The North Hunterdon-Voorhees Regional High School District congratulates senior Selina Zhang from North Hunterdon High School who was named a Semifinalist in the 69th annual National Merit Scholarship Competition.
Approximately 16,000 Semifinalists were named nationwide and will continue in the competition for some 7,140 National Merit Scholarships worth more than $28 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 95 percent of Semifinalists are expected to attain Finalist standing, and about half of the Finalists will win a National Merit Scholarship, earning the Merit Scholar title.
High school juniors entered the 2024 National Merit Scholarship Competition by taking the 2022 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.
Semifinalists will be notified in February if they advanced to the Finalist level. Three types of National Merit Scholarships will be offered in the spring of 2024. Every Finalist will compete for one of 2,500 National Merit $2,500 Scholarships that will be awarded on a state-representational basis. About 840 corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards will be provided by approximately 160 corporations and business organizations for Finalists who meet their specified criteria. In addition, about 160 colleges and universities are expected to finance some 3,800 college-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards for Finalists who will attend the sponsor institution.
In addition, the district congratulates the 18 seniors who were recognized as Commended Students in the Competition:
- North Hunterdon High School Commended Students – Tyler Anderson, Miles Burns, Amelia Chapman, Vicky Du, Lillian Fasciano, Nina Hagan, Andrew Halka, Conall McConnachie, Grace Munro, Tansen Patel-Bose, Sophia Roberts, Cassidy Roop, Neeraj Venna, Sophia Zappetti
- Voorhees High School Commended Students – Gita Baskaran, Adam Bunger-Spiecha, Andy Duncan, Megan McIsaac
A letter of commendation from the high school and National Merit Scholarship Corporation, which conducts the program, will be presented by the high school principals to these scholastically talented seniors. Although they will not continue in the 2024 competition for National Merit Scholarship awards, Commended Students placed among the top 50,000 students who entered the competition by taking the 2022 PSAT/NMSQT®.
National Merit Scholarship winners of 2024 will be announced in four nationwide news releases from the National Merit Scholarship Corporation beginning in April and concluding in July. These scholarship recipients will join more than 375,000 other distinguished young people who have earned the Merit Scholar title.
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