A-B Student (From Acton) Wins National Merit Scholarship

ACTON, MA — An Acton-Boxborough student from the Acton side made the list of those few students from across the country who won National Merit Scholarships granted by universities, the National Merit Scholarship program announced today.

Thanoshi Balasuriya, who plans to major in engineering at Purdue, joins the 3,200 National Merrit Scholarship program winners across the country.

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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 the National Merit program.

This final group of winners brings the number of 2017 National Merit Scholars to more than 7,500. These distinguished high school graduates will receive scholarships for undergraduate study worth a total of over $32 million. In addition to college-sponsored awards, two other types of National Merit Scholarships were offered—2,500 National Merit $2500 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.

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.

The organization is a not-for-profit corporation and was founded in 1955 to conduct the National Merit Scholarship Program. Throughout the past 62 years, more than 330,000 outstanding young men and women have won National Merit Scholarships worth more than $1 billion. The majority of awards offered each year are underwritten by approximately 420 independent corporate and college sponsors that support NMSC’s efforts to recognize scholastically talented youth and encourage the pursuit of academic excellence.