3 Lansdale Students Win College-Sponsored National Merit Scholarships

About 3,000 students have won National Merit Scholarships sponsored by universities around the nation, including dozens of local students.

Colleges select their scholarship winners from among the finalists for the 2016 National Merit Scholarship who plan to attend their institution.

Scholarships range from $500 to $2,000 annually for four years, the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) said.

The scholarships differ from National Merit Scholarship winners in that these students have been selected separately by the colleges, not by the NMSC.

A total of 184 institutions around the country are supporting their students in this manner.

About 1.5 million juniors from around the country entered the National Merit competition in 2016 by taking the preliminary SAT test.

Local winners included:

• Mark S. Bense (Lansdale), La Salle College, who will attend Lehigh University
• Courtney Blattner (Lansdale), North Penn, who will attend Lehigh University
• Hiba F. Pediyakkal (North Wales), North Penn, who will attend Boston University