We love to see our students excelling, and are thrilled to see where the future takes him.”

John Croteau | Dysart Unified School District superintendent

Shadow Ridge High School senior Nicholas Snyder was named a semifinalist in the 2026 National Merit Scholarship Program.

Snyder is a third-year engineering student who aspires to attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

“This impressive accomplishment is a perfect example of the academic excellence we focus on in Dysart,” Dysart Unified School District Superintendent John Croteau said. “We love to see our students excelling, and are thrilled to see where the future takes him.”

The highest scoring students in the state are named semifinalists out of over 1.3 million high school juniors that take the PSAT/NMSQT test each year.

Only 16,000 students, or less than 1% of all high school seniors in the U.S., advance to be semifinalists. These students can apply to be considered for finalist and compete for one of 6,930 National Merit Scholarships that will be awarded in the spring.

NMSC, a nonprofit organization that operates without government assistance, was established in 1955 specifically to conduct the annual National Merit Scholarship Program. Scholarships are underwritten by NMSC with its own funds and by approximately 300 business organizations and higher education institutions that share NMSC’s goals of honoring the nation’s scholastic champions and encouraging the pursuit of academic excellence.