Greenwich Students Receive $2,500 National Merit Scholarships

GREENWICH, CT — The National Merit Scholarship Corporation announced Wednesday a list of students who will receive $2,5oo National Merit Scholarships. Among those listed were four students from Greenwich.

A total of 2,500 students were selected from a pool of 15,000 students from around the country, according to the announcement. (To sign up for Greenwich breaking news alerts and more, click here.)

The winning students from Greenwich include:

• Sophia K. Moore (Cos Cob), a Greenwich Academy student whose probable career field is computer science. This award is supported by National Merit Scholarship Corporation's own funds.
• Zachary Y. Wang (Cos Cob), a Greenwich High School student whose probable career field is computer science. This award is supported by National Merit Scholarship Corporation's own funds.
• Tobin F. Hirsch, a Greenwich High School student whose probable career field is computer science. This award is supported by National Merit Scholarship Corporation's own funds.
• Caroline E. Cahilly (Old Greenwich), a Spence School (NY) student whose probable career field is computer science. This award is supported by National Merit Scholarship Corporation's own funds.

According to the not-for-profit National Merit Scholarship Corporation, the $2,500 winners are the finalists in each state "judged to have the strongest combination of accomplishments, skills, and potential for success in rigorous college studies." The number of winners named in each state is proportional to the state's percentage of the nation's graduating high school seniors, officials said.

These scholars 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, including:

• The academic record, including difficulty level of subjects studied and grades earned
• Scores from the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT)
• Contributions and leadership in school and community activities
• A recommendation written by a high school official
• An essay written by the finalist

Scholars may use their awards at any regionally accredited college or university in the United States. The funds are mostly paid for by the corporation, but other corporations and company foundations also sponsor awards and help underwrite the scholarships with grants.

This is from the corporation's announcement:

This year's National Merit Scholarship Program began in October 2018 when over 1.5 million juniors in approximately 21,000 high schools took the PSAT/NMSQT, which served as an initial screen of program entrants. 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. Only these 16,000 Semifinalists had an opportunity to continue in the competition.

From the Semifinalist group, some 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 2020 program, about 7,600 Finalists will have earned the "Merit Scholar" title and received a total of over $30 million in college scholarships.