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Education

Five Glendale students among National Merit semifinalists

Winners announced in April 2022

Posted 9/16/21

Five Glendale students are among the approximately 16,000 semifinalists in the 67th annual National Merit Scholarship Program.

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Education

Five Glendale students among National Merit semifinalists

Winners announced in April 2022

Posted

Five Glendale students are among the approximately 16,000 semifinalists in the 67th annual National Merit Scholarship Program.

These academically talented high school seniors have an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 7,500 National Merit Scholarships worth nearly $30 million that will be offered next spring.

The Glendale-based students are Paarth Batra, Aiden J. Bowers, Cayden M. Nicholls and Monali S. Shah of Mountain Ridge High School, 22800 N. 67th Ave., as well as Cienna R. Charron of Ironwood High School, 6051 W. Sweetwater Ave.

To be considered for a Merit Scholarship award, semifinalists must fulfill several requirements to advance to the finalist level of the competition. About 95% of the semifinalists are expected to attain finalist standing, and approximately half of the finalists will win a National Merit Scholarship, earning the Merit Scholar title.

High school juniors entered the 2022 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2020 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which served as an initial screen of program entrants. The nationwide pool of semifinalists, representing less than 1% 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 high school official must submit a detailed scholarship application, in which they provide information about the semifi alist’s 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.

From the approximately 16,000 semifinalists, about 15,000 are expected to advance to the finalist level, and in February they will be notified of this designation. All National Merit Scholarship winners will be selected from this group of finalists.

National Merit Scholarship winners for 2022 will be announced beginning in April and concluding in July.