28 Princeton Students Compete For National Scholarship Program

PRINCETON, NJ – Twenty-six students from Princeton are among 16,000 semifinalists in the 66th annual National Merit Scholarship Program, the National Merit Scholarship Corporation announced Wednesday.

The students will now be competing with 7,600 high school seniors from across the nation, for scholarships worth $30 million, to be offered next spring.

Here are the semifinalists from Princeton:

• Edward B. Sammons,
• Eric Wu
• Nikita Bhardwaj
• Matan T. Blitz
• Andrew R. Griesinger
• Varun K. Kumar
• Jessie M. Lin
• Aaron Phogat
• Aaliyah N. Sayed
• Shivam Singh
• Yishi Wang
• Orin Bolitho
• David X. Chen
• Isabelle P. Clayton
• Arman N. Esteghamat
• Soren Halvorson
• Carly L. Hubert
• Adam B. Krauss
• Richard Qi
• Leia Y. Qiu
• Ashwin Sanjay
• Travis J. Thai
• Jessica Wu
• Lilian J. Xu
• Audrey Yang
• Brian G. Zhang
• Yi Xie
• David J. Dorini

The above students belong to The Hun School of Princeton, Princeton Day School, Princeton High School, Stuart Country Day School of the Sacred Heart and Wilberforce School.

The students will have to fulfill several requirements to advance to final level of the competition. Over 90 percent students are expected to attain finalist status, said the National Merit Scholarship Corporation .

Around 1.5 million juniors from 21,000 high schools entered the 2021 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2019 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT). This served as an initial screen for entrants.

The nationwide pool of semifinalists, represent less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors. To become a Finalist, students and a high school official must submit a scholarship application, detailing the student’s academic record, participation in school and community activities, demonstrated leadership abilities, employment, honors and awards received. Students need to have an outstanding academic record throughout high school.

Only 15,000 students are expected to advance to the finalist level, and they will be notified in February .

Students are selected on the basis of their skills, accomplishments, and potential for success in college studies

The National Merit Scholarships will offer three types of scholarships in the spring. Every finalist will compete for one of 2,500 National Merit $2,500 Scholarships, that will be awarded on a state-representational basis. About 1,000 corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards will be provided by approximately 220 corporations and business organizations for finalists who meet their specified criteria.

Around 180 colleges and universities are expected to finance 4,100 college-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards for finalists, who will attend the sponsor institution.

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