Marblehead's Jack Dalton Earns National Merit Scholarship

MARBLEHEAD, MA — A Marblehead High School senior is among 2,500 students nationwide to earn a National Merit Scholarship.

Senior Jack Dalton earned the $2,500 scholarship as one of the students chosen out of a field of 16,000 finalists. Dalton said he is looking forward to studying engineering in college.

"These scholars were selected by a committee of college admissions officers and high school counselors, who appraised a substantial amount of information submitted by both the finalists and their high schools: the academic record, including difficulty level of subjects studied and grades earned," the National Merit Scholarship Program said, "(as well as) scores from the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, contributions and leadership in school and community activities, an essay written by the finalist and a recommendation written by a high school official."

Scholars may use their awards at any regionally accredited U.S. college or university. This year’s National Merit Scholarship Program began in October 2019 when over 1.5 million juniors in about 21,000 high schools took the PSAT/NMSQT, which served as an initial screen of program entrants.

The highest-scoring participants in each state, representing less than one percent of the nation’s high school seniors, were named semifinalists on a state-representational basis. From the semifinalist group, 16,000 students met the very high academic standards and other requirements to advance to the finalist level of the competition.

The majority of scholarships offered each year are underwritten by approximately 400 independent corporate and college sponsors that share NMSC’s goals of honoring scholastically talented youth and encouraging academic excellence at all levels of education.

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(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)