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Twenty-four additional Georgia residents have been awarded National Merit Scholarships financed by colleges and universities. The recent grads join the list of 3,700 Merit Scholarships awarded by 149 colleges and universities announced in June.
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 final number of 2024 National Merit Scholars is nearly 7,000. The distinguished high school graduates will receive scholarships for undergraduate study worth a total of nearly $26 million. In addition to college-sponsored awards, two other types of National Merit Scholarships were offered — 2,500 National Merit $2500 Scholarships, for which all finalists competed, and about 770 corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards for finalists who met criteria specified by their grantor organizations.
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 1% of the nation’s high school seniors.
Semifinalist had to complete write an essay, describe leadership positions and contributions in their activities, show an outstanding academic record, and receive an endorsement by a high school official. Over 15,000 attained finalist standing, and about half of the finalists were chosen to receive National Merit Scholarships.
The newly released names include:
Logan C. Ritchie writes features and covers Brookhaven for Rough Draft Atlanta. More by Logan C. Ritchie
