Category: Academic Info

Spring Valley High School seniors Stephanie Babinec, Aleena Chattha, Madison Han, Justin Kong, Ryan Leadbitter, Christopher Ravan, Jacob Stoll, Sai Siddharth Thumsi, and Anna Todd are among the approximately 15,000 finalists announced by NMSC.  These academically talented high school students move on to compete for some 7,500 National Merit Scholarships worth about $32 million that will be offered next spring. We are delighted to have the opportunity to congratulate these outstanding students and celebrate their advancement as Finalists.

Types of Merit Scholarship® Awards

Beginning in March and continuing to mid-June, NMSC notifies approximately 7,500 Finalists at their home addresses that they have been selected to receive a Merit Scholarship® award. Merit Scholarship awards are of three types:

• National Merit® $2500 Scholarships
  Every Finalist competes for these single payment scholarships, which are awarded on a state representational basis. Winners are selected without consideration of family financial circumstances, college choice, or major and career plans.
• Corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards
  Corporate sponsors designate their awards for children of their employees or members, for residents of a community where a company has operations, or for Finalists with career plans the sponsor wishes to encourage. These scholarships may either be renewable for four years of undergraduate study or one-time awards.
• College-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards
  Officials of each sponsor college select winners of their awards from Finalists who have been accepted for admission and have informed NMSC by the published deadlines that the sponsor college or university is their first choice. These awards are renewable for up to four years of undergraduate study. The published deadlines for reporting a sponsor college as first choice can be viewed on page 3 of the Requirements and Instructions for Semifinalists in the 2018 National Merit®Scholarship Program. (Adobe Acrobat Reader is required.)

Merit Scholarship awards are supported by some 420 independent sponsors and by NMSC’s own funds. Sponsor organizations include corporations and businesses, company foundations, professional associations, and colleges and universities.NMSC, a non-profit organization that operates without government assistance, was established in 1955 specifically to conduct the annual National Merit Scholarship Program. Scholarships are underwritten by NMSC with its own funds and by approximately 420 business organizations and higher education institutions that share NMSC’s goals of honoring

Ten students in Spring Valley High School who are showing exceptional academic ability and potential for success in rigorous college studies are competing for National Merit Scholarships. They are among 16,000 semifinalists in the 68th annual National MeritScholarship Program.

High school juniors entered the 2023 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2021 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT®), which served as an initial screen of program entrants. The nationwide pool of semifinalists, representing less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors, includes the highest-scoring entrants in each state.

Spring Valley’s National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists are Stephanie A. Babinec, Aleena A. Chattha, Madison K. Han, Justin I. Kong, Ryan D. Leadbitter, Christopher W. Ravan, Jacob A. Stoll, Adams Clarendon Stone, Sai Siddharth C. Thumsi, and Anna V. Todd.

About 95 percent of the semifinalists are expected to attain finalist standing, and approximately half of the finalists will win a National Merit Scholarship, earning the Merit Scholar® title.

Three types of National Merit Scholarships will be offered in the spring of 2023. Every finalist will compete for one of 2,500 National Merit® $2500 Scholarships that will be awarded on a state-representational basis. About 950 corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards will be provided by approximately 180 corporations and business organizations for finalists who meet their specified criteria, such as children of the grantor’s employees or residents of communities where sponsor plants or offices are located. In addition, about 160 colleges and universities are expected to finance some 3,800 college-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards for finalists who will attend the sponsor institution.