1 More Wilton Student Receives College-Sponsored Merit Scholarship

WILTON, CT — The National Merit Scholarship Corporation on Wednesday announced one more Wilton student as a winner of a scholarship financed by U.S. colleges and universities.

Aaron Griffin, whose probable career path is listed as "aerospace engineering," earned a National Merit scholarship from the University of Alabama, according to a news release from the NMSC.

Wilton High School students Henry Rowley and Sean Thomas secured scholarships from the University of Maryland and Indiana University Bloomington, respectively, through the program in June.

This year, 153 colleges and universities are sponsoring over 3,800 Merit Scholarship awards. Sponsor colleges include 81 private and 72 public institutions located in 42 states and the District of Columbia.

Officials of each sponsor college selected their scholarship winners from among the finalists in the 2023 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.

This final group of winners brings the number of 2023 National Merit Scholars to more
than 7,140. These distinguished high school graduates will receive scholarships for undergraduate
study worth a total of nearly $28 million. In addition to college-sponsored awards, two other
types of National Merit Scholarships were offered—2,500 National Merit $2500 Scholarships, for
which all Finalists competed, and about 840 corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards for
Finalists who met criteria specified by their grantor organizations.

This year’s competition for National Merit Scholarships began when high school juniors took the 2021 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which served as an initial screen of program entrants. In September 2022, more than 16,000 Semifinalists were named on a state-representational basis in numbers proportional to each state’s percentage of the national total of graduating high school seniors. Semifinalists were the highest-scoring program entrants in each state and represented less than one percent of the nation’s seniors.

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.