On July 14 National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) announced nearly 800 additional winners of National Merit Scholarships financed by colleges and universities. These Merit Scholar designees join more than 2,900 other college-sponsored award recipients who were announced in June.

Four of those winners are from Katy:

· Mae J. Chen, Jordan High School, National Merit Harvey Mudd College Scholarship. Probable career field: engineering

· Aidan M. Henderson, James E. Taylor High School, National Merit Northeastern University Scholarship. Probable career field: law

· Eric X. Li, Obra D. Tompkins High School, National Merit Texas A&M University Scholarship. Probable career field: mechanical engineering

· Akhil Vasudevan, Seven Lakes High School, National Merit Emory University Scholarship. Probable career field: surgical medicine

Officials of each sponsor college selected their scholarship winners from among the Finalists in the National Merit Scholarship Program who will 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.

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 the District of Columbia.

This final group of winners brings the number of 2025 National Merit Scholars to more than 7,100. These high school graduates will receive scholarships for undergraduate study worth a total of nearly $26 million. 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.

NMSC, a not-for-profit organization that operates without government assistance, was founded in 1955 to conduct the National Merit Scholarship Program. Over the past 70 years, approximately 389,000 outstanding young individuals have won National Merit Scholarships worth nearly $1.4 billion. The majority of awards offered each year are underwritten by approximately 280 independent corporate and college sponsors that support NMSC’s efforts to recognize scholastically talented youth and encourage the pursuit of academic excellence.