Katrina Boland of St. Paul VI Catholic School, Sasanka Sreedevi-Naresh of Briar Woods High School, Shivani Nadella of Freedom High School, Brij B. Bhagat of Thomas Jeffereson High School for Science and Technology, and Alexandra H. Knight, a homeschool student from Purcellville, were selected as 2024 college-sponsored National Merit Scholarship winners.
Over 2,900 students received awards financed by U.S. colleges and universities from among the finalists in the 2024 National Merit Scholarship Program this year. The awards range from $500 to $2,000 per year for up to four years of undergraduate school, according to the announcement.
College-sponsored Merit Scholarship winners are among more than 6,870 high school seniors who will receive National Merit Scholarships totaling nearly $26 million.
Boland received a National Merit Scholarship from Purdue University and will likely study Aerospace engineering. Both Sreedevi-Naresh and Nadella received scholarships from the University of Maryland. Sreedevi-Naresh will likely study biomedical engineering, with Nadella likely studying computer science.
Bhagat received a scholarship from the University of Texas at Dallas and will likely study mechanical engineering. Knight received a scholarship from Liberty University and will likely study biochemistry.
An additional group of scholars will be announced in July, bringing the total number of college-sponsored Merit Scholarship recipients in this year’s competition to more than 3,600.
High school juniors enter the contest when they take the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which serves as an initial screening of entrants. Last fall, more than 16,000 semifinalists were named. To compete for Merit Scholarship awards, semifinalists have to advance to the Finalist level by fulfilling additional requirements, including submitting an application, have an outstanding academic record, be endorsed and recommended by a high school official and earn SAT or ACT scores that confirm the qualifying test performance. Over 15,000 met those requirements and about half of those finalists will be Merit Scholarship winners in 2024, according to the announcement.
NMSC is a not-for-profit organization established in 1955 to conduct the National Merit Scholarship Program.
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