Hauppauge High School Student Named National Merit Semifinalist

One Hauppauge High School senior has been named a semifinalist in the 63rd annual National Merit Scholarship Program.

The National Merit Scholarship Corporation made the announcement on Wednesday.

Congrats to local student Erin Fan.

Fan is currently in the process of sending out applications to a dozen colleges around the country. She is a member of the National Honor Society, the Art Honor Society and the Tri-M Honor Society at Hauppauge High School.

She is also a member of a business-oriented club, the Distributive Education Clubs of America and entered a DECA competition in the Accounting Applications category in which she placed in the top ten for all of New York State.

Fan plans on studying Math and Statistics in college.

About 1.4 million juniors in more than 22,000 high schools entered the 2018 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2016 Preliminary National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which served as an initial screen of program entrants. The nationwide pool of about 16,000 semifinalists represents less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors and includes the highest scoring entrants in each state.

These academically talented high school seniors have an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 7,600 National Merit Scholarships worth about $33 million that will be offered next spring. To be considered for a Merit Scholarship award, semifinalists must 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 more than half of the finalists will win a National Merit Scholarship, earning the Merit Scholar title.

In addition, students Hamza Syed, Andrew Crecca, Justin Rutley, Jade Carvalho and Christine O'Connor all earned commendations from National Merit.

Pictured: Erin Fan

Photo courtesy of the Hauppauge School District