Marblehead's Maria Piper Earns National Merit Scholarship

MARBLEHEAD, MA — Marblehead High senior Maria Piper was named one of 3,100 students to earn a National Merit Scholarship as part of the organization's college-sponsored program.

Piper is expected to study computer sciences at Vanderbilt University.

Officials of each sponsor college selected their scholarship winners from among the finalists in the 2021 National Merit Scholarship Program who plan to attend their institution.

These awards provide between $500 and $2,000 annually for up to four years of undergraduate study at the institution financing the scholarship.

An additional group of scholars will be announced in July, bringing the total number of college-sponsored Merit Scholarship recipients in the 2021 competition to about 4,000.

Over 1.5 million juniors at about 21,000 high schools entered the 2021 National Merit Scholarship Program when they took the 2019 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test.

Last fall, about 17,000 semifinalists were named — which represents less than 1 percent of the nation's seniors.

Semifinalists were each asked to submit a detailed scholarship application, including an essay and providing extracurricular activities, awards and leadership positions. Semifinalists also had to have an outstanding academic record and be endorsed by a high school official.

About half of the semifinalists became finalists for the scholarships.

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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.)