<img class="size-full wp-image-15215 alignleft lazyload" src="https://www.bishopodowd.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/merit.jpg" alt="merit" width="300" height="307" srcset="https://www.bishopodowd.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/merit.jpg 300w, https://www.bishopodowd.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/merit-293x300.jpg 293w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />Alicia Liu ’18 is among approximately 16,000 semifinalists in the 63rd annual National Merit Scholarship Program.
Liu, along with the other academically talented high school seniors, have an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 7,500 National Merit Scholarships, worth more than $32 million, that will be offered this spring.
About 1.6 million juniors in more than 22,000 high schools entered the 2018 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2016 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 one percent of U.S. high school seniors, includes the highest-scoring entrants in each state.
To become a finalist, the semifinalist and his or her high school must submit a detailed scholarship application, in which they provide information about the semifinalist’s academic record, participation in school and community activities, demonstrated leadership abilities, employment, and honors and awards received. A semifinalist must have an outstanding academic record throughout high school, be endorsed and recommended by a high school official, write an essay, and earn SAT®scores that confirm the student’s earlier performance on the qualifying test.
From the approximately 16,000 semifinalists, about 15,000 are expected to advance to the finalist level, and in February they will be notified of this designation. All National Merit Scholarship winners will be selected from this group of finalists.