the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, four Ridgewood High school students Kate Minn, Chloe Cho, Lucas Wang and Ethan Holden have advanced to finalist standing in the National Merit Scholarship Competition, getting them closer to consideration for one of 7,250 scholarships worth nearly $28 million.
The National Merit Scholarship Program is an academic competition for recognition and scholarships that began in 1955. Every year, approximately 1.5 million high school students take the PSAT/NMSQT (Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test) to qualify for the program.
Each year, about 16,000 students are named semifinalists and approximately 7,500 of those students are awarded National Merit Scholarships, worth over $30 million in total. The winners are selected based on their academic achievements, leadership abilities, and potential for success in college.
The four Ridgewood students each submitted an application that provided information about their academic record, participation in school and community activities, leadership abilities, employment, and honors and awards they have received.
Each of the finalists were selected last year from among 16,000 semifinalists who represent less than one percent of all high school seniors who took the PSAT / National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test.
Every finalist competes for $2,500 scholarships awarded on a state-representational basis. Other types of scholarships offered are corporate-sponsored awards and college-sponsored awards, specifically for those who will attend the sponsor institution.
National Merit Scholarship winners, selected from the group of finalists, will be announced this spring, and join more than 300,000 other distinguished youth who have earned the Merit Scholar title. Approximately half of all finalists will win a scholarship.
Congratulations!
Four finalists in one high school..wow!!! They have the distinction of being in the top half of the top 1 percent of 11th grade PSAT test-takers in the one state in which, year after year, competition for that status is fiercest (i.e., New Jersey). National Merit Finalist status (the final step up from semifinalist status) means that the broad spectrum of their other credentials were subsequently submitted for evaluation and have been verified as demonstrating bona fide status as a scholar. They really ran the gauntlet!