By Bergan O’Connell
Staff Writer
The National Merit Scholarship Corporation recognized seniors Sameeha Jilani, Matthew O’Brien, Bram Osterhout, Joseph West and Ben Wu as National Merit Scholarship semifinalists Sept. 10 for scoring a 222 and above on California’s Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test.
After being notified of their nomination by the school, all semifinalists applied to the National Merit Scholarship Corporation in order to be considered as a finalist. The applications included each student’s academic and extracurricular achievements as well as an essay that they chose from three different prompts.
“I prepared for some basic PSAT material before taking the test,” Osterhout said. “Once I got my score back, I knew that I was most likely in the range for National Merit Scholar.”
To advance to the final round, a school report with each semifinalist’s grades and history must be submitted along with each student’s Scholastic Aptitude Test scores, and the application.
“Since becoming a finalist requires submitting an application, we now have had a lot of hard work to do,” Osterhout said.
Finalists are eligible to receive two types of scholarships, including a national achievement scholarship that is worth $2,500, and a corporate-sponsored achievement scholarship where corporate sponsors award students pursuing certain careers.
“I hope to take one of the finalist positions so I can use the scholarship money toward college,” O’Brien said.
The National Merit Scholarship corporation will notify the semifinalists by mail in February if they have been chosen as finalists.
Finalists will be presented with a certificate from the National Merit Scholarship Program and are then automatically considered for either the National Merit scholarship or the Corporate-Sponsored Merit scholarship.
“I am honored to have been nominated as a semifinalist,” Wu said. “I’m excited about the whole process and what is going to happen in the future.”
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