Sixteen senior students from Eden Prairie High School (EPHS) and one from PiM Arts High School have been named semifinalists in the 70th annual National Merit Scholarship Program.
This is a noticeable increase for EPHS from 2024, when the school had nine semifinalists, and is similar to 2023, when EPHS had 15 semifinalists. PiM Arts High School did not have any semifinalists last year.
These students scored in the top 1% of 1.3 million juniors in about 21,000 high schools across the country in the 2023 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT), which served as an initial screen of program entrants.
The semifinalists from EPHS are William Beuning, Ziwei Chen, Reese Farinas, Aditi Ginuga, Simon Grabiel, Matthew Ivey, Lucinda Jacobs, Riley LaMothe, Melody Li, Darren Nguyen, Emily Oberleitner, Ayobanji Olofinboba, Alisha Shah, Isha Shah, Nicholas Song, and Calvin Zhou.
From PiM Arts High School, Cora Nimchuk was named a semifinalist.
These students now have the opportunity to compete to become National Merit finalists and, ideally, National Merit Scholars.
National Merit Scholars are selected by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) 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.
Of the more than 16,000 semifinalists, over 15,000 are expected to advance to the finalist level, with results announced in February. From the finalist pool, about 6,870 National Merit Scholarships worth nearly $26 million will be awarded next spring.
About National Merit Scholarship Corporation
NMSC, a not-for-profit organization established in 1955, operates without government assistance and conducts the annual National Merit Scholarship Program.
Scholarships are underwritten by NMSC with its own funds and by approximately 280 business organizations, higher education institutions, and individual donors that share NMSC’s goals of honoring the nation’s scholastic champions and encouraging the pursuit of academic excellence.
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