Novi High Scores Most National Merit Semifinalists

NOVI, MI — Novi High has the highest number of 2018 National Merit semifinalists. A whopping 39 seniors were named by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation on Wednesday.

“When I got word that it was 39 students I almost fell out of my chair,” Novi High School principal Nicole Carter said. “It’s a testament to their hard work and commitment and diligence over the years. These kids have obviously challenged themselves in such a way to outperform thousands of kids across this country. It speaks volumes to who they are and what they stand for, and how much time and energy and effort that they have put into their academics.”

In the last six years, 146 Novi High seniors have been named semifinalists – that’s an average of 24.3 Merit semifinalists per year for one of the top-achieving schools in Michigan. Nineteen Novi seniors were 2017 Merit semifinalists.

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Novi’s Merit semifinalists will be recognized by school and district administrators during a daytime reception, which will be held on Wednesday, Sept. 20 at Novi High School.

This year, the NMSC named 554 semifinalists from 140 Michigan high schools. Not one school – public or private – topped Novi’s impressive number, which represents 7 percent of all in-state semifinalists.

“The level of support and engagement of their parents, as well as the support of our school board and the community at-large, there is no doubt that in the Novi community education is our first priority,” Carter said. “We put our money where our mouth is in regards to funding programming that is supportive of students who welcome the challenge of rigorous course work. … And these students just get after it.”

Rounding out Michigan’s top-five high schools (based on total number of ’18 semifinalists) are: Troy (34); Bloomfield Hills International Academy (33); Northville (31); and Ann Arbor Huron (28).

The seniors will continue to compete for approximately 7,500 National Merit Scholarships worth more than $32 million that will be awarded next spring.

To be considered for a Merit Scholarship award, semifinalists must now fulfill several requirements to advance to the finalist level of the competition. About 90 percent of the semifinalists are expected to attain finalist standing, and about half of the finalists will win a National Merit Scholarship.

The National Merit Scholarship program is an academic competition for recognition and scholarships that began in 1955. High school students enter the program by taking the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which serves as an initial screening of approximately 1.6 million entrants each year, and by meeting published program entry and participation requirements.

Congratulations to the following Novi seniors on earning semifinalist status: Arun S. Annamalai, Mihir R. Bhadange, Subarna Bhattacharya, Lindsey Boivin, Deeya Chaturvedi, Robert E. Chen, Aditya Chitta, Shaily J. Fozdar, Mehak Gulati, Zijin Huang, Jyotsna Joshi, Selinah Y. Liang, Audrey L. Ling, Joseph M. Macek, Yasir Mehmood, Gabriel A. Mudel, Arjun G. Raman, Aditya Ravi, Amber E. Renton, Kiran Rushton, Maithelee Sathe, Junwon Shin, Rishan Singh, Sanidhya Singh, Sarav Noor Singh, David J. Song, Prianka M. Subrahmanyam, Ronit Tiwary, Ashwin Vangipuram, Nikith Veluru, Joyful L. Wang, Maxwell L. Weng, James Wu, Katherine Xie, Robert B. Xu, Venkata N. Yadati, Alice C. Ying, Alexander H. Yuan, and Steven Zhang.

Photo by transly via Flickr Commons