6 Basking Ridge Students Win National Merit Scholarships

BASKING RIDGE, NJ — Six Basking Ridge students have won National Merit Scholarships for 2020, the National Merit Scholarship Corporation announced.

Here are the winners from Basking Ridge:

College-Sponsored Merit Scholarship Winners

• Ridge High School student Dave J. Ki earned a national merit scholarship from Boston University. Ki will likely pursue a career in acting.
• Pingry School student Robert H. Yu earned a national merit scholarship from Harvey Mudd University. Yu will likely pursue a career in computer science.

Corporate-Sponsored Merit Scholarship Winners

• Pingry student Brian S. Li earned a national merit scholarship from the Allergan Foundation. Li will likely pursue a career in academia.

National Merit® $2500 Scholarship Winners

• Kent School student Catherine H. Gilhuley earned $2,500 from the National Merit Scholarship Corporation's own funds. Gilhuley will likely pursue a career in military service.
• Ridge High School student Arul Gupta earned $2,500 from the National Merit Scholarship Corporation's own funds. Gupta will likely pursue a career in computer science.
• Ridge High School student Kevin P. Tang earned $2,500 from the National Merit Scholarship Corporation's own funds. Tang will likely pursue a career in public health.

The Basking Ridge students were among more than 1.5 million juniors in about 21,000 high schools to enter the 2020 National Merit Scholarship Program when they took the 2018 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT®), which served as an initial screen of program entrants.

The group was then narrowed down to 16,000 Semifinalists. Each Semifinalist was asked to submit a detailed scholarship application, which included writing an essay and providing information about extracurricular activities, awards, and leadership positions.

Semifinalists also had to have an outstanding academic record, be endorsed and recommended by a high school official, and earn SAT or ACT scores that confirmed the qualifying test performance.

From the Semifinalist group, about half of the Finalists were named Merit Scholarship winners in 2020.

Have a news tip? Email alexis.tarrazi@patch.com.

Get Patch breaking news alerts sent right to your phone with our new app. Download here. Don't miss local and statewide announcements. Sign up for Patch alerts and daily newsletters.