Six additional Loudoun seniors have been named 2024 college-sponsored National Merit Scholarship winners, bringing the total number of county students receiving the award to 11.
Aldie student Shashank Vardhan Cheruvu, Ashburn student Pranav K. Vadde and Round Hill student Alexandra Toporowicz, all of Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology; Laya N. Andripalli of Briar Woods High School; Allison A. Kim of Rockridge High School; and Luke Chen of Freedom High School were announced July 15 as recipients of the award along with 800 other students across the United States, bringing the total number of NMS college-sponsored recipients to 2,900 nationwide.
Recipients are all finalists of the National Merit Scholarship Program and are chosen by officials of the university or college they plan to attend. College-sponsored awards provide between $500 and $2,000 every year for up to four years of undergraduate study at the institution financing the scholarship, according to an announcement. This year 149 colleges and universities in 42 states and the District of Columbia are sponsoring approximately 3,700 Merit Scholarship awards.
Cheruvu received a scholarship from the University of Maryland and will likely study computer science. Andripalli, Kim and Toporowicz received scholarships from Virginia Commonwealth University with Andripalli likely studying biomedical engineering and Toporowicz and Kim likely pursuing medicine. Vadde received a scholarship from Purdue University and will likely pursue a degree in Aerospace Engineering and Chen received a scholarship from Case Western University and will likely pursue medicine.
Two other types of National Merit Scholarships were offered in addition to the college-sponsored award; National Merit Scholarships, which all Finalists competed for and 2,500 were chosen for nationwide, and corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarships, for which 770 Finalists competed. Finalists received this award by meeting specific criteria outlined by their grantor organizations.
The final group of winners brings the number of 2024 National Merit Scholars to more than 6,900 and nearly $26 million in scholarships.
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 were chosen to receive National Merit Scholarships, according to the announcement.
Five Loudoun seniors were named college-sponsored recipients June 5.
National Merit Scholarship Corporation is a not-for-profit organization established in 1955 to conduct the National Merit Scholarship Program. Over the past 69 years, 382,000 students have won scholarships worth more than $1.3 billion.
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