{"id":81896,"date":"2018-04-09T17:06:13","date_gmt":"2018-04-09T21:06:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/?p=81896"},"modified":"2020-02-04T15:00:27","modified_gmt":"2020-02-04T20:00:27","slug":"ucf-ranks-25th-in-nation-for-national-merit-scholars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-ranks-25th-in-nation-for-national-merit-scholars\/","title":{"rendered":"UCF Ranks 25th in Nation for National Merit Scholars"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>UCF was ranked 25th in the nation for enrollment of freshmen National Merit Scholars in Fall 2017, according to the annual report recently released by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation.<\/p>\n<p>With 88 National Merit Scholars enrolled, UCF also was ranked the 13th highest public institution in the country. The ranking places UCF above institutions such as UCLA, Penn State and Georgia Tech.<\/p>\n<p>The National Merit Scholarship Program is an academic competition for recognition and college scholarships that began in 1955. One of the students featured in this year\u2019s report was UCF recipient Grant W. Geiger, who is majoring in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/degree\/aerospace-engineering-bsae\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">mechanical and aerospace engineering<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>In high school, Geiger was president of the National Honor Society, competed on the golf and powerlifting teams, and participated in the school musical. Thanks to his scholarship, Geiger says he is \u201cexcited to see what the future has in store\u201d at UCF.<\/p>\n<p>Oklahoma University was ranked first in freshmen National Merit Scholars for the third year in a row.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UCF was ranked 25th in the nation for enrollment of freshmen National Merit Scholars in Fall 2017, according to the annual report recently released by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation. With 88 National Merit Scholars enrolled, UCF also was ranked the 13th highest public institution in the country. The ranking places UCF above institutions such as UCLA, Penn State and&hellip;","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":81897,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"template-twocol.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"lazy_load_responsive_images_disabled":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[973,17393,4163],"tu_author":[],"class_list":["post-81896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colleges","tag-college-of-engineering-and-computer-science","tag-department-of-mechanical-and-aerospace-engineering","tag-scholarships"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v22.3 (Yoast SEO v27.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>UCF&#039;s Ranks 25th in Nation for National Merit Scholars<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"UCF was ranked 25th in the nation for enrollment of freshmen National Merit Scholars in Fall 2017, according to the annual report recently released by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-ranks-25th-in-nation-for-national-merit-scholars\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"UCF Ranks 25th in Nation for National Merit Scholars\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"UCF was ranked 25th in the nation for enrollment of freshmen National Merit Scholars in Fall 2017, according to the annual report recently released by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-ranks-25th-in-nation-for-national-merit-scholars\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"University of Central Florida News | UCF Today\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/UCF\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-04-09T21:06:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-02-04T20:00:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/2018\/04\/gg-1067x800.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1067\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Gene Kruckemyer \u201973\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@UCF\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@UCF\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Gene Kruckemyer \u201973\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/ucf-ranks-25th-in-nation-for-national-merit-scholars\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/ucf-ranks-25th-in-nation-for-national-merit-scholars\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Gene Kruckemyer \u201973\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/9640ca0c84355d1c971ce4e83999b1cc\"},\"headline\":\"UCF Ranks 25th in Nation for National Merit Scholars\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-04-09T21:06:13+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-02-04T20:00:27+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/ucf-ranks-25th-in-nation-for-national-merit-scholars\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":170,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/ucf-ranks-25th-in-nation-for-national-merit-scholars\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/wp-content\\\/blogs.dir\\\/20\\\/files\\\/2018\\\/04\\\/gg.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"College of Engineering and Computer Science\",\"Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering\",\"scholarships\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Colleges &amp; 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