The National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) announced Monday nearly 800 additional winners of college-sponsored National Merit Scholarships, including Nicholas Song of Eden Prairie High School.
These new recipients bring the total number of 2025 National Merit Scholars to more than 7,100.
Song, whose probable career field is listed as computer science, was awarded a scholarship to Purdue University in Indiana. The college-sponsored award provides between $500 and $2,000 annually for up to four years of undergraduate study.
The National Merit Scholarship Program begins during a student’s junior year of high school, when they take the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which acts as a way to screen candidates. More than 16,000 semifinalists were selected nationwide and named on a “state-representational basis in numbers proportional to each state’s percentage of the national total of graduating high school seniors,” according to NMSC.
To become finalists, semifinalists had to submit an essay, a record of their leadership roles and contributions to school and community, a recommendation from a high school official, and their ACT or SAT scores. About half of the more than 15,000 students selected as finalists were chosen to receive a National Merit Scholarship.
