Geneva Students Selected For National Merit Scholarships

GENEVA, IL – Two Geneva high school students have been selected for National Merit Scholarships that will be financed by the colleges and universities they plan to attend. The National Merit Scholarship Corporation announced about 550 additional winners of National Merit Scholarships Monday. These Merit Scholar designees join approximately 3,500 other college-sponsored award recipients who were announced in June, according to a National Merit Scholarship press release.

Officials of each sponsor college selected their scholarship winners from among the finalists in the National Merit Scholarship Program who will attend their institution. College-sponsored awards provide between $500 and $2,000 annually for up to four years of undergraduate study at the institution financing the scholarship, according to a National Merit Scholarship news release.

This year, 178 colleges and universities are sponsoring more than 4,000 Merit Scholarship awards. Sponsor colleges include 100 private and 78 public institutions located in 44 states and the District of Columbia, according to a news release.

Geneva high school students selected by their colleges to receive a merit scholarship award are:

• Ryan T. Chalmers of Geneva, a Geneva Community High School student. Probable career field: Computer Science. Chalmbers received the National Merit Purdue University Scholarship.
• Benjamin S. Simon of Geneva, an Elgin Academy student. Probable career field: Computer Science. Simon received the National Merit Oberlin College Scholarship.

This final group of winners brings the number of 2018 National Merit Scholars to more than 7,500. These distinguished high school graduates will receive scholarships for undergraduate study worth a total of over $31 million.

In addition to college-sponsored awards, two other types of National Merit Scholarships were offered—2,500 National Merit $2,500 Scholarships, for which all finalists competed, and approximately 1,000 corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards for finalists who met criteria specified by their grantor organizations.

In September 2017, about 16,000 semifinalists were named on a state-representational basis in numbers proportional to each state’s percentage of the national total of graduating high school seniors. Semifinalists were the highest-scoring program entrants in each state and represented less than one percent of the nation’s seniors.

To become a finalist, each semifinalist had to complete a detailed scholarship application, which included writing an essay, describing leadership positions and contributions in school and community activities, showing an outstanding academic record, and being endorsed and recommended by a high school official.

Semifinalists also had to take the SAT and earn scores that confirmed their performance on the initial qualifying test. From the semifinalist group, about 15,000 attained finalist standing, and about half of the finalists were chosen to receive National Merit Scholarships, according to a news release.

PHOTO VIA SHUTTERSTOCK