The National Merit Scholarship Corporation has released the names of the first group of winners in the 63rd National Merit Scholarship Program. Approximately 1,000 distinguished high school seniors have won corporate-sponsored scholarship awards financed by about 200 corporations, company foundations and other business organizations.
Garland High School student Austin Jacob Tsao was a scholarship recipient. Austin’s probable career field is electrical engineering.
Scholars were selected from students who advanced to the finalist level in the competition and met the criteria of their scholarship sponsors. Corporate sponsors provide scholarships for finalists who are children of their employees, who are residents of communities the company serves or who plan to pursue college majors or careers the sponsor wishes to encourage.
Most of these awards are renewable for up to four years of college undergraduate study and provide annual stipends that range from $500 to $10,000 per year. Some provide a single payment between $2,500 and $5,000. Recipients can use their awards at any regionally accredited U.S. college or university of their choice.
This is the first announcement of National Merit Scholars in 2018 by National Merit Scholarship Corporation. NMSC will name recipients of National Merit® $2500 Scholarships May 9 and winners of college-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards June 6 and July 16. By the conclusion of this year’s competition, about 7,500 academic champions will have won National Merit Scholarships worth more than $31 million.
About: NMSC is a nonprofit organization that operates without government assistance. It was established in 1955 to conduct the program. The majority of National Merit Scholarships offered each year are underwritten by some 410 independent corporate and college sponsors that support NMSC’s efforts to honor the nation’s scholastically talented youth and encourage academic excellence at all levels of education.