Braintree Student Named 2024 National Merit Scholarship Semifinalist

BRAINTREE, MA — One Thayer Academy student is among 24 in Massachusetts to be named a National Merit Scholarship Program semifinalist.

More than 16,000 semifinalists in the 69th annual National Merit Scholarship Program were named this week. These high school seniors have an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 7,140 National Merit Scholarships worth nearly $28 million that will be offered next spring, officials said.

Over 1.3 million juniors in about 21,000 high schools entered the 2024 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2022 PSTA, which served as an initial screen of program entrants, officials said. The nationwide pool of semifinalists, representing less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors, includes the highest-scoring entrants in each state.

In Braintree, the single semifinalist comes from Thayer Academy in Razzi Masroor.

Three types of National Merit Scholarships will be offered in the spring of 2024.

About 840 corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards will be provided by approximately 160 corporations and business organizations for finalists who meet their specified criteria, such as children of the grantor’s employees or residents of communities where sponsor plants or offices are located.

In addition, about 160 colleges and universities are expected to finance some 3,800 college-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards for Finalists who will attend the sponsor institution.