4 Carson High students National Merit semifinalists

Carson High students Evan Cherpeski, Brianna Mooney-Bennett, Megan Owens and Emma Rosen have all be selected as National Merit Scholarship semifinalists for 2019.

Douglas High’s Justin Lu has also been named as a National Merit semifinalist.

They were among 16,000 students from across the country to be named as National Merit semifinalists. All of the seniors who have been named as semifinalists will now be considered for 7,500 National Merit Scholarships worth more than $31 million to be offered in the spring.

To be considered for a Merit Scholarship award, semifinalists must fulfill several requirements to advance to the finalist level of the competition.

More than 90 percent of the semifinalists are expected to attain finalist standing, and about half of the finalists will win a National Merit Scholarship, earning the title of Merit Scholar.

For more information visit www.nationalmerit.org.

More than 1.6 million juniors in about 22,000 high schools entered the 2019 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2017 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. The nationwide pool of semifinalists, represents less than 1 percent of U.S. high school seniors.

To become a finalist, semifinalist and their 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, leadership, 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.

Three types of National Merit Scholarships will be offered in the spring of 2019.

Every finalist will compete for one of 2,500 National Merit $2,500 Scholarships that will be awarded on a state-representational basis. About 1,000 corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards will be provided by approximately 230 corporations and business organizations for finalists who meet their specified criteria.

In addition, about 180 colleges and universities are expected to finance some 4,000 college-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards.

For more information visit www.nationalmerit.org.