3 Ellicott City Grads Receive National Merit Scholarships

ELLICOTT CITY, MD — Three additional Ellicott City students have received National Merit Scholarships. These Merit Scholar recipients join more than 3,300 other college-sponsored award recipients who were announced in June. This year, 167 colleges and universities are sponsoring approximately 4,100 Merit Scholarship awards. Sponsor colleges include 92 private and 75 public institutions located in 43 states and the District of Columbia.

Those students are:

• Aboli S. Dahiwadkar, probable career field computer science, Mount Hebron High School
• Joshua S. Lee, probable career field mechanical engineering, Marriotts Ridge High School
• Isaac B. Uy, probable career field computer science, Wild Lake High School

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 or ACT and earn scores that confirmed their performance on the initial qualifying test. From the semifinalist group, approximately 15,000 attained finalist standing and about half of the finalists were chosen to receive National Merit Scholarships.