National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists Announced

The National Merit Scholarship Corporation Wednesday (Sept. 14) announced the names of approximately 16,000 semifinalists in the 57th annual National Merit Scholarship Program including students from Duluth and Peachtree Ridge high schools.

They are Tyler Reeves, Duluth High School; Bria N. Fincher, Kathryn M. Fitton, Nina H. Gummadi, Ajay Harish, Sarah S. Paik, Tyler A. Perini, and Jackson C. Winfrey, Peachtree Ridge High School.

These high school seniors have an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 8,300 National Merit Scholarships worth more than $34 million that will be offered next spring.

About 1.5 million juniors in some 22,000 high schools entered the 2012 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2010 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, (PSAT/NMSQT®), which served as an initial screen of entrants.

To become a finalist, semifinalists must have an outstanding academic record throughout high school, be endorsed and recommended by the high school principal, and earn SAT scores that confirm the student’s earlier performance on the qualifying test. The semifinalist and a high school official must submit a detailed scholarship application that includes the student’s essay and information about participation and leadership in school and community activities.