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Updated: May 14, 2024 @ 1:23 pm
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — National Merit Scholarship winners from Kentucky for 2024 have been announced.
In total, there are 2,500 Merit Scholar designees who will receive $2,500 scholarships from the nonprofit National Merit Scholarship Corporation.
According to a news release, students are chosen from a pool of more than 15,000 finalists in the program. Winners are finalists from each state who have “the strongest combination of accomplishments, skills, and potential for success in rigorous college studies.”
In Kentucky, 30 winners were announced for May — including nine from the Louisville area. The number of winners from each state is “proportional to the state’s percentage of the nation’s graduating high school seniors,” a news release states.
Scholarship recipients are chosen by a committee consisting of college admissions officers and high school counselors. Finalists submit academic records, PSAT scores and scores from the National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. They also provide their “contributions and leadership in school and community activities,” an essay, and a recommendation from a high school official.
To enter the program, students take part in the PSAT/NMSQT tests, which officials said is the initial screening of those who want to enter the program. The students who score the highest in each state were named as semifinalists. The group of 16,000 semifinalists continued in the competition, and 15,000 advanced to the finalist level. Students who reached the finalist level “met the very high academic standards and other requirements” to advance.
Here is a list of winners from Kentucky for 2024:
In April, nine Kentucky high school seniors were among 770 to receive corporate-sponsored National Merit Scholarship awards, which are financed by about 94 corporations, company foundations and other business organizations, officials said in a news release.
Those students advanced to the finalist level of the National Merit Scholarship competition and “met criteria of their scholarship sponsors.” Officials said corporate sponsors provide National Merit Scholarships for finalists who are “children of their employees, who are residents of communities the company serves, or who plan to pursue college majors or careers the sponsor wishes to encourage.”
NMSC said most of the scholarships are renewable for up to four years of college, providing annual stipends ranging from $1,000 to $10,000 each year. Others, however, provide a single payment between $2,500 and $5,000, organizers said.
Of the nine Kentucky students named as recipients, two are from Louisville.
More scholarship recipients will be announced June 5 and July 15.
When the program ends this year, organizers said more than 6,870 finalists will be named Merit Scholars and receive a scholarship.
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