The National Merit Scholarship Corp., one of the country’s best-known and longest-running scholarship programs, recently announced the names of more than 16,000 semifinalists in the 70th annual program, including Bethel Park’s James Sipe and Lyla Walsh.
The students join an elite cohort among their peers throughout the country. As semifinalists, Sipe and Walsh are eligible to compete for one of 7,250 NMS scholarships worth more than $30 million. The nationwide pool of semifinalists represents less than 1% of U.S. high school seniors.
NMS formally commends some 34,000 students eligible as candidates for special scholarships sponsored by various corporations and businesses. Bethel Park has six commended student: Devin Collier, Lindsay Gruska, Joseph Kwak, Caleb Steele, Josh Tierney and Linus Truver.
Students enter the competition by taking the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test during their junior year.
Of the 1.3 million entrants from more than 21,000 high schools each year, roughly 50,000 students with the highest PSAT/NMSQT Selection Index scores — which are calculated by doubling the sum of scores in reading, writing, language and mathematics tests — qualify for NMS recognition as either commended students or semifinalists.
“We are very proud of the students who achieved this national recognition,” Joseph Villani, Bethel Park High School principal, said. “It is reflective of their hard work and dedication to learning.”
