Gray Stone Day School senior Arsha Sharma was named one of about 16,000 semifinalists in the 64th annual National Merit Scholarship Program through the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC).

Sharma is the daughter of Rajnish Sharma and Arti Sharma of Harrisburg.

She entered Gray Stone Day School as a ninth grader at the age of 12.

She leads Gray Stone’s Red Cross Club, she is president of Science Olympiad, co-president of Friends of Rachel, leadership of the Spanish National Honor Society and a member of the National Honor Society.

Outside of school she is a volunteer math and science tutor for Tutor in Charlotte and a volunteer for Rowan County’s Novant Health Medical Center.

She is a member of the chorus at a Sikh Temple in Charlotte and an accomplished Bhangra dancer with Sheila Singhvi.

Arsha is currently applying to college with a potential major in neuroscience and plans for medical school in the future.

These high school seniors have an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 7,500 National Merit Scholarships worth more than $31 million that will be offered next spring.

To be considered for a Merit Scholarship award, semifinalists must fulfill several requirements to advance to the finalist level of the competition.

More than 90 percent of the semifinalists are expected to attain finalist standing, and about half of the finalists will win a National Merit Scholarship, earning the Merit Scholar title.
NMSC, a not-for-profit organization that operates without government assistance, was established in 1955 specifi cally to conduct the annual National Merit Scholarship Program.

Scholarships are underwritten by NMSC with its own funds and by approximately 410 business organizations and higher education institutions that share NMSC’s goals of honoring the nation’s scholastic champions and encouraging the pursuit of academic excellence.

Using numbers of semifinalists to compare high schools, educational systems, or states will result in erroneous conclusions.

The National Merit Scholarship Program honors individual students who show exceptional academic ability and potential for success in rigorous college studies.

The program does not measure the quality or eff ectiveness of education within a school, system, or state.

For more information about the competition, visit NMSC’s website at www.nationalmerit.org.

More than 1.6 million juniors in about 22,000 high schools entered the 2019 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2017 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT), which served as an initial screen of program entrants.

The nationwide pool of semifinalists, representing less than 1 percent of U.S. high school seniors, includes the highest scoring entrants in each state. The number of semifinalists in a state is proportional to the state’s percentage of the national total of graduating seniors.

To become a finalist, the semifinalist and his or her high school 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, write an essay, and earn SAT scores that confirm the student’s earlier performance on the qualifying test.

From the approximately 16,000 semifinalists, about 15,000 are expected to advance to the finalist level, and in February they will be notified of this designation.

All National Merit Scholarship winners will be selected from this group of finalists. Merit Scholar designees are selected on the basis of their skills, accomplishments, and potential for success in rigorous college studies, without regard to gender, race, ethnic origin or religious preference.

Three types of National Merit Scholarships will be offered in the spring of 2019.

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

About 1,000 corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards will be provided by approximately 230 corporations and business organizations for finalists who meet their specified criteria, such as children of the grantor’s employees or residents of communities where sponsor plants or offi ces are located.

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 of 2019 will be announced in four nationwide news releases beginning in April and concluding in July.

These scholarship recipients will join some 338,000 other young people who have earned the Merit Scholar title.