3 Plainfield Seniors Named National Merit Finalists

PLAINFIELD, IL — The three seniors from Plainfield Community Consolidated School District 202 high schools who were named semifinalists in the 2024 National Merit Scholarship competition have all moved on to the final round.

Robert Childs and Bryce Roberts, who attend Plainfield North High School, and Plainfield Central High School student Eric Froschare among the 15,000 finalists nationwide.

The trio will compete for 7,140 scholarship awards, worth about $28 million. As semifinalists, the students were part of a pool that comprised less than 1 percent of all United States high school seniors. From here, about half of the finalists will be named National Merit Scholars.

To become a finalist, students had to have an outstanding academic record throughout high school, be endorsed and recommended by their school's principal, and earn SAT scores that confirm their academic abilities. Each finalist and a school official must also submit a detailed application that includes a student's self-descriptive essay and information about their participation and leadership in school and community activities.

About 1.3 million high school juniors in about 21,000 high schools nationwide entered this year's National Merit program by taking the 2022 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test.

Scholarship winners will be announced between April and July, joining almost 375,000 other distinguished students who have earned the title.