Lawrenceville School Student Wins National Scholarship Merit Award

LAWRENCEVILLE, NJ — A Lawrenceville School student has won a National Merit Scholarship financed by U.S. colleges and universities, the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) announced. Jay K. Yalamanchili, of Princeton, was picked by officials from the University of Chicago, where he plans to major in mathematics. He was among 3,200 winners nationwide, with more winners to be announced in July.

National Merit Scholarship Awards provide between $500 and $2,000 annually for up to four years of undergraduate study at the institution financing the scholarship. This year, 182 higher education institutions are underwriting Merit Scholarship awards through the National Merit Scholarship Program. Sponsor colleges and universities include 103 private and 79 public institutions located in 44 states and the District of Columbia.

The program began in October of 2015, with over 1.6 million juniors in more than 22,000 high schools taking the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test.

Last fall, the highest-scoring participants in each state, representing less than 1 percent of the nation’s high school seniors, were named son a state-representational basis. Only these 16,000 semifinalists had an opportunity to continue in the competition.

To compete for Merit Scholarship awards, semifinalists first had to advance to the finals by fulfilling additional requirements. 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 scores that confirmed the qualifying test performance.

From the semifinalist group, some 15,000 met requirements to become a finalist, and about half of the finalists will be Merit Scholarship winners in 2017.

NMSC, a not-for-profit corporation that operates without government assistance, was founded in 1955 specifically to conduct the National Merit Scholarship Program.

The majority of scholarships offered each year are underwritten by approximately 420 independent corporate and college sponsors that share NMSC’s goals of honoring scholastically talented youth and encouraging academic excellence at all levels of education.

For more information about the competition, visit www.nationalmerit.org.

Patch file photo