South Windsor High School Students Named Merit Scholar Semifinalists

SOUTH WINDSOR, CT — Officials from the National Merit Scholarship Corporation Wednesday announced the names of more than 16,000 semifinalists in the 69th annual National Merit Scholarship Program, and five students from South Windsor High School were among them.

The "academically talented" high school seniors will now compete for some 7,140 National Merit Scholarships worth nearly $28 million that will be offered next spring.

The semifinalists from South Windsor High School are Raisa Khaled, Parthiv Venkat Malipeddu, Rishabh Mohapatra, Mehana R. Nagarur and Advaith N. Satish.

To be considered for a Merit Scholarship award, semifinalists must fulfill several requirements to advance to the finalist level of the competition. About 95 percent of the semifinalists are expected to attain finalist standing, and approximately half of the Finalists will win a National Merit Scholarship and earn the Merit Scholar title.

The NMSC is a nonprofit organization that operates without government assistance. It was established in 1955. Scholarships are underwritten by NMSC with its own funds and by approximately 320 business organizations and higher education institutions that share NMSC’s goals of honoring the nation's scholastic champions and encouraging the pursuit of academic excellence.

More than 1.3 million juniors in about 21,000 high schools entered the 2024 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2022 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which served as an initial screen of program entrants. The nationwide pool of semifinalists, representing less than 1 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.

To become a finalist, semifinalists and a high school officials must submit a detailed scholarship application, in which they provide information about the semifinalists' academic record, participation in school and community activities, demonstrated leadership abilities, employment, and honors and awards received.

Semifinalists 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.