Collingswood Student Named Semifinalist For National Scholarships

COLLINGSWOOD, NJ — A Collingswood High School student is among the 16,000 semifinalists in this year’s National Merit Scholarship Program, the National Merit Scholarship Corporation announced on Tuesday.

The nationwide pool represents less than 1 percent of U.S. high school seniors, and includes the highest-scoring entrants in each state.

Ava M. Ostrem is among the semifinalists named on Tuesday who have an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 7,600 National Merit Scholarships worth more than $30 million that will be offered in the spring.

NMSC, a not-for-profit organization that operates without government assistance, was established in 1955 specifically to conduct the annual National Merit Scholarship Program.
High school juniors entered the 67th annual competition by taking the 2019 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which served as an initial screen of program entrants.

To become a finalist, the semifinalist and a high school official must submit a detailed scholarship application, in which they provide information about the semifinalist's academic record, participation in school and community activities, demonstrated leadership abilities, employment, and honors and awards received.

A semifinalist must have an outstanding academic record throughout high school, be endorsed and recommended by a high school official, and write an essay.

About 15,000 finalists will be selected from the pool of 16,000 semifinalists. Finalists will be notified in February. All National Merit Scholarship winners will be selected from this group of finalists.

Three types of National Merit Scholarships will be offered in the spring. Every finalist will compete for one of 2,500 National Merit $2,500 Scholarships that will be awarded on a state-representational basis.

In addition, about 180 colleges and universities are expected to finance some 4,000 college-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards for finalists who will attend the sponsor institution.
National Merit Scholarship winners for 2022 will be announced in four nationwide news releases beginning in April and concluding in July. These scholarship recipients will join more than 353,000 other distinguished young people who have earned the Merit Scholar title.