Five Seniors Named National Merit Finalists

3/7/2023

Five seniors at The Barstow School have been named National Merit finalists, bringing them one step closer to consideration for $2,500 college scholarships to be awarded this spring and summer.

The finalists are Tyler Carlgren, Anders Hwang, Charlotte Park, Aaram Salam and Alexander White. These students were named semifinalists last fall in the 68th annual National Merit Scholarship Program. To be considered for a Merit Scholarship® award, they had to fulfill several requirements to advance to the finalist level of the competition. About 95% of the semifinalists were expected to attain finalist standing, and approximately half of the finalists will win a National Merit Scholarship, earning the Merit Scholar® title.

The annual National Merit Scholarship Program honors the nation’s leading high school scholars and encourages the pursuit of academic excellence.

Students entered the 2023 National Merit Scholarship Program as juniors by taking the 2021 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.

To become a finalist, the semifinalist and a school official submit a detailed scholarship application, in which they provided information about their 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® or ACT® scores that confirm the student’s earlier performance on the qualifying test.

Three types of National Merit Scholarships will be offered in the spring of 2023. Every finalist will compete for one of 2,500 National Merit® $2500 Scholarships that will be awarded on a state-representational basis. National Merit Scholarship winners of 2023 will be announced beginning in April and concluding in July.

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