Students In The Caldwells Make Semifinals For Merit Scholarships

CALDWELLS, NJ — More than 1.5 million juniors in about 21,000 U.S. high schools entered the 2020 National Merit Scholarship Program. And a pair of students from the Caldwells have now earned their way into the semifinal round of the prestigious academic competition.

The nationwide pool of semifinalists represents less than 1 percent of U.S. high school seniors.

On Wednesday, the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) announced that the following Caldwell-area students made the semifinal cut:

MOUNT ST. DOMINIC ACADEMY (CALDWELL)

• Pathil, Melissa

JAMES CALDWELL HIGH SCHOOL (WEST CALDWELL)

• Cordasco, Chloe

The academically talented high school seniors have an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 7,600 National Merit Scholarships worth more than $31 million that will be offered next spring.

The NMSC, a nonprofit organization that operates without government assistance, was established in 1955 to conduct the annual National Merit Scholarship Program. Scholarships are underwritten by NMSC with its own funds and by about 400 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.”

Here’s what it takes to make the final cut, according to the NMSC:

“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.”

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