Davison resident named National Merit Scholar

The names of some 2,500 distinguished high school seniors who have won National Merit $2500 Scholarships have been announced today by officials of National Merit Scholarship Corporation.

Among them is Adam B. Carlson of Davison, a student at Powers Catholic High School.

Merit Scholar designees were chosen from a talent pool of approximately 15,000 finalists in the 2007 National Merit Scholarship Program.

National Merit $2,500 Scholarship winners are the finalists in each state judged to have the strongest combination of accomplishments, skills, and potential for success in rigorous college studies. They were selected by a committee of college admissions officers and high school counselors.

NMSC is financing most of the single-payment National Merit $2,500 Scholarships with its own funds. Companies and businesses that sponsor awards through NMSC also help underwrite these scholarships with grants they provide in lieu of paying administrative fees.

All finalists competed for these awards. Scholar selection was based on committee members’ appraisal of a substantial amount of information submitted by finalists and their schools. Evaluated were each finalist’s academic record, including difficulty level of subjects studied and grades earned; scores from two standardized tests; contributions and leadership in school and community activities; an essay describing interests and goals; and the recommendation written by a high school official. The number of winners named in each state is proportional to the state’s percentage of the nation’s high school graduating seniors.

This year’s competition for National Merit Scholarships began in October 2005 when more than 1.4 million juniors in over 21,000 high schools took the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which served as an initial screen of program entrants.

Last fall, the highest-scoring participants in each state, representing less than 1 percent of the state’s seniors, were named semifinalists on a state representational basis. Only the 16,000 semifinalists had an opportunity to continue in the competition.

Approximately 15,000 semifinalists met the very high academic standards and other requirements to advance to the finalist level of the competition. By the conclusion of the 2007 program, about 8,200 finalists will earn the "Merit Scholar" title and receive a total of more than $34 million in college scholarships.