Glenbrook North Student Awarded National Merit Scholarship

NORTHBROOK, IL — A Glenbrook North graduate was named a National Merit Scholar Monday among the final group of winners announced this year, according to the National Merit Scholarship Corporation. Winners of the college-sponsored awards receive annual payments of between $500 and $2,000 for up to four years of undergraduate study at the sponsoring institution.

Jacob Denenberg, of Northbrook, was awarded a scholarship to study at Northwestern University. He plans to pursue a degree in political science, according to National Merit.

A total of eight Glenbrook North grads were named 2018 National Merit Scholars. In June, four GBN students were also awarded college-sponsored scholarships, and three others were awarded $2,500 scholarships the prior month.

More than 4,000 such grants have been awarded this year by 178 colleges and universities, including 78 public schools and 100 private in 44 states and the District of Columbia.

The winners were selected by officials from each sponsoring college from finalists in the National Merit Scholarship Program who will be attending the school. Finalists are selected from 16,000 semifinalists picked from the 1.6 million juniors who took the 2016 Preliminary SAT test.

They represent less than 1 percent of the seniors in the country, and the number of semifinalists in each state was proportional to its share of the total number of graduating seniors nationwide.

Last September, 21 Glenbrook North High School students were named National Merit semifinalists.

Semifinalists then had to complete a scholarship application and qualify through their SAT scores. About half of those semifinalists have been chosen to receive National Merit Scholarships this year, which include scholarships sponsored by colleges, corporations and the National Merit Scholarships Corporation, an Evanston-based nonprofit.

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