4 Princeton Students Win National Merit $2,500 Scholarship

PRINCETON, NJ — Four Princeton students have been named winners of the 2026 National Merit $2,500 Scholarship.

The merit scholar winners, announced last week, were among 2,500 winners nationwide and were selected from a pool of more than 15,000 finalists.

Here are the winners:

Darby Ko

• Probable career field: Materials Science
• School: West Windsor-Plainsboro H.S.

Evan Messina

• Probable career field: Writing
• School: St. Andrew's School

Qiuen Yu

• Probable career field: Engineering
• School: Lawrenceville School

Branden C. Zhou

• Probable career field: Computer Engineering
• School: Princeton High School

The organization said National Merit $2500 Scholarship winners are the finalists in each state judged to have "the strongest combination of accomplishments, skills, and potential for success in rigorous college studies."

The number of winners in each state is proportional to that state’s percentage of the nation’s graduating high school seniors.

According to the release, the scholars were chosen by a committee of college admissions officers and high school counselors.

The committee reviewed information submitted by both finalists and their high schools, including the students’ academic records, the difficulty level of subjects studied, grades earned, scores from the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, contributions and leadership in school and community activities, an essay written by the finalist, and a recommendation written by a high school official.

This is the second group of winners in the 2026 National Merit Scholarship Program.

On April 22, about 700 recipients of corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards were named.

NMSC also said that on June 3 and July 13, about 3,500 college-sponsored Merit Scholarship winners will be announced.

By the end of this year’s competition, about 6,700 academic champions will have won National Merit Scholarships worth approximately $24 million, according to the release.

The 2026 competition began in October 2024, when high school juniors took the PSAT/NMSQT as an initial screening test.

Last fall, the highest-scoring participants in each state, representing less than 1 percent of the nation’s high school seniors, were named semifinalists. More than 16,000 semifinalists had the opportunity to continue in the competition, and more than 15,000 advanced to finalist standing.

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