Haverford School and Haverford High School Students Named National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists

Some high school students picture senior year as a cakewalk, especially once a college choice has been made.

Others are still striving to achieve, and do so on a national scale.

That’s the case for the seniors who are semifinalists in the 61st annual National Merit Scholarship Program, as announced by the corporation Wednesday. Six scholars were named from the Haverford School and two from Haverford High School.

Nationally there are 16,000 semifinalists vying to reach the top level and obtain a $2,500 scholarship to put toward college.

From The Haverford School, the finalists include Matthew Y. Chow, Arnav D. Jagasia, Colin G. McCloskey, Walter N. Paiva, Guy D.Wuollet and Grant C. Yu. And Haverford High School is represented on the list by Connor S. Gallagher and Madeleine J. Pelchat.

According to the program, some 1.5 million juniors across 22,000 high schools entered the 2016 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2014 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which serves as an initial screen of program entrants.

From the program’s requirements:

“To become a Finalist, the Semifinalist and his or her high school must submit a detailed scholarship application, in which they provide information about the Semifinalist’s academic record, participation in school and community activities, demonstrated leadership abilities, employment, and honors and awards received. A Semifinalist must have an outstanding academic record throughout high school, be endorsed and recommended by a high school official, write an essay, and earn SAT® scores that confirm the student’s earlier performance on the qualifying test.”

Finalists will be chosen during the spring and 2,500 National Merit Scholarship will be awarded, along with 1,000 corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards.