NEW ROCHELLE, NY — The Ursuline School proudly announces that five seniors have been named Semifinalists in the 2016 National Merit Scholarship Competition on the basis of their outstanding PSAT/NMSQT scores. Congratulations to Niamh Fitzpatrick, Grace Gallagher, Caroline LaGumina, Briana Ross, and Julianna Sullivan.
More than 1.5 million juniors in more than 22,000 high schools took the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. The 16,000 Semifinalists are the highest scorers in each of the 50 states and are in the top 1% of U.S. high school seniors. The number of Semifinalists in a state is proportional to the state’s percentage of the national total of graduating seniors.
The press release from the National Merit Scholarship Corporation notes that in order to advance to Finalist status, the Semifinalists now must submit detailed scholarship applications that include their academic record, participation in school and community activities, demonstrated leadership abilities, employment, as well as honors and awards received.
Finalists will be announced in February 2016. National Merit Scholarship winners are selected from among the Finalists. Three types of National Merit Scholarships will be offered in spring 2016. There will be 2,500 National Merit $2500 Scholarships, approximately 1,000 corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarships, and about 190 colleges and universities are expected to finance some 3,900 college-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards for Finalists who attend the sponsor institution.