Erin Ye has been named a semifinalist in the National Merit Scholarship’s 2022 awards program. The designation places the Huntington High School senior among an exceptional group of American high school students.
The National Merit Scholarship program, which dates to 1955, provides recognition and scholarships for top students. About 16,000 seniors advanced to the semifinal round of the competition and another 34,000 students received letters of commendation.
Ms. Ye is now eligible to compete for one of 7,500 National Merit Scholarship awards worth more than $30 million, to be presented in the spring.
In addition to high scores on the PSAT/NMSQT, competitors also must meet various stringent participation requirements. They are eventually assigned a “selection index” that is based on their critical reading, math and writing skills scores.
Huntington seniors Cassidy Casabona and Luke Rinaldi have captured the designation of National Merit Commended Students, reflecting their advanced standing among members of America’s Class of 2022.
“We are so proud of these students who have excelled on the NMSQT exam,” Huntington Principal Brenden Cusack said. “To have such an impressive showing during a normal year is certainly something to be proud of and to perform so well during these challenging times is truly outstanding! I am so impressed by the academic prowess of these three students and I wish Erin the best of luck in the next phases of the competition.”
The 67th annual National Merit competition drew entries from about 1.5 million teenagers from 22,000 high schools. The students “entered the National Merit program by taking the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT), which served as an initial screen of program entrants,” according to the National Merit website. “The nationwide pool of semifinalists, which represents less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors, includes the highest scoring entrants in each state.”
The nationwide pool of semifinalists, which represents less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors, includes the highest scoring entrants in each state.
Three types scholarship awards will be offered in 2022: National Merit $2,500 scholarships, corporate-sponsored scholarships, and college-sponsored scholarships.
