Conrad Runte Awarded National
Merit Colby College Scholarship

Conrad Runte has been awarded a National Merit Colby College Scholarship. A Mamaroneck High School 2022 graduate, he will be attending Colby College in Maine this Fall.

The Scholarship Administration noted to Runte, “All of us at National Merit Scholarship Corporation {NMSC} hope that the honor of being named a Merit Scholar® designee will be a source of great pride and encouragement as you begin your pursuit of higher education.  We send you our very best wishes for your continued success.”

Officials of each sponsor college selected their scholarship winners from the among the Finalists in the National Merit Scholarship Program who will attend their institution. College sponsored awards provide between $500 and $2000 annually for up to 4 years of undergraduate study at the institution financing the scholarship.

This year, 155 colleges and universities are sponsoring over 3800 Merit Scholarship awards. Sponsor colleges include 82 private and 73 public institutions located in 42 states and the District of Columbia.

This year’s competition for National Merit Scholarships began when high school juniors took the 2020 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT®), which served as an initial screen of program entrants. In September 2021, more than 16,000 Semifinalists were named on a state-representational basis in numbers proportional to each state’s percentage of the national total of graduating high school seniors. Semifinalists were the highest scoring program entrants in each state and represented less than one percent of the nation’s seniors.

To become a Finalist, each Semifinalist had to complete a detailed scholarship application, which included writing an essay, describing leadership positions and contributions in school and community activities, showing an outstanding academic record, and being endorsed and recommended by a high school official. Semifinalists also had to take the SAT® or ACT® and earn scores that confirmed their performance on the initial qualifying test. From the Semifinalist group, over 15,000 attained Finalist standing, and about half of the Finalists were chosen to receive National Merit Scholarships.

NMSC, a not-for-profit corporation that operates without government assistance, was founded in 1955 to conduct the National Merit Scholarship Program. Over the past 67 years, approximately 368,000 outstanding young individuals have won National Merit Scholarships worth more than $1.3 billion. The majority of awards offered each year are underwritten by approximately 400 independent corporate and college sponsors that support NMSC’s efforts to recognize scholastically talented youth and encourage the pursuit of academic excellence.