Haverford Students Named Merit Scholarship Semifinalists, Recieve Commendations

Haverford High School has 17 seniors that have made and are making waves in the National Merit Scholarship program, with seven moving on to the semifinalist round and 10 earning academic commendations.

According to the School District of Haverford Township, seniors Elliot Miciek, Samuel Alderson, Anne Linder, Jacob Kaufhold, John McGovern, Jack Feder, and Jennifer Marks have advanced to the program's semifinal round along with roughly 16,000 other students from around the county.

The seven seniors will be vying to win over 7,500 scholarships that total about $33 million.

To become a finalist, the semifinalist and his or her high school 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, the district said. Semifinalists must have an outstanding academic record throughout high school, be endorsed and recommended by a high school official, write an essay, and earn SAT scores that confirm the student’s earlier performance on the qualifying test.

Ten other Haverford seniors received National Merit Scholarship Letters of Commendation in recognition of their outstanding academic promise. Elizabeth Marino, Dana Kaufhold, Rebecca Grayum, Sarah Lajeunesse, Annabelle Lint, Samuel Gilden-Weiner, Luke Marmer, Jason Buzzell, Keith Robben, and Elizabeth Shelton were among the roughly 34,000 students who were honored with the commendation.

"Although Commended Students do not continue in the competition for National Merit Scholarships," the program's website says, "some of these students do become candidates for Special Scholarships sponsored by corporations and businesses."

About 1.6 million high school juniors from over 22,000 high schools entered the 2017 National Merit Scholarship program, according to the program website.

To enter the program, students had to take the 2015 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test as an initial screening test. Semifinalist students represent less than 1 percent of high school seniors nationwide and only do so by earning the highest scores on the test in their state. The number of semifinalists in a state is proportional to the state’s percentage of the national total of graduating seniors.

Photos courtesy of Township of Haverford School District