National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists Announced For Skokie

NORTHBROOK, IL — There are 3 students from Niles West High School and one from Ida Crown Jewish Academy included among the 16,000 semifinalists announced Wednesday by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation for the 63rd annual National Merit Scholarship Program. Next spring, more than $32 million in 7,500 scholarships will be on offer.

2017 National Merit semifinalists from schools in Skokie:

Niles West High School

• Dareen S. Chuy
  
• Sean A. Collins
  
• Rachel I. Ferrigno

Ida Crown Jewish Academy

• Kevin Starr

According to the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC), about 90 percent of semifinalists are expected to advance to become finalists, and about half of those will win a National Merit Scholarship. (Get Patch real-time email alerts for the latest news for Skokie — or your community. And iPhone users: Check out Patch's new app.)

About 1.6 million juniors in more than 22,000 high schools entered this year's National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2016 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT) as the first screen of program entrants. Those who score highest on the test in each state enter the nationwide pool of semifinalists. They represent less than one percent of all high school seniors in the country, according to the NMSC. Plus, the number of semifinalist per state is proportional to the state's percentage of the national total of seniors graduating high school.

In order for semifinalists to advance to the next level, students and schools must submit a detailed scholarship application with information about academic records, participation in school and community activities, leadership abilities, employment, and honors and awards received. Finalists will be notified in February, and every finalist will compete for about 7,500 National Merit Scholarships funded by the NMSC, colleges and businesses.

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