The National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) recently announced the names of 3,300 winners of this year’s National Merit Scholarships financed by U.S. colleges and universities. The list of scholars included 16 students from Cobb Schools including Lassiter High School, Pope High School, Sprayberry High School, Walton High School, and Wheeler High School.
Officials of each sponsor college selected their scholarship winners from among the finalists in the 2020 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 2020 competition to about 4,100.
This year, 167 higher education institutions are underwriting Merit Scholarship awards through the National Merit Scholarship Program. Sponsor colleges and universities include 92 private and 75 public institutions located in 43 states and the District of Columbia.
Earlier this spring, NMSC announced winners of corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards and National Merit $2500 Scholarships.
In May, 7 Cobb students were named National Merit $2500 Scholarship winners.
This year’s National Merit Scholarship Program began in October 2018 when over 1.5 million juniors in approximately 21,000 high schools took the PSAT/NMSQT, which served as an initial screen of program entrants. Last fall, the highest-scoring participants in each state, representing less than one percent of the nation’s high school seniors, were named Semifinalists on a state’s representational basis. Only these 16,000 Semifinalists had an opportunity continue in the competition.
From the Semifinalist group, some 15,000 students met the very high academic standards and other requirements to advance to the Finalist level of the competition. By the conclusion of the 2020 program, about 7,600 Finalists will have earned the “Merit Scholar” title and received a total of over $30 million in college scholarships.
NMSC, a not-for-profit corporation that operates without government assistance, was founded in 1955 specifically to conduct the National Merit Scholarship Program. The majority of scholarships offered each year are underwritten by approximately 400 independent corporate and college sponsors that share NMSC’s goals of honoring scholastically talented youth and encouraging academic excellence at all levels of education.
Cobb Schools College-Sponsored National Merit Scholars:
| Student Name | School | Probable Career Field | College-Sponsored Scholarship |
| Jordan Bass | Walton High School | Computer Science | Northwestern University |
| Alec Berger | Walton High School | Computer Science | Emory University |
| Ada R. Burris | Pope High School | Ministry | Samford University |
| Patrick G. Gen | Wheeler High School | Medicine | University of Georgia |
| Taylor Chiles | Walton High School | Mathematics | Wheaton College |
| Alessa L. Cullinan | Wheeler High School | Undecided | University of Georgia |
| Julia Dierker | Walton High School | Public Health | Northeastern University |
| Rose Jewel | Wheeler High School | Computer Science | University of Georgia |
| Brian Kent | Wheeler High School | Mechanical Engineering | University of Alabama |
| Gabrielle P. Levitt | Lassiter High School | Public Relations | University of Georgia |
| Emma G. Mason | Wheeler High School | Biochemistry | University of South Carolina |
| Reilly S. Misra | Sprayberry High School | Dentistry | University of Georgia |
| Anna K Mitchell | Lassiter High School | Undecided | Florida State University |
| Andrew M. Myers | Pope High School | Economics | Vanderbilt University |
| Catherine L. Pereira | Lassiter High School | Statistics | University of Florida |
| Zaim Zibran | Walton High School | Public Health | Emory University |