New Rochelle High School Senior Named National Merit Scholar

Written By: Robert Cox

NEW ROCHELLE, NY (March 24, 2023) — New Rochelle High School senior Momir I. Petrovic has been named a National Merit Scholarship Finalist, putting him in the top one percent of students in the country.

Last fall, Momir learned that he had made semi-finalist status in the 68th annual National Merit Scholarship program, which recognizes talented high school seniors with outstanding academic achievement.

“Being a finalist is, surprisingly, not as shocking as being a semifinalist. Out of 16,000 semifinalists, 15,000 become finalists,” he noted.

Those finalists go on to compete for 7,280 Merit scholarships worth nearly $28 million, with the cut-off for scores varying from state to state.

High school juniors entered the 2023 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2021 Preliminary SAT. The nationwide pool of finalists represents less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors and includes the highest scoring entrants in each state.

At school, Momir is a board member of the Computer Science Honor Society. He is currently taking some classes at Iona University in advanced game development and discrete math.

Momir is planning on studying computer science in college but hasn’t decided where yet.

“After that I want to get a job as a software developer while pursuing game development as a hobby,” he said.