Photo courtesy of The Altamont School
Altamont School 2024 graduate Claudia Williams is the latest Altamont student to earn a National Merit Scholarship.
The National Merit Indiana University Bloomington Scholarship will take Williams to Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music this fall, where she will study Oboe Performance in the studio of Linda Strommen, and double-major in political science. The accomplished multi-instrumentalist has earned many extracurricular and school honors, including Altamont’s 2024 Sophia Mize Clifford Music Award and the honor for most outstanding Upper School Mandarin student.
Williams joins Altamont classmate Riley Pierce—bound for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology this fall-- in the National Merit Scholarship honors. They are among the 2,500 Merit Scholar designees chosen from a talent pool of more than 15,000 outstanding Finalists in the 2024 National Merit Scholarship Program.
National Merit $2,500 Scholarship winners are the Finalists in each state judged to have the strongest combination of accomplishments, skills, and potential for success in rigorous college studies. The number of winners named in each state is proportional to the state’s percentage of the nation’s graduating high school seniors. These Scholars were selected by a committee of college admissions officers and high school counselors, who appraised a substantial amount of information submitted by both the Finalists and their high schools: the academic record, including difficulty level of subjects studied and grades earned; scores from the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT); contributions and leadership in school and community activities; an essay written by the Finalist; and a recommendation written by a high school official.