A senior from Scripps Ranch High School has been awarded a National Merit scholarship to the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque.Shea Polansky joins approximately 2,500 winners of National Merit Scholarships backed by U.S. colleges and universities, according to the San Diego Unified School District. The sponsor colleges selected their winners from the finalists in the 2014 National Merit program.
Shea Polansky. Photo credit: sdusd-newsfeed.blogspot.com
These awards provide up to $2,000 annually for as many as four years of undergraduate study.
Polansky wants to study information technology.
Around 8,000 high school seniors will receive National Merit Scholarships worth more than $35 million. There also are corporate-sponsored merit scholarships.
About 1.5 million juniors from 22,000 high schools competed for National Merit Scholarships based on their 2012 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. Those with the highest scores in each state — more than 16,000 — constitute one percent of U.S. high school seniors.
Finalists submitted a detailed application, an essay and recommendations, and had to demonstrate superior SAT scores.
