>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Merit_Scholarship_Program
The National Merit Scholarship Program is a United States academic scholarship competition for recognition and university scholarships administered by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC), a privately funded, not-for-profit organization based in Evanston, Illinois.[1] The program began in 1955.
NMSC conducts an annual competition for recognition and scholarships: the National Merit Scholarship Program, which is open to all students who meet entry requirements. Until 2015,[2] it also ran the National Achievement Scholarship Program (est. 1964), which was reserved for African-American students. The highest-achieving students in the National Merit Scholarship Program are designated as National Merit Scholars.[3] Finalists and Semifinalists are also given recognition for their academic and extracurricular achievements. Commended Students are named on the basis of a nationally applied Selection Index score, which may vary from year to year and is typically below the level required for participants to be named Semifinalists in their respective states. Each year's Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT) is the qualifying test for a student's entry to a particular year's competitions.[4]
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National Merit and National Achievement Scholars
John C. Malone (1959)
Elvin Bishop (1960)
Joseph Stiglitz (1960)
Randy Hendricks (1963)
Amory Lovins (1964)
Robert Reich (1964)
Thomas Cech (1966)
Alexa Canady (1967)
Mitch Daniels (1967)
Michael Walsh (1967)
Roger Tsien (1968)
Jerry Greenfield (1969)
Paul Krugman (1970)
Ben Bernanke (1971)
Evelynn M. Hammonds (1971)
Jeffrey Sachs (1972)
Bill Gates (1973)
Jim Cramer (1973)
John Roberts (1973)
Mae Jemison (1973)
Steve Ballmer (1973)
Elena Kagan (1977)
Lisa P. Jackson (1979)
B. Alvin Drew (1980)
Lisa Randall (1980)
Jeff Bezos (1982)
Andrew Gelman (1982)
Susan Rice (1982)
Spencer Wells (1984)
Peter Thiel (1985)
Chubb Rock (1985)[16]
Jeri Ryan (1986)[17]
Lauren Lake (1986)[18]
Linda Rottenberg (1986)
Elliott Smith (1987)[19]
Ted Cruz (1988)[20]
M. Night Shyamalan (1988)
Howard Steven Friedman (1989)[21]
Michael McCullers (1989)
Josh Singer (1990)[22]
Asia Carrera (1991)
Melissa Harris-Perry (1991)
Stephenie Meyer (1992)
Felicia Day (1995)
Slater Rhea (2005)[23]