By Eileen Wang
After taking the PSAT exam last October in 2022, 10 Williamsville East students have been announced as National Merit Scholar Semi-finalists! Congratulations to Nathan Wan, Grant Wang, Andrew Jiang, Alexander Liang, Soumyadeep Bhattacharjee, Eric Liu, Zoey Tang, Audrey Fang, Angelina Tang, and Emma Wu! They have the opportunity now to compete for some 7,140 National Merit Scholarships worth nearly $28 million, which will be offered in the spring.
In order to have qualified for the semi-finalist round, students must take the PSAT in their junior year of high school and have a score index of at least 220 (this is the cutoff for New York state but may be different for other states). National Merit Semi-finalists represent the top <1% of PSAT test-takers.
Now, these students’ next step is to become a National Merit Scholar Finalist. Semifinalists’ academic records, extracurricular involvement, leadership abilities, and honors and awards received will all be taken into consideration. From over 16,000 Semifinalists, 15,000 will advance onto the Finalist round, and eventually, each Finalist will compete for one of 2,500 National Merit $2,500 Scholarships.
As these 10 Williamsville East students continue on with the process of qualifying for the National Merit Scholar Finalist round, we wish them all the best and look forward to all they achieve!
