Eric P. Jing of Pennington and Hopewell Valley Central High School 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 business groups.
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.
Eric’s probable career field is computer science. His scholarship is financed by Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation, Inc. for children of full-time employees of the company’s U.S. divisions and subsidiaries.
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 accredited college or university.
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.
By the end of the 2016 competition, about 7,500 finalists will have been selected to receive National Merit Scholarships totaling about $33 million.
