Holliston Resident Earns National Merit College-Sponsored Scholarship

HOLLISTON, MA - Holliston resident Roma G. Patel will be heading to the University of Texas Dallas with a National Merit Scholarship financed by the college, the National Merit Scholarship Corporation announced this week.

Patel will be graduating from Holliston High School this month and plans to major in econonics.

The University of Texas at Dallas attracts a diverse group of nearly 30,000 students from over 100 countries. UT Dallas is a rapidly growing public research university that includes top-ranked programs in science, technology, engineering, the arts, and mathematics (STEAM) and business.

National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) announced over 2,600 winners of National Merit Scholarships financed by U.S. colleges and universities. Officials of each sponsor college selected their scholarship winners from among the Finalists in the 2022 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 2022 competition to about 4,000.

This year, 155 higher education institutions are underwriting Merit Scholarship awards through the National Merit Scholarship Program. Sponsor colleges and universities include 82
private and 73 public institutions located in 42 states and the District of Columbia, including the University of Texas at Dallas.

This announcement is the third National Merit Scholar release in 2022 by the National Merit
Scholarship Corporation. NMSC named recipients of corporate-sponsored awards on
April 27 and winners of National Merit $2,500 Scholarships on May 11.

Additional recipients of college-sponsored awards will be announced on July 11. By the conclusion of this year’s competition, about 7,500 academic champions will have won National Merit Scholarships worth approximately $28 million.

High school juniors entered the 2022 National Merit Scholarship Program when they took
the 2020 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which served as an initial screen of program entrants. Last fall, 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 compete for Merit Scholarship awards, semifinalists first had to advance to the finalist
level of the competition by fulfilling additional requirements. Each semifinalist was asked to
submit a detailed scholarship application, which included writing an essay and providing
information about extracurricular activities, awards, and leadership positions. Semifinalists also
had to have an outstanding academic record, be endorsed and recommended by a high school
official, and earn SAT or ACT scores that confirmed the qualifying test performance.

From the semifinalist group, over 15,000 met requirements for finalist standing, and about half of the finalists will be Merit Scholarship winners in 2022.

NMSC, a not-for-profit corporation that operates without government assistance, was
established in 1955 to conduct the National Merit Scholarship Program. The majority of National
Merit Scholarships provided each year are made possible by the support of approximately 400
independent corporate and college sponsors. These sponsors join NMSC in its efforts to enhance
educational opportunities for America’s scholastically talented youth and to encourage the
pursuit of academic excellence.