College-sponsored scholarships provide between $500 and $2,000 annually for up to four years of undergraduate study.
WOODBRIDGE, CT — A Woodbridge student was named among nearly 800 additional winners of National Merit Scholarships financed by colleges and universities, the National Merit Scholarship Corporation announced Tuesday.
The Merit Scholar designees join more than 2,900 other college-sponsored award recipients who were announced in June.
Among the winners announced this week was Woodbridge student Advaith B. Nair, who attended the Amity Regional High School, and received the Merit Scholarship from Purdue University. His probable career path is Chemistry.
Officials of each sponsor college selected their scholarship winners from among the finalists in the National Merit Scholarship Program who will attend their institution, according to the NMSC.
College-sponsored awards provide between $500 and $2,000 annually for up to four years of undergraduate study at the institution financing the scholarship.
The NMSC noted that this year, 146 colleges and universities are sponsoring more than 3,700 Merit Scholarship awards. Sponsor colleges include 74 private and 72 public institutions located in 42 states and Washington, D.C.
Students entered the 2025 National Merit Scholarship Program when they took the 2023 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT) as juniors.
Last fall, more than 16,000 semifinalists were named on a state-representational basis in numbers proportional to each state's percentage of the national total graduating high school seniors.
Semifinalists were the highest-scoring program entrants in each state and represented less than 1 percent of the nation’s seniors.
More than 15,000 advanced to "finalist" status after submitting academic records, essays, and recommendations, and meeting standardized test benchmarks.
About half of the finalists were chosen to be Merit Scholarship winners in 2025.
Established in 1955, the National Merit Scholarship Program is privately funded and operates without government support. The majority of National Merit Scholarships provided each year are made possible from the support of about 280 independent corporate and college sponsors.
In total, there are more than 7,100 National Merit Scholars for 2025.
In addition to college-sponsored awards, two other types of National Merit Scholarships were offered — 2,500 National Merit $2500 Scholarships, for which all finalists competed, and about 830 corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards for finalists who met criteria specified by their grantor organizations.