Education: 17 local students named 2026 National Merit Scholarship semifinalists – Commercial Dispatch
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Out of the more than 16,000 semifinalists in the 71st annual National Merit Scholarship Program, 17 are local students.
The Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science has 16 semifinalists: Andrew Meng, Noel McMichael, Sam Cole, Jasmaan Banipal, William Rymer, Colin Chung, Anthony Nguyen, Jacob Heisler, Poppy Bowling, Rebecca Sun, Grant Zhang, Jesse Shelton, Isabel Beckman, Christian Butler, Jane Kasselman and Raymond Yang.
Mary Nicholas from Starkville Academy was also announced as a semifinalist.
The semifinalists were selected from more than 1.3 million juniors across the county who took the 2024 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which served as an initial screen of program entrants. The pool of semifinalists includes the highest-scoring entrants in each state.
To advance, semifinalists and an official from their high school must submit a detailed application, which includes information about the student’s academic records, participation in school and in the community, demonstrated leadership abilities, employment and awards received.
More than 15,000 semifinalists are expected to advance to finalists, with approximately half then being named Merit Scholars and winning a National Merit Scholarship.
There will be three types of National Merit Scholarships offered in the spring. Finalists will compete for a $2,500 scholarship awarded on a state-representational basis. Finalists who meet specific criteria will compete for about 830 corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards. Additionally, 150 colleges and universities will sponsor about 3,600 Merit Scholarship awards for finalists who attend the sponsor institution.
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