H-B Woodlawn Senior Earns College-Sponsored National Merit Scholarship

Earlier this summer, the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) announced that H-B Woodlawn senior Isaac Studley earned National Merit Scholarships financed by Carleton College. Nearly 800 students from around the country were named winners of the scholarship.

Officials of each sponsor college selected their scholarship winners from among the Finalists in the National Merit Scholarship Program who will attend their institution. College-sponsored awards provide between $500 and $2,000 annually for up to four years of undergraduate study at the institution financing the scholarship. This year, 146 colleges and universities are sponsoring more than 3,700 Merit Scholarship awards. Sponsor colleges include 74 private and 72 public institutions located in 42 states and the District of Columbia.

This year’s competition for National Merit Scholarships began in October 2023 when more than 1.5 million juniors in over 21,000 high schools took the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. Last fall, the highest-scoring participants in each state were named semifinalists.

To become a Finalist, each Semifinalist had to complete a detailed scholarship application, which included writing an essay, describing leadership positions and contributions in school and community activities, showing an outstanding academic record, and being endorsed and recommended by a high school official. Semifinalists also had to take the SAT® or ACT® and earn scores that confirmed their performance on the initial qualifying test. From the Semifinalist group, over 15,000 attained Finalist standing, and about half of the Finalists were chosen to receive National Merit Scholarships.