West Windsor Seniors Are National Merit Semi-Finalists

WEST WINDSOR TOWNSHIP, NJ — A total of 13 students from West Windsor have been named semi-finalists for the 2020 National Merit Scholarship Program.

The semi-finalists were announced on Wednesday and include approximately 16,000 high-school seniors that will go on to compete for the scholarships that will be offered next spring. According to a press release from the National Merit Scholarship Program, over 90 percent of the semi-finalists will be named as finalists for the scholarship. Of those finalists, about half will win a scholarship.

More than 1.5 million students applied for the highly competitive scholarship and the semi-finalists represent less than 1 percent of all high-school seniors in the U.S. For each state, the number of semi-finalists is proportional to that state’s percentage of the total graduating seniors in the country.

Here are the semi-finalists for the scholarship from West Windsor-Plainsboro High School South:

• Jillian Dowling;
• Naveena Erranki;
• Mahika Goel;
• Emily Huang;
• Lawrence Jiang;
• Ryan Kolm;
• Akshat Lal;
• Angela Song;
• Smriti Srikanth;
• Shivani Srivistava;
• Serena Wang;
• Connie Xie; and
• Kevin Xu.

All juniors are automatically enrolled when they take the PSATs; a score above 212 earns them National Merit "commended" recognition. That is about 50,000 of the highest-scoring students in the nation.

From there, the semi-finalists are further winnowed down by state, and the number per state is in proportion to a state's population (i.e., New Jersey will have more National Merit semi-finalists than North Dakota.)

There are about 16,000 semi-finalists nationwide, representing less than 1 percent of all high-school seniors in the U.S.

Students must then apply to become a finalist. The student and their high school must submit a detailed application. The application must contain information about a student’s academic record, leadership abilities, the honors and awards they’ve received and more.

All of those chosen as semi-finalists will go on to compete for the scholarships that will be offered next spring. More than 90 percent of the semi-finalists will be named as finalists for the scholarship. Of those finalists, about half will win a scholarship to attend college.

Students will find out in February whether they make it to the finalist stage. The average NMS scholarships are only worth about $2,500, but to even be considered a semi-finalist is prestigious in the academic world.