Two Andover High students are semifinalists for National Merit Scholarships and another 19 Andover High School seniors have been named Commended Students, meaning they scored in the top 5 percent nationally of more than 1.5 million students who entered the 2013 competition by taking the 2011 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test.
Evan T. Doyle and Stan W. Huang are the two who have been named as semifinalists in the 2013 National Merit Scholarship Program. These academically talented high school seniors have an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 8,300 National Merit Scholarships worth more than $32 million that will be offered next spring.
The nationwide pool of semifinalists, which represents less than 1% of U.S. high school seniors, includes the highest-scoring entrants in each state. Semifinalists are expected to advance to the finalists level and it is from this group that all National Merit Scholarship winners will be chosen. Merit Scholar designees are selected on the basis of their skills, accomplishments, and potential for success in rigorous college studies, according to the National Merit Scholarship organization.
The 19 Andover High School seniors have been named Commended Students in the 2013 National Merit Scholarship Program are Daniel Caveney, Shivansh Chawla, Xinni Chen, Shawna Fox, Madeline Hertz, Evan Huang, Taehyun Lee, Max Li, Ronan Maye, Andrew Meshnick, Kylen Moynihan, Lauren Murtagh, Marina Renton, Peter Scapicchio, Geoffrey Segal, Rosanna Wang, Casey Zhang, Vishal Ahuja, and Sarita Ballakur.
They are among the 34,000 Commended Students throughout the nation being honored. Although they will not continue in the 2013 competition for National Merit Scholarships, “these students represent some of the most academically talented students in our country. It is our hope that this recognition will enhance their educational opportunities and encourage them in their pursuit of academic success,” according to a release.
