Long Beach Senior Named National Merit Semifinalist

A Long Beach High School senior is among 16,000 students across the country who have been named semifinalists in the 62nd annual National Merit Scholarship Program.

The National Merit Scholarship Corporation made the announcement on Wednesday.

Congrats to Alexandra K. Thursland.

Thursland will move on through the competition to possibly earn one of 7,500 National Merit Scholarships worth about $33 million that will be handed out next spring.

About 1.6 million juniors in more than 22,000 high schools entered the 2017 National Merit Scholarship Program and were screened based on their 2015 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test scores.

These semifinalists represent less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors. About 15,000 semifinalists are expected to advance to the finalist level.

To be considered for a Merit Scholarship award, semifinalists must fulfill several requirements to advance to the finalist level of the competition. Merit Scholars will be announced in February.

Photo: Patch File Photo.