NATIONAL MERIT SCHOLAR LOOKS TO COLLEGE, REFLECTS ON NDP

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September 15, 2023

For information on enrollment and registration at Notre Dame Prep, an independent, Catholic, International Baccalaureate school, please visit the admissions section of our website here.

Notre Dame Prep senior who earned National Merit Scholarship semifinalist status looks toward a pre-med/business path through college; says he thanks God for his time at NDP.

Notre Dame Preparatory School senior George Moussa was named this week as a semifinalist in the 2024 National Merit Scholarship Program.

He now has an opportunity to continue in the competition for more than 7,000 National Merit Scholarships worth nearly $30 million in total that will be announced next spring. To be considered for a Merit Scholarship award, semifinalists must fulfill several requirements to advance to the finalist level of the competition. Those include an outstanding academic record throughout high school, endorsement by a high school official, a written essay, and SAT or ACT scores that confirm the student’s earlier performance on the qualifying test.

Moussa was slightly taken aback when he found out about the NMSC (National Merit Scholarship Corp.) honor.

"I pulled out my phone to check some other things and saw "National Merit" out of the corner of my eye... a very pleasant surprise," he said. He looks forward to finding out early next year if he indeed is named a finalist, but it won't hold up any of his post-Notre Dame Prep plans.

"I'm basically looking to pursue a pre-med pathway in college with a business background," he said. "My hope is to get into the University of Pennsylvania's life sciences and management dual-degree program, which unites the science and business fields. I would also be thrilled to attend Vanderbilt in Nashville or The University of Notre Dame!"

Moussa said that while he's been part of the Notre Dame Prep community from the sixth grade, it's only since he began his final year on campus that he's been keen to look back at the past six years in the Pontiac school.

"Going into my senior year, I was motivated to reflect honestly on the last several years of my life, including my choice to join the NDP community in sixth grade," said the Rochester Hills resident. "I concluded that I'm incredibly thankful for God having put me here, for it was here, as an example, that I discovered my passion for music and was enabled to grow in that skill, even far beyond the borders of our campus!" 

Check out Moussa and his fellow NDP musicians when they played a set of jazz standards as part of the Colin House Concert Series.

He also said faith has played and continuous to play a huge role in his life on campus and off.

"It was here where I dove deep into my faith after being encouraged from all directions to pursue it, in no small part as a result of my experience on the Kairos retreat. It was also here at NDP where I met incredible people who I love and will continue to love forever. I regret nothing and thank God for everything."

More on the National Merit Scholarships

About 95 percent of NMSC semifinalists are expected to attain finalist standing, and more than half of the finalists typically win a National Merit Scholarship, earning the Merit Scholar title. 

NMSC is a not-for-profit organization that was established in 1955 specifically to conduct the annual National Merit Scholarship Program. Scholarships are underwritten by NMSC with its own funds and by approximately 440 business organizations and higher education institutions that share NMSC’s goals of honoring the nation’s scholastic champions and encouraging the pursuit of academic excellence.

The National Merit Scholarship Program honors individual students who show exceptional academic ability and potential for success in rigorous college studies. For more information about the competition, visit www.nationalmerit.org.
 
More than 1.3 million juniors from nearly 21,000 high schools entered the 2024 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2022 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT), which served as an initial screen of program entrants. The nationwide pool of semifinalists, representing less than 1 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.

National Merit Scholarship winners of 2024 will be announced in four nationwide news releases beginning in April and concluding in July. These scholarship recipients will join nearly 375,000 other distinguished young people who have earned the Merit Scholar title.

Merit Scholar designees are selected on the basis of their skills, accomplishments, and potential for success in rigorous college studies, without regard to gender, race, ethnic origin, or religious preference.

For information on enrollment and registration at Notre Dame Prep, an independent, Catholic, International Baccalaureate school, please visit the admissions section of our website here.

Comments or questions? mkelly@ndpma.org

Follow Notre Dame on Twitter at @NDPMA.

About Notre Dame Preparatory School 
Notre Dame Preparatory School is a private, Catholic, independent, coeducational day school located in Oakland County. Notre Dame Preparatory School's upper school enrolls students in grades nine through twelve and has been named one of the nation's best 50 Catholic high schools (Acton Institute) four times since 2005. Notre Dame Prep's middle and lower schools enroll students in pre-kindergarten through grade eight. All three schools are International Baccalaureate "World Schools." NDPMA is conducted by the Marist Fathers and Brothers and is accredited by the Independent Schools Association of the Central States and the National Association of Independent Schools. For more on Notre Dame Preparatory School, visit the school’s home page at www.ndpma.org.