Fifteen Millburn Students Are Named National Merit Semifinalists

MILLBURN, NJ — Fifteen students at Millburn High School have been designated National Merit Scholar semifnalists, an honor awarded to fewer than 1 percent of U.S. high school seniors. Now they will get the chance to compete for a college scholarship in spring.

Students were first identified as semifinalists based on their PSAT score in 2019. To become a finalist, the student and a high school official will have to submit a detailed scholarship application including honors and grades, and write an essay.

From the approximately 16,000 semifinalists, about 15,000 are expected to advance to the finalist level in February. Finalists will compete for one of 2,500 National Merit $2,500 Scholarships, as well as 1,000 corporate scholarships. The next round will be announced in February.

From Millburn, the semifinalists announced last week are:

• Alison Araten
• Sydney Brenton
• Keshab Gatehouse
• Devin Genderson
• Agnes Han
• Ethne Laude
• Prisha Mehta
• Devdutt Nadkarni
• Jacob D. Popolow
• William Qin
• Sachin Sahay
• Milo Stone
• Liwei Sun
• Anthony Tang
• Harriet Xu

The process begins when students take their PSAT as a sophomore or junior in high school. Approximately 34,000 students are chosen as Commended scholars, and 16,000 are notified that they are semifinalists. In February of their senior year, 15,000 semifinalists are notified by mail that they have become finalists.

From April through July, approximately 7,600 students are notified that they have been chosen for a scholarship. Most will win the $2,500 scholarships for college, but some may win an award from a company or from a particular college.

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