Semifinalists announced in National Merit Scholarship Program

Officials of National Merit Scholarship Corporation announced the names of approximately 16,000 semifinalists in the 63rd annual National Merit Scholarship Program.

These academically talented high school seniors have an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 7,500 National Merit Scholarships worth more than $32 million that will be offered next spring.

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

About 90 percent of the semifinalists are expected to attain finalist standing, and about half the finalists will win a National Merit Scholarship, earning the Merit Scholar title.

NMSC, a nonprofit organization that operates without government assistance, was established in 1955 specifically to conduct the annual National Merit Scholarship Program.

Scholarships are underwritten by NMSC with its own funds and by approximately 420 business organizations and higher education institutions that share NMSC's goals of honoring the nation's scholastic champions and encouraging the pursuit of academic excellence.

Steps in the 2018 Competition

About 1.6 million juniors in more than 22,000 high schools entered the 2018 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2016 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT®), which served as an initial screen of program entrants.

The nationwide pool of semifinalists, representing less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors, includes the highest scoring entrants in each state. The number of semifinalists in a state is proportional to the state's percentage of the national total of graduating seniors.

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.

A semifinalist 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.

From the approximately 16,000 semifinalists, about 15,000 are expected to advance to the Finalist level and, in February, they will be notified of this designation. All National Merit Scholarship winners will be selected from this group of finalists.

Merit Scholar designees are selected on the basis of their skills, accomplishments, and potential for success in rigorous college studies, without regard to gender, race, ethnic origin, or religious preference.

National Merit Scholarships

Three types of National Merit Scholarships will be offered in the spring of 2018.

Every finalist will compete for one of 2,500 National Merit $2,500 scholarships that will be awarded on a state-representational basis. About 1,000 corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards will be provided by approximately 230 corporations and business organizations for finalists who meet their specified criteria, such as children of the grantor's employees or residents of communities where sponsor plants or offices are located.

In addition, about 190 colleges and universities are expected to finance some 4,000 college-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards for finalists who will attend the sponsor institution.

National Merit Scholarship winners of 2018 will be announced in four nationwide news releases beginning in April and concluding in July. These scholarship recipients will join more than 330,000 other distinguished young people who have earned the Merit Scholar title.

Northwest suburban semifinalists 2018 National Merit Scholarship Program are:

Arlington Heights

John Hersey High School: John J. Cao, Madeline L. Cohodes, Patrick T. Faley, Joshua J. Irvine, Andrew Jacob, Albert H. Kwan, John A. McDonough, Akansha Raj and Shannon A. Steines.

Saint Viator High School: Kevin P. Joyce, Nicole C. Marcinkus, Thomas G. Stanila, Jeremy R. Yoder and Matthew J. Zawilenski.

Barrington

Barrington Community High School: Peter J. Chmiel, Ryan M. Cremer, Dillon Davey, Kaylin Hu, Hari Ramakrishnan, Grace C. Robbins, Wilder G. Seitz, Alexander Y. Zhang and Peyton L. Zona.

Buffalo Grove

Buffalo Grove High School: Jaseena Syed.

Des Plaines

Maine West High School: Bhagirath Mehta

Elk Grove Village

Elk Grove High School: Carissa N. Lehning

Glenview

Glenbrook South High School: Michelle G. Barsukov,

Samuel Dale, Isabella Duan, George C. Gikas, Justin Y. Kwon, Sabrina Moheydeen, Lucas A. Pauker, Jarrett T. Prchal, Briana L. Sobecks, Adam White and Ethan T. Williams.

Hoffman Estates

James B. Conant High School: Anubhav Agarwal, Adithya S. Chari, Annika K. Lafyatis, Bianca Saputra, Nitinshankar Subramanian, Sarah R. Yamaguchi and Allison L. Zhang.

Hoffman Estates High School: Ryohei Namiki, Megha Ramanathan and Shashank Sandu.

Lincolnshire

Adlai E. Stevenson High School: Ryan M. Abbott, Samuel J. An, Sanketh N. Bhaskar, Albert Cao, Shirley Q. Cao, Joyce Chen, Zachary E. Chin, Degaulle Dai, Timothy R. Green, Andrew N. Hwang, Abhiram V. Kakuturu, Adam R. Kastler, Maura R. Kelleher, Tae-Hwan Kim, Noah J. Krakman, Seowon Lee, David Liang, Elias S. Lu, Andrew J. Luo, Samarth S. Madduru, Deepak Moparthi, Bhavana Muppavarapu, Conrad Oberhaus, Charis L. Pao, Serena R. Pao, Tanvee N. Patankar, Saketh R. Prazad, Ali Rahman, Srikar J. Rapaka, Divyanshi Sharma, Mengjing Shi, Owen B. Simon, Julia C. Sinkevich, Nikita Smyrnov, Carina Su, Daniel X. Tao, Jessica J. Wang, Joy Wang, Elaine Y. Xiao, Ruidi Xu, Jonathan G. Xue, Joshua Yoon, and Haoyang Yu.

Mount Prospect

Prospect High School: Carter E. Bellows, Leo M. Garkisch, Austin M. Sibu and Colleen M. Stanford.

Niles

New Hope Academy: Samuel P. Crawford-Cloonan and Levi Y. Shanes.

Northbrook

Glenbrook North High School: Ethan J. Buttimer, Ellis S. Cho, Jacob Denenberg, Kathleen R. Fitzpatrick, Matthew R. Forchetti, Katherine Frieden, Ellen A. Gilbert, Louis Gordon, Benjamin R. Jutzi, Charles Kang, Samantha R. Kelly, Maggie T. Li, Elizabeth A. Mathy, Sahil Modi, Ethan Schonfeld, Eric E. Shin, Jennifer Shin, Kevin Wang, Maggie Wang, Matthew Z. Zhang and Wendy Zhu.

Palatine

William Fremd High School: Abhinav R. Balu, Kevin Chen, Varun Cidambi, Bissmun Gill, Matthew C. Grabianski, Kailey G. Henson, Stephanie X. Hu, Jesse Huang, Kashif Javid, Edward W. Li, Anna J. Miller, Allison M. Nakazawa, Adhith Palla, Nicholas L. Parekh, Elizabeth D. Perez, Andrew L. Ruan, Lauren P. Streitmatter and Jerry Zheng.

Palatine High School: Bhargav Yadavalli

Park Ridge

Maine East High School: Harshitha Padiyar.

Maine South High School: Steven Manos, Ryan Prendergast and Julia Wapner.

Rolling Meadows

Rolling Meadows High School: Natalie R. Anderson.

Schaumburg

Schaumburg High School: Lisa N. Bonatz and Edwin J. Suresh.

Wheeling

Wheeling High School: Rebecca J. Lawson.

Wilmette

Loyola Academy: Matthew Brun, Maximilian K. Calk, Louisa M. Edwards, Henry J. Kroeger, Emily M. Molins, Merrill O'Shaughnessy, Jason W. Vrbancic and Gina Yoo.

Winnetka

New Trier Township High School: Yamenah Ambreen, Tony Bayvas, Jack H. Cable, Lily G. Carley, Daniel Chang, Linda Chiu, Elliot H. Chow, Benjamin J. Citow, John H. Crawford, Zachary J. Crispino, Silpian Dhiantravan, Tori F. Edington, Andrew G. Feng, Coleman E. Horvath, Nicholas H. Jarmusz, Elliot B. Jung-Beeman, Rebecca Lee, Katherine G. Macakanja, Jordan A. Meyer, Rebecca A. Miller, Ilana S. Nazari, Liam J. Oh, Thomas S. Okun, Jason Paul, Dillan Prasad, Meagan J. Rittmanic, Amia K. Ross, Matthew C. Roth, Allison Salmon, Simone A. Wall, Vivian Wu, Hannah Y. Xu, Jisu Yang and Natalie C. Ye.

North Shore Country Day School: Grace R. Scullion.