10 Stamford Students Named National Merit Semifinalists

STAMFORD, CT — On Wednesday, officials from the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) announced the names of approximately 16,000 semifinalists in the 67th annual National Merit Scholarship Program. Included are 10 students from Stamford.

These academically talented high school seniors have an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 7,500 National Merit Scholarships worth nearly $30 million that will be offered next spring.

The students from Stamford can be found below:

Bi-Cultural Hebrew Academy of Connecticut

• Noam Bellin-Schonfeld

King School

• Ronald P. Harvey
• Carson K. Perlman
• Karina D. Rao

Stamford High School

• Archie Shanley
• Madeline R. Shapiro

Westhill High School

• Arjun Anand
• Aryan Donikena
• Gavin Stops
• Rhea C. Wadhwa

High school juniors entered the 2022 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2020 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT), which served as an initial screen of program entrants.

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.

According to a news release, to become a finalist, the semifinalist and a high school official must submit a detailed scholarship application, in which they provide information about the semifinalist's academic record, 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, and in February they will be notified of this designation. All National Merit Scholarship winners will be selected from this group of finalists. 2022 winners will be announced in four nationwide news releases beginning in April and concluding in July.

Merit Scholar designees are selected 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.