Five Pittsburgh Students National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists

PITTSBURGH, PA - Five Pittsburgh Public Schools high school students have been named semifinalists for the 2020 National Merit Scholarship Program.

The semifinalists were announced on Wednesday, and include around 16,000 high school seniors that will go on to compete for the scholarships offered next spring. According to a National Merit
Scholarship Program press advisory, more than 90 percent of the semifinalists 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, officials explained.

Here are the Pittsburgh Public Schools semifinalists:

Taylor Allderdice High School

• Scott Sokol.

• Samuel Zlotnikov.

Obama Academy

• Samuel Bisno.

• Dominic Victoria.

Creative and Performing Arts School

• Mitchell Dubin.

Qualifying Test — which serves as an initial screen of approximately 1.6 million entrants each year — and by meeting published program entry and participation requirements.