Kyle J. Hurley of Hillsborough is one of more than 1,000 high school seniors nationwide who have been selected for a National Merit scholarship.
This round of scholarships is sponsored by about 200 corporations, company foundations and other business organizations.
Scholars were selected from students who advanced to the finalist level in the competition and met criteria of sponsors. Corporate sponsors provide such scholarships for finalists who are children of employees, are residents of communities the company serves, or who plan to pursue college majors or careers the sponsor wishes to encourage.
Kyle’s probable career field is finance. His scholarship is financed by health care company Johnson & Johnson for children of management and administration employees based at its world headquarters in Skillman.
Most awards are renewable for up to four years of undergraduate study and provide stipends that range from $500 to $10,000 per year. Some provide a single payment between $2,500 and $5,000. Recipients can use their awards at any regionally accredited U.S. college or university of their choice.
More than 1.5 million juniors in some 22,000 high schools entered the 2016 National Merit Scholarship competition when they took the 2014 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship qualifying test.
In September 2015, some 16,000 semifinalists were designated 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.
By the end of the 2016 competition, about 7,500 finalists will have been selected to receive National Merit Scholarships totaling about $33 million.
