Cheshire Student Named National Merit Scholarship Winner

CHESHIRE, CT — A Cheshire High School student is among this year’s National Merit $2,500 Scholarship winners, which were announced by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation on Wednesday.

Daniel D'Souza, whose probable career field is listed as medicine, was awarded with a $2,500 National Merit Scholarship to use at any regionally accredited U.S. college or university.

Merit Scholar designees — 2,500 in total — were chosen from a talent pool of more than 15,000 finalists from the 2024 National Merit Scholarship Program. Winners were judged to have the strongest combination of accomplishments, skills and potential for success in rigorous college studies, the NMSC said in a news release.

Winners were selected by a committee of college admissions officers and high school counselors, who appraised a substantial amount of information submitted by both the finalists and their high schools: the academic record, including difficulty level of subjects studied and grades earned; scores from the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test; and a recommendation written by a high school official.

“This year’s National Merit Scholarship Program began in October 2022 when high school juniors took the PSAT/NMSQT, which served as an initial screen of program entrants,” according to the news release. “Last fall, the highest-scoring participants in each state, representing less than one percent of the nation’s high school seniors, were named Semifinalists on a state-representational basis. More than 16,000 Semifinalists had an opportunity to continue in the competition.

“From the Semifinalist group, over 15,000 students met the very high academic standards and other requirements to advance to the Finalist level of the competition.”

By the conclusion of the 2024 program, more than 6,870 Finalists will have earned the “Merit Scholar” title and received a total of nearly $26 million in college scholarships.