Lawrentians Selected as National Merit Scholar Semifinalists

Sixteen Lawrentians are among the less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors selected as Semifinalists in the 65th annual National Merit Scholarship Program. Congratulations to Jacqueline Chen ’21, Christine Cheng ’21, Jupiter Huang ’21, Shepard Jiang ’21, Mak Kalwachwala ’21, Ashley Lee '21, Steven L. Leung ’21, Katie W. Li ’21, Kristen Li ’21, Alex Liang ’21, Hamza Mian ’21, Rana Myneni ’21, Tuntai Tumpunyawat ’21, Chelsea Wang ’21, Michael Yu ’21, and Ryan C Zhang ’21. The Fifth Formers will now compete for some 7,600 National Merit Scholarships worth more than $31 million that will be offered next spring.

The nationwide pool of Semifinalists, representing less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors, includes the highest-scoring students on the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying
Test 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, each the Semifinalist is judged on his/her academic records, 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, to be announced in February 2021. All National Merit Scholarship winners will be selected from this group of Finalists, 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. National Merit Scholarship winners will be announced in April-July of 2021.

For additional information, please contact Lisa M. Gillard Hanson, director of Public Relations, at lgillard@lawrenceville.org.