Today officials of the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) announced the names of approximately 16,000 Semifinalists in the 59th annual National Merit Scholarship Program. These academically talented high school seniors have an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 8,000 National Merit Scholarships worth about $35 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 more than half of the Finalists will win a National Merit Scholarship, earning the Merit Scholar title.
About 1.5 million juniors in more than 22,000 high schools entered the National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2012 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which served as an initial screen of program entrants. The nationwide pool of Semifinalists, representing less than one percent of the 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.
Only six high schools in Orange County had more National Merit Semifinalists than Valencia. They include Troy, University, Northwood, Beckman, Irvine, and Oxford Academy. I think you would agree that we are in good company.
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 more than half of the Finalists will win a National Merit Scholarship, earning the Merit Scholar title.
About 1.5 million juniors in more than 22,000 high schools entered the National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2012 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which served as an initial screen of program entrants. The nationwide pool of Semifinalists, representing less than one percent of the 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.
As Principal of Valencia High School, I'm extremely proud to announce that Valencia had ten senior students qualify as Semifinalists in the 2014 National Merit Scholarship Competition including Collin Amano, Chad Atalla, Simran Chadha, Brian Chu, Daniel Hamidi, Brandon Kao, Brian Lin, Garret Lin, Aaron Patel, and Mayher Uppal. Ten qualifiers is an all-time record high for both Valencia and the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District. In both 2009 and 2012, Valencia had nine seniors qualify as National Merit Semifinalists.