Vienna Students Awarded National Merit Scholarship

The fourth round of 2021 National Merit Scholarship winners have been announced, two Vienna students are in the mix.

Over 3,100 winners are receiving National Merit Scholarships sponsored by U.S. colleges or universities they plan to attend. The scholarships provide between $500 and $2,000 annually for up to four years of undergraduate study at the higher education institution. Sponsor colleges and universities include 85 private and 75 public institutions in 42 states and D.C.

There were 22 winners from Virginia in this round of college-sponsored scholarships.

Kathryn Kim of McLean High School won a scholarship from Virginia Commonwealth University and will likely study fine arts. Alina M. Williams of Madison High School won a scholarship from Northeastern University and will likely study business.

The first announcement of college-sponsored awards comes after winners of corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards were announced in April and National Merit Scholarship Corporation's own $2,500 Scholarships were announced in May. The first college-sponsored scholarship winners were announced in June. Three Vienna students won college-sponsored scholarships and four won the $2,500 National Merit Scholarships.

To be entered for the National Merit Scholarship competition, over 1.5 million students were entered as juniors taking the PSAT in 2019. In fall 2020, around 17,000 semifinalists were named based on each state's proportion of graduating seniors. Semifinalists were the top scoring entrants in their states and represent less than 1 percent of seniors in the U.S.

To be considered for finalist status, semifinalists had to submit a detailed scholarship application with an essay and details on extracurricular activities, awards, and leadership positions as well as demonstrate an outstanding academic record and have an endorsement from a high school official. Around 16,000 finalists met requirements for finalists status and were eligible to be chosen for corporate-sponsored, National Merit Scholarship-sponsored and college-sponsored awards.

In all, about 7,500 students will win National Merit Scholarships worth $30 million in 2021.