2 Lower Merion Students Win National Merit Scholarships

ARDMORE, PA — Two students at Lower Merion High School were named winners of National Merit Scholarships Monday.

More than 800 new winners of National Merit Scholarships financed by colleges and universities were announced Monday.

Among them are Liam A. O'Connell, of Ardmore, and Simona R. Fisher, of Bala Cynwyd.

According to the National Merit Scholarship Corporation, O'Connell will attend the University of Maryland and plans to study Electrical Engineering.

Fisher is planning to study Chemistry at Lehigh University, the corporation said.

These two join more than 2,900 other college-sponsored award recipients who were announced in June.

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, 149 colleges and universities are sponsoring approximately 3,700 Merit Scholarship awards.

Sponsor colleges include 77 private and 72 public institutions located in 42 states and the District of Columbia.

This final group of winners brings the number of 2024 National Merit Scholars to more than 6,900.

These distinguished 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 770 corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards for Finalists who met criteria specified by their grantor organizations.