4 Walnut Creek Students Make List of National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists

The National Merit Scholarship Corporation has announced the names of approximately 16,000 semifinalists in the 62nd annual National Merit Scholarship Program, including four students from Walnut Creek.

The local students:

LAS LOMAS H. S.

• Fisher, Devyn A.
• Henri, Thomas P.
• O'Farrell, Kiran S.
• Polich, Sydney A.

These high school seniors are competing for some 7,500 National Merit Scholarships worth about $33 million that will be offered next spring. About 90 percent of the semifinalists are expected to become finalists, and about half of the finalists will win a National Merit Scholarship.

According to NMSC, "The nationwide pool of semifinalists, representing less than one percent 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."

Between next April and July, the scholarships will be awarded. They fall into three categories:

National Merit Scholarships, corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards, and college-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards for finalists who will attend the sponsor institution.

The 1,000 National Merit Scholarships are each worth $2,500. The value of the other scholarships varies.

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