On July 13, National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) announced over 750 additional winners of National Merit Scholarships financed by colleges and universities. These Merit Scholar designees join more than 2,500 other college-sponsored award recipients who were announced in June. This is the last group of National Merit Scholar designees to be announced in 2026 by National

Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC).


Winners included eight students from the greater Katy area.


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, 138 colleges and universities are sponsoring more than 3,250 Merit Scholarship

awards. Sponsor colleges include 69 private and 69 public institutions located in 42 states and the

District of Columbia.


This final group of winners brings the number of 2026 National Merit Scholars to about

6,500. These distinguished high school graduates will receive scholarships for undergraduate

study worth a total of nearly $24 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 700 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 71 years,

over 395,000 outstanding young individuals have won National Merit Scholarships worth more

than $1.4 billion. The majority of awards offered each year are underwritten by approximately

300 independent corporate and college sponsors that support NMSC’s efforts to recognize

scholastically talented youth and encourage the pursuit of academic excellence.


Scholarship winner High school Probable career field Sponsoring institution

Nathaniel Browne Aristoi Classical Academy Physical therapy Texas Tech University

Timothy L. Chau Tompkins High School Electrical engineering Texas A&M University

Ryan S. Gover Cinco Ranch High School Computer science Texas A&M University

Adleigh G. Krile Jordan High School Medicine Southern Methodist University

Isaac T. Park Seven Lakes High School Electrical engineering Texas A&M University

Brandon P. Rul Seven Lakes High School Computer engineering Texas A&M University

Muhammad Daniyal

Salman Jordan High School Medicine University of Texas at Dallas

Shailesh R. Satewar Seven Lakes High School Ophthalmology Texas A&M University