The National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) recently announced the names of approximately 16,000 semifinalists in the 68th annual National Merit Scholarship Program. The prestigious list includes 60 students from the Cobb County School District.
The Cobb Schools semifinalists represent Allatoona High School, Campbell High School, Harrison High School, Hillgrove High School, Kennesaw Mountain High School, Lassiter High School, Pope High School, Sprayberry High School, Walton High School, and Wheeler High School.
These academically talented high school seniors have an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 7,250 National Merit Scholarships worth nearly $28 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 95 percent of the Semifinalists are expected to attain Finalist standing this year, and approximately half of the Finalists will win a National Merit Scholarship, earning the Merit Scholar title. NMSC, a not-for-profit organization that operates without government assistance, was established in 1955 to conduct the annual National Merit Scholarship Program.
NMSC underwrites scholarships with its own funds and by approximately 400 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.
High school juniors entered the 2023 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2021 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT®), which served as an initial screen for 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 a high school official 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 learn SAT or ACT 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 based on their skills, accomplishments, and potential for success in rigorous college studies, without regard to gender, race, ethnic origin, or religious preference.
Three types of National Merit Scholarships will be offered in the spring of 2023. Every Finalist will compete for one of 2,500 National Merit $2500 Scholarships that will be awarded on a state representational basis. About 950 corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards will be provided by approximately 180 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 160 colleges and universities are expected to finance some 3,800 college-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards for Finalists who will attend the sponsor institution.
National Merit Scholarship winners of 2023 will be announced in four nationwide news releases beginning in April and concluding in July. These scholarship recipients will join more than 368,000 other distinguished young people who have earned the Merit Scholar title.
Cobb County School District National Merit Semifinalists:
Allatoona High School
- Petito, Jason T.
Campbell High School
- Blosser, Kayla L.
- Papa, Catherine C.
Harrison High School
- Amante, Matthew
- Anderson, Carlton
- Calhoun, Katherine
- Jaitly, Karan
- Lakis, Jack
- Smith, Austin
Hillgrove High School
- Barron, Elise M.
- Clement, Tyler M.
- Jacobs, Ella J.
Kennesaw Mountain High School
- Chan, David K.
- Doan, Kenneth K.
- Kanga, Anahita G.
- Kim, Lucas D.
Lassiter High School
- Burke, Kate
- Cargill, Matthew
- Cooney, Erin
- Murley, Steven
- Rozboril, Kathryn
Pope High School
- Karnik, Shaunak R.
- Kokan, Amy E.
- Lim, Yujin
- Strobeck, Sara B.
Sprayberry High School
- George, Thomas A.
Walton High School
- Arun, Amala
- Bala, Samiha
- Fink, Peter
- Hoyte, Grace
- Huang, Faith
- Kuang, Brian
- Liu, David
- Liu, Ethan
- Maayah, Jameel
- Padiyar, Abhai
- Pumpian, Owen
- Rice, Ashley
- Rieck, Caleb
- Singh, Rohan
- Xu, Tianyu
- Xu, Tianyue
- Xue, Alexander
- Yetukuri, Chaitanya
Wheeler High School
- Bohm, Madison P.
- Brubaker, Charles M.
- Chen, Ethan N.
- Fleishman, Jack H.
- Gentner, Grace E.
- Gillen, Maia G.
- Gupta, Misha S.
- Hegde, Rithu A.
- Kamat, Tanvi S.
- Kanyadan, Pooja J.
- Maindarkar, Kabir A.
- Oderinde, Adetoun S.
- Patel, Simran N.
- Valliyappan, Lakshmi A.
- Zaman, Hanif A.
- Zhu, Angie
