Swampscott's Douglas Dwyer Earns National Merit Scholarship

SWAMPSCOTT, MA — Douglas Dwyer, of Swampscott, was one of 23 Massachusetts students honored in the final round of the National Merit Scholarship awards.

The final round of scholarships is a college-sponsored portion of the overall program that recognized 7,500 students nationwide through three rounds of scholarship awards. The college-sponsored program awards up to $2,000 scholarships to 1,000 students across the country.

Dwyer graduated from Swampscott High School and is set to attend Northeastern University where he planned to major in computer science.

This year's competition began with more than 1.5 million students who took the Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test in 2019. In the fall of 2020, about 17,000 semifinalists were named with 16,000 of those going on to be finalists after submitting a detailed scholarship application that included an essay that described leadership positions in school and community activities, an outstanding academic record and and a recommendation from a school official.

About half of the finalists were chosen for a National Merit Scholarship through either the corporate- or college-sponsored program.

Did you find this article useful? Invite a friend to subscribe to Patch.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)