Schools

E.O. Smith Students Among National Merit Semifinalists

The list was announced on Wednesday.

Officials from the National Merit Scholarship Corporation on Wednesday announced the names of about 16,000 semifinalists in the 62nd-annual National Merit Scholarship Program.

Here are the local semifinalists:

E.O. Smith High School

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  • William Cooley
  • Peter Fenteany
  • Chloe Gibson
  • Rachel Horowitz-Benoit
  • Sam Huang
  • Andrew Park
  • Timothy Watson

The high school seniors have an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 7,500 National Merit Scholarships worth about $33 million that will be offered next spring.

To be considered for a Merit Scholarship award, Semifi nalists must fulfill several requirements to advance to the finalist level of the competition.

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About 90 percent of the semifinalists are expected to attain finalist standing, and about half of the finalists will win a National Merit Scholarship, earning the Merit Scholar title.

About 1.6 million juniors in more than 22,000 high schools entered the 2017 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2015 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which served as an initial screen of program entrants. The number of semifinalists in a state is proportional to the state’s percentage of the national total of graduating seniors.

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