National Merit Scholarship program honors 38 students
September 26, 2007
Find out more about the National Merit Semifinalists and read their bios.
By: Jaclyn Chen <jchen@hilite.org>
After scoring well on the PSAT sophomore year, senior Kelsey Collins said she decided to take the exam a bit more seriously her junior year. She said she took a practice test and got a good night’s rest. Her work paid off, and she is now one of 37 National Merit Semifinalists here.
“It was important for me because it’s a really big deal to get one of those (National Merit) scholarships,” Collins said.
Principal John Williams said students, like Collins, must combine natural smarts with a solid work ethic in order to achieve National Merit.
“These students should be thankful to have the kind of ability that they do, and they should be proud because they applied themselves to do well on the PSAT,” Williams said.
Each fall, the National Merit Scholarship Program designates about 16,000 students from around the nation as Semifinalists. Semifinalists score in the top half percent of the state on the PSAT. To become a Finalist and eligible for corporate and university scholarships, a Semifinalist must fill out an application, write an essay and receive a letter of recommendation from his or her counselor. The Finalists of the program will then be announced in February.
Semifinalist designation is based on the PSAT which has three sections: critical reading, math and writing. Each section has a full score of 80 points, with a combined total of 240. The cut-off this year in Indiana was 213. Williams said that sometimes one question can mean the difference between making or missing the cut-off, so a few years ago, he began scheduling a meeting for all juniors who scored within range of the cut-off as sophomores to encourage them to pay extra attention during testing. The year following the first meeting, the number of Semifinalists increased by 10 students.
Of the 15,000 Finalists selected in February, approximately 8,200 will receive National Merit and corporate and college sponsored scholarships. Collins said that she understood the importance of the PSAT because scholarships can range from a few hundred dollars to full college tuition.
The previous record set here was 26 Semifinalists from the 2005-2006 school year. In addition to this year’s 37 Semifinalists, another 36 were commended for scoring near the 213 cut-off. Carmel boasts the most in Indiana, but numbers as high as 70 from a single school are not unheard of. Regardless, Williams said that he doesn’t focus on just the numbers but rather on whether this school is maximizing the potential of the students.
“As a school, we just want to ask, ‘Are we challenging kids and preparing them in the proper environment?’” Williams said. “If the answer is yes, then the numbers will just take care of themselves.”
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