The National Merit Scholarship Corporation has announced September 11 that three outstanding DCSD high school students have been named as semifinalists for this year’s National Merit Scholarship Program.
Lakeside High School seniors Henry Fonder-Kristy, Andrew Heller, and Edward Rauch are among the 16,000 semifinalists nationwide. They are now competing for 6,870 National Merit Scholarships totaling nearly $26 million. Winners of the competition can receive up to $2,500 from the National Merit Scholarship Corporation, as well as an undisclosed amount from corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards and college-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards.
Semifinalists were selected based on outstanding academic records, school recommendations, written essays, and qualifying SAT or ACT scores. To become a finalist, semifinalists and high school officials must submit a detailed scholarship application that includes academic records, participation in school and community activities, demonstrated leadership abilities, employment, and honors and awards.
The finalists will be notified in February, and all National Merit Scholarship recipients will be chosen from this group.
The national pool of semifinalists, which comprises less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors, represents the highest-scoring participants from each state. The number of semifinalists in a state is proportionate to the state’s percentage of the national total of graduating seniors.
For more information on the National Merit Scholarship Program, see https://www.nationalmerit.org/.