6 Lower Merion-Area Students Win National Merit Scholarships

LOWER MERION TOWNSHIP, PA – Six students attending schools in the Lower Merion area have been named winners in the National Merit Scholarship program, according to the National Merit Scholarship Corporation.

Five won $2,500 scholarships after being chosen from a talent pool of more than 15,000 finalists. One won a corporate-sponsored scholarship after being selected among 1,000 other seniors nationwide.

Anthony Zhu and Derek Goss of Harriton High School, Nisha Arya and Robert Zorc of Lower Merion high School, and Shmuel Meir Perl of Kohelet Yeshiva High School each won $2,500 in the program.

Lower Merion's Michael Cheng was also selected as a winner of the National Merit Mary E. Beyerle Scholarship, a corporate-sponsored award designated for seven finalists from Maryland, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

The National Merit Scholarship program recognizes and honors academically talented students of the United States.

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 named in each state is proportional to the state's percentage of the nation's graduating high school seniors.

Students are selected by a committee of college admissions officers and high school counselors, who appraised a substantial amount of information submitted by both the finalists and their high schools: the academic record, including difficulty level of subjects studied and grades earned; scores from two standardized tests; contributions and leadership in school and community activities; an essay written by the finalist; and a recommendation written by a high school official.

The National Merit Scholarship Program begins as more than 1.6 million students in 22,000+ high schools take the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT), which serves as an initial screen of program entrants.

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

From the semifinalist group, some 15,000 students met the very high academic standards and other requirements to advance to the Finalist level of the competition.

By the conclusion of the 2018 program, about 7,500 Finalists will have earned the "Merit Scholar" title and received a total of over $31 million in college scholarships.

NMSC, a non-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 410 independent corporate and college sponsors that share NMSC's goals of honoring scholastically talented youth and encouraging academic excellence at all levels of education.

Congratulations to these outstanding students!

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