This year, three seniors have been recognized as National Merit scholarship semi-finalists; Gwen Fitzsimmons, Jay Landers and Ethan Rogers. This means that they are a part of the 16,000 students who took the PSAT/NMSQT with the highest scores out of about 1.5 million. About 90% of semifinalists become finalists, and about half of the finalists win the $2,500 scholarship.
“It’s been years, we haven’t had this many [semifinalists] in a long time. It’s really exciting actually…It’s a huge deal actually. I think for us at such a small school to have three kids who are in that top tier, the 1% of everyone in the whole country; it’s really exciting,” said counselor Angie Zerr.
In order to qualify to be a National Merit Scholarship finalist, Landers, Rogers and Fitzsimmons must now fill out an application similar to other college applications that goes more in depth about their extracurriculars and includes an essay.
“Some schools give you more money if it’s your first choice…hopefully there’s some consideration on college applications,” said Rogers.
Although all three said that this status might not affect their college decisions, being awarded this honor can give them considerable consideration to schools and if they do make it as finalists or win the scholarship, they can even earn more money than $2,500.
“For the most part, it doesn’t really factor into my thoughts about college right now because it’s not a major thing for most schools,” said Rogers, a statement agreed by both Fitzsimmons and Landers.
It might be hard to tell right now what will happen with these three students and their college search before they know if they’re finalists or not, but all three are applying to be finalists and are staying hopeful for their results.
