Dalton High School senior Jackson Wright has been named a semifinalist in the 64th annual National Merit Scholarship Program.

DALTON, Ga. — Dalton High School senior Jackson Wright has been named a semifinalist in the 64th annual National Merit Scholarship Program.

Wright entered the 2019 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2017 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which was 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.

As a semifinalist, Wright has the opportunity to continue in the competition for a National Merit Scholarship, 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.

Wright said earning the title and scholarship would mean a lot to him because he has put in significant work to achieve it.

“There aren’t many students who fall into this category, so it would be an honor to be one of the few,” he said. “However, it took more than me just studying to get here. It was a collective effort from me, my family and all of my teachers who have prepared me.”

Wright said he would like to attend the University of North Carolina or Vanderbilt University to study either business or engineering. This scholarship would be a great help in allowing him to achieve his goals, he said.

Steps in the 2019 competition

More than 1.6 million juniors in about 22,000 high schools entered the 2019 National Merit Scholarship Program. Wright is one of 16,000 semifinalists across the country.

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.

National Merit Scholarships

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 offices 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 distinguished young people who have earned the Merit Scholar title.