University of Alabama Scholarship, according to a news release from the NSMC. Cottrell’s probable career field is listed as “computer science.”
Bhuvan Hospet, of Masuk High School, won the National Merit Northeastern University Scholarship, according to a news release from the NSMC. Hospet’s probable career field is also listed as “computer science.”
College-sponsored awards provide between $500 and $2,000 annually for up to four years of undergraduate study at the institution financing the scholarship, the NSMC says.
This year, 149 colleges and universities are sponsoring approximately 3,700 Merit Scholarship awards.
Sponsor colleges include 77 private and 72 public institutions located in 42 states and the District of Columbia.
The latest award winners join more than 2,900 other college-sponsored scholarship recipients who were announced in June.
Overall, there have been 6,900 National Merit Scholars named this year, receiving a total of nearly $26 million.
Two other types of National Merit Scholarships were offered this year — 2,500 National Merit $2,500 Scholarships, for which all finalists competed, and about 770 corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards for finalists who met criteria specified by their grantor organizations.
This year’s competition for National Merit Scholarships began when high school juniors took the 2022 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT), which served as an initial screen of program entrants.
In September 2023, 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 become a finalist, each semifinalist had to complete a detailed scholarship application, which included writing an essay, describing leadership positions and contributions in school and community activities, showing an outstanding academic record, and being endorsed and recommended by a high school official.
Semifinalists also had to take the SAT or ACT and earn scores that confirmed their performance on the initial qualifying test.
From the semifinalist group, over 15,000 attained finalist standing, and about half of the finalists were chosen to receive scholarships.
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