Port Jeff, Mount Sinai Students Named National Merit Semifinalists

Two Earl L. Vandermeulen High School students as well as one Mount Sinai High School student are among 16,000 students across the country who have been named semifinalists in the 63nd annual National Merit Scholarship Program.

The National Merit Scholarship Corporation made the announcement on Wednesday.

Congrats to Port Jeff's Ibuki Iwaski and Luigia Than, and Mount Sinai's Johnathan Yu.

The high school seniors will move on through the competition to possibly earn 7,500 National Merit Scholarships worth more than $32 million that will be handed out next later in the school year.

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

About 1.6 million juniors in more than 22,000 high schools entered the 2018 National Merit Scholarship Program and were screened based on their 2016 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test scores.

These semifinalists represent less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors. About 90 percent of the semifinalists are expected to advance to the finalist level. Merit Scholars will be announced in February.