24 Rochester Hills Students Named 2023 National Merit Semifinalists

ROCHESTER HILLS, MI — Numerous Rochester Hills students were named semifinalists in the 69th National Merit Scholarship Program, officials announced in September.

These high school seniors will advance to the next round of competition to share in more than 7,000 scholarships collectively worth nearly $28 million to be offered in the spring.

Students qualifying as semifinalists must fulfill several requirements to advance to the finalist level. About 95 percent of semifinals will fulfill those requirements and become finalists with about half of the finalists winning a National Merit Scholarship.

Here are the Rochester Hills students who were named National Merit Scholarship finalists:

Rochester Adams High School

Al-Saedi, Moamel
Bull, Caroline
Cooper, Selena
Dahanukar, Maya
Guthrie, Isabella
Horvath, Tyler R.
Liu, Laura
Moore, Griffin
Nguyen, Eryk
Saeed, Shifan
Srikantan, Swapna
Zadeh, Kian
Zhang, Jason

Rochester High School

Ali, Zoeya
Baig, Zayn A.
Macedo, Sahana
Rukadikar, Arya
Santia, Peter

Stoney Creek High School

Bahk, Claire
Brown, Drew
Chung, Haechan
Coleman, Erin
Ignaczak, Thomas
Peng, James

Avondale High School (Auburn Hills)

Jain, Anish

The semifinalist pool represents less than one percent of all high school juniors across the country who took the 2022 Preliminary SAT (PSAT) tests. 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, the semifinalist and a high school official must submit a detailed scholarship application, including information about the semifinalist's academic record, school and community activities, demonstrated leadership abilities, employment, honors and awards.

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 that are in line with the PSAT scores from the previous year.

National Merit Scholarships will be offered in the spring of 2024 in three categories — 2,500 National Merit $2,500 Scholarships, 840 corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarships from 160 corporations and business organizations nationwide and 3,800 college- and university-specific National Merit Scholarships.