2 Niles West Students Awarded National Merit Scholarships

SKOKIE, IL — Two Niles West High School students were named National Merit Scholars Monday among the final group of winners announced this year, according to the National Merit Scholarship Corporation. The winners of the college-sponsored awards will receive annual payments of between $500 and $2,000 for up to four years of undergraduate study at the sponsoring institution.

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.

Dareen S. Chuy, a Linconwood resident, was awarded a scholarship to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York. She has a probable career field in medicine, according to National Merit.

Rachel I. Ferrigno, a Skokie resident, was awarded a scholarship to study at Boston University. She plans to pursue a career in surgical medicine, the scholarship corporation said.

In May, another Niles West student was awarded a $2,500 NMSC-sponsored scholarship.

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, four Skokie and Lincolnwood 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.

The latest and final group of winners brings the number of 2018 National Merit Scholars to more than 7,500, who will receive a total of more than $31 million in scholarships for undergraduate study, according to National Merit.

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