The National Merit Scholarship Program has named about 16,000 students as finalists for the 2017 scholarship awards.
These high school seniors have an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 7,500 National Merit Scholarships worth about $33 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. About 90 percent of the semifinalists are expected to attain finalist standing, and about half of the finalists will be awarded a National Merit Scholarship.
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.
The following area students were named as seminfinalists.
Deerfield High School: Lisa A. Cenek, Jake M. Chanan, Lindsay Guare, Caroline A. Hsu, Ryan D. Kenyon, Matthew S. Miller, Amy J. Muller, Jaclyn Ready, Nolan L. Sornson, Jonah Sugarman, Sophie E. Varon and Elias J. Weiskrich.
Rochelle Zell Jewish High School: Sara R. Behn.
