Mount Pleasant High School senior, Sam Pearson, has advanced to Finalist standing in the 2020 National Merit Scholarship Program, a distinction that places him in a group representing less than one percent of U.S. high school graduating seniors.
Pearson now advances through the application phase and will compete for one of three types of National Merit Scholarships to be offered in 2020. All finalists are being considered for a one-time $2500 scholarship that will be offered on a state representational basis. Finalists who meet specific criteria of a company or business sponsor will be considered for one of about 1,000 corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards. And finally, finalists who meet specific criteria may be considered for one of about 4,000 college-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards to be financed by U.S. colleges and universities that have made sponsor arrangements with national Merit Scholarship Corporation. Scholarship offers will be extended starting in mid-March.
Over 1.5 million juniors in about 21,000 high schools entered the 2020 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2018 PSAT, which served as an initial screen of program entrants. The nationwide pool of Semifinalists, representing less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors, includes the highest-scoring entrants in each state. The number of Semifinalists in a state is proportional to the state’s percentage of the national total of graduating seniors.
To become a Finalist, the Semifinalist 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 confirm the student’s earlier performance on the qualifying test.
Pearson has recently been accepted to the Honors program at Texas A&M at Commerce. He is the son of David and Kim Pearson.
Photo L to R –
MPHS Principal Craig Bailey, Sam Pearson, MPHS Senior Counselor Jerilyn Goolsby