National Merit Corp. Names 29 Local Semifinalists

Officials of National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) announced the names of approximately 16,000 Semifinalists in the 66th annual National Merit Scholarship Program including 21 students from Scarsdale High School and 8 from Edgemont High School. These academically talented high school seniors have an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 7,600 National Merit Scholarships worth more than $30 million that will be offered next spring. To be considered for a Merit Scholarship® award, Semifinalists must fulfill several requirements to advance to the Finalist level of the competition. Over 90 percent of the Semifinalists are expected to attain Finalist standing, and more than half of the Finalists will win a National Merit Scholarship, earning the Merit Scholar® title.

Over 1.5 million juniors in about 21,000 high schools entered the 2021 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2019 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. The number of Semifinalists in a state is proportional to the state’s percentage of the national total of graduating seniors.

To become a Finalist, the Semifinalist and a high school official 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, and write an essay.

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. 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.

Here are the semifinalists:

Scarsdale High School

Jaden D. Bharara
Joshua D. Bock
Keerthana Chari
Caleb Copeland
Alexandre I. Friedman
Emily N. Hansen
Amy Hu
Noah M. Jaffe
Samuel I. Levine
Peiling M. Niu
Dylan M. Oberst
Daheun Oh
Rina Ota
Ojas Pareek
Jake S. Rompala
Zachary S. Siegel
Abigail R. Talish
Joanna S. Wang
Adam H. Wasserman
Alexander L. Weinberg
Maxwell A. Zweig

Edgemont High School

Anika Bansal
Joshua R. Blaustein
Sankar Gopalkrishna
Youkyoung Jeong
Mitchell R. Kronk
Daniel A. Liu
Atticus Margulis-Ohnuma
Richard Yan