Tonya Yu from Foss High School and Carolyn Anderson from Stadium High School are among the local semifinalists in the 55th annual National Merit Scholarship Program. The semifinalists earned the highest scores in each state on the 2008 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (NMSQT). The nearly 16,000 semifinalists from across the nation represent less than one percent of seniors nationwide.
More than 1.5 million entrants across the country became eligible by taking the PSAT/NMSQT test. In early September, about 16,000 students, or approximately one-third of the 50,000 high scorers, were notified that they qualified as semifinalists. National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) provides scholarship application materials to semifinalists through their high schools. To be considered for a National Merit® scholarship, semifinalists must advance to finalist standing in the competition by meeting high academic standards, receiving a recommendation from their school’s principal or designee and meeting all other requirements.