2 New Canaan Students Receive $2,500 National Merit Scholarships

NEW CANAAN, CT — National Merit Scholarship winners of $2,5oo were announced on Wednesday, and the list includes two students from New Canaan.

A total of 2,500 students were selected from a pool of 15,000 students from around the country. From New Canaan, the winners are:

• Tara Chugh, New Canaan High School; Probable career field: Neuroscience
• Margaret E. Meyerson, Greenwich Academy; Probable career field: Writing

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:

• 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
• An essay written by the Finalist
• A recommendation written by a high school official.

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.