Laurel Student Wins National Merit Scholarship

LAUREL, MD — A high school senior from Laurel has won a National Merit $2,500 Scholarship, the National Merit Scholarship Corporation announced Wednesday.

Laurel's National Merit $2,500 Scholarship winner is Yashvi P. Shah of Reservoir High School, who will be studying medicine.

Chosen from a talent pool of more than 15,000 finalists in the 2020 National Merit Scholarship Program, the 2,500 Merit Scholars are finalists in each state who exhibit a combination of accomplishments, skills, and potential success in their college studies. The number of winners in each state is based on the state's percentage of the nation's graduating seniors.

A committee made up of college admissions officers and high school counselors selected these Scholars based on information submitted by the finalists and their high schools. This includes the students' academic records, scores from the SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT), the students' involvement in school and community activities, a written essay, and a written recommendation from a high school official.

Financed by NMSC, the scholarship is presented to the Scholars as a single-payment National Merit $2,500 Scholarship.

About 1.5 million students were entered into the National Merit Scholarship competition by taking the 2018 PSAT as juniors. The 16,000 semifinalists were the highest-scoring entrants in their states, representing less than 1 percent of seniors.

Approximately 15,000 of the semifinalists qualified as finalists. In order to be considered as finalists, semifinalists completed a scholarship application with an essay and information about extracurricular activities, awards, and leadership positions. Semifinalists also had to demonstrate an outstanding academic record, earn SAT or ACT scores confirming their PSAT performance, and get a recommendation from a high school official.

Scholarship winners were the finalists determined to "have the strongest combination of academic skills and achievements, extracurricular accomplishments, and potential for success in rigorous college studies," according to the National Merit Scholarship Corporation.

College-sponsored Merit Scholarship winners will be announced on June 3 and July 13. The corporation expects 7,600 winners will receive scholarships totaling over $30 million in 2020.