Silver Spring Students Win National Merit Scholarship

SILVER SPRING, MD — Two of Silver Spring's high school students were named as winners in the latest round of the National Merit Scholarship competition, which give scholarships to outstanding students across the country. This round of awards — ranging from $500 to $2,000 — are given by colleges to incoming students.

More than 160 colleges participate in the scholarship program and there were over 4,100 college-sponsored scholarships given this year, the corporation said.

Here are the Silver Spring students who were awarded scholarships in the latest round:

• Ozan K. Kayaalp of Montgomery Blair High School. Kayaalp plan to study computer science at the University of Maryland.
• Rajit Mukhopadhyay of Montgomery Blair High School. Mukhopadhyay plans to study computer engineering at the University of Maryland.

In addition to college-sponsored awards, there are $2,500 awards and corporate-sponsored awards. These were announced earlier in the year. Around 7,500 students total were awarded a combined $30 million, the scholarship fund said in a news release.

About 1.5 million high school juniors nationally entered the 2021 National Merit scholarship competition by taking the 2019 preliminary SAT/National Merit scholarship qualifying test — known as the PSAT — the corporation said. Those who qualified wrote an essay and explain extracurricular activities, awards and leadership positions in order to make it to the finalist round. Fewer than 1 percent of the country's high school seniors were announced as semifinalists last fall.

The corporation said that since the scholarship's inception in 1955, more than 16,000 finalists have been awarded.

SEE MORE:

• National Merit Scholars From Silver Spring Announced
• 10 Silver Spring Students Win National Merit Scholarships
• Rockville Students Win National Merit Scholarship In Latest Round
• Germantown Student Win National Merit Scholarship In Last Round
• Two Gaithersburg Students Win National Merit Scholarship
• Bethesda Students Win National Merit Scholarship In Latest Round

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