McLean Students Score College-Sponsored Merit Scholarships

The National Merit Scholarship Corporation announced about 3,500 college-sponsored National Merit Scholarship winners. Four seniors from McLean are among the recipients.

From Langley High School, Karina A. Holbrook plans to study international relations at the University of Chicago with the scholarship; Torrey A. Snyder will study neuroscience at the University of Southern California, and Sophia Z. Song will study business management at USC. Alexandra Zhang of Sidwell Friends School will study development economics at the University of Chicago.

These winners join seven others from McLean who received scholarships sponsored by businesses and the National Merit Scholarship Corporation itself.

The awards range between $500 and $2,000 annually for up to four years of undergraduate
study. 178 higher education institutions located in 44 states and the District of Columbia are sponsoring awards this year. An additional group of scholars will be announced in July, bringing the total number of college-sponsored recipients to about 4,000.

By the conclusion of this year's competition, about 7,500 students will be awarded scholarships worth more than $31 million.

Over 1.6 million students were entered into the competition by taking the Preliminary SATs as juniors, which narrowed down to 15,000 finalists. Semifinalists submitted additional applications with an essay, information about extracurricular activities, leadership positions and awards, and a recommendation from a school official.

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