7 More Long Island Students Win National Merit Scholarships

LONG ISLAND, NY — Seven more local students have won National Merit Scholarships, the NMSC announced Monday.

This is the fourth round of this year's announcements. On April 24, 14 recipients of corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards were named. In May, Merit Scholars were announced. On June 5, the first round of college-sponsored Merit Scholarship winners was released.

On Long Island, the latest announcement included:

• Ankur Raghavan, Bethpage High School. Probable career field: Engineering. NATIONAL MERIT PURDUE UNIVERSITY SCHOLARSHIP
• Sofia Ahmed, Commack High School. Probable career field: Neurosurgery. NATIONAL MERIT NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY SCHOLARSHIP
• Edward Chen Jericho High School. Probable career field: Mechanical Engineering. NATIONAL MERIT PURDUE UNIVERSITY SCHOLARSHIP
• Stephanie Hsu, Jericho High School. Probable career field: Neurology. NATIONAL MERIT CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY SCHOLARSHIP
• Noah Lee of Sea Cliff, North Shore High School. Probable career field: Music. NATIONAL MERIT BOSTON UNIVERSITY SCHOLARSHIP
• Benjamin C. Hasselbring, Syosset High School. Probable career field: Aerospace Engineering. NATIONAL MERIT PURDUE UNIVERSITY SCHOLARSHIP
• Nicholas Yang, Syosset High School. Probable career field: Biochemistry. NATIONAL MERIT STONY BROOK UNIVERSITY SCHOLARSHIP

High school juniors entered the 2024 National Merit Scholarship Program when they took the 2022 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which served as an initial screen of program entrants.

In September 2023, more than 16,000 Semifinalists were designated 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 be considered for a National Merit Scholarship, Semifinalists had to fulfill requirements to advance to Finalist standing. Each Semifinalist was asked to complete 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 their qualifying test performance.

From the Semifinalist group, over 15,000 met Finalist requirements.

They were selected by a committee of college admissions officers and high school counselors, who appraised a substantial amount of information submitted by both the Finalists and their high schools: the academic record, including difficulty level of subjects studied and grades earned; scores from the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT®); contributions and leadership in school and community activities; an essay written by the finalist; and a recommendation written by a high school official.