3 Eagle County seniors qualify as National Merit Scholar Semifinalists
Emmie Urquhart, Colleen Farrell and Elliott Jarnot are in the running for the 7,500 merit scholarships worth nearly $30 million
This year, three Eagle County high school seniors have been named semifinalists in the 2022 National Merit Scholarship Program. This is the first time since 2018 that any Eagle County students have made it to the semifinalist stage in the program.
Vail Mountain School’s Emmie Urquhart, Vail Christian High School’s Colleen Farrell and Battle Mountain High School’s Elliott Jarnot will all have the opportunity to advance to the finalist level of the competition.
These students are three of nearly 16,000 semifinalists named in the 67th year of the National Merit program. These students will have an opportunity to compete for 7,500 National Merit Scholarships worth nearly $30 million. The scholarships will be awarded in the spring.
Each year, about 95% of the semifinalists are expected to attain finalist standing and only half of the finalists will win a National Merit Scholarship. Finalists will be named in February.
There are several requirements that these students must fulfill to advance as a finalist. All semifinalists and a high school official must submit a detailed scholarship application that includes information about the student’s academic record, participation in school and community activities, leadership abilities, employment and other honors and awards received. In addition, to become a finalist, all must have an outstanding academic record throughout high school, be endorsed and recommended by a high school official, write an essay and earn SAT or ACT scores that match their scores on an earlier qualifying test.
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The scholarships
Three types of National Merit Scholarships will be awarded in the spring of 2022.
Every finalist will compete for one of 2,500 National Merit $2500 Scholarships that will be awarded on a state-representational basis.
About 1,000 corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards will be provided by approximately 220 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.
These scholarship recipients will join more than 362,000 other distinguished young people who have earned the Merit Scholar title.
