Stamford, CT – Stamford Public Schools (SPS) announced on Tuesday that Stamford High School Seniors Samuel Lai and Rachana Somaskandan were each named as college-sponsored National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) winners in the 2021 National Merit® Scholarship Program. Lai will be awarded the National Merit Boston University Scholarship; and Somaskandan will be awarded the National Merit Northeastern University Scholarship. The two students are among the select group of 3,100 students who will receive a National Merit Scholarship financed by a college or university.
According to NMSC, officials of each sponsor-college selected their scholarship winners from among the Finalists in the 2021 National Merit Scholarship Program who plan to attend their institution. College-sponsored awards provide between $500 and $2,000 annually for up to four years of undergraduate study at the institution financing the scholarship.
More than 1.5 million juniors in some 21,000 high schools entered the 2021 National Merit Scholarship Program when they took the 2019 Preliminary SAT National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. NMSC reported that an additional group of college-sponsored Merit Scholarship awardees will be announced in July. By the conclusion of the competition, some 7,500 winners will receive nearly $30 million.
