Ten students from five Anne Arundel County public high schools have been selected as semifinalists in the 2017 National Merit Scholarship competition.
Severna Park High School leads the county list with five students, while South River has two. Broadneck, Glen Burnie, and Chesapeake high schools each have one student on the prestigious list which is comprised of about 16,000 student achievers nationwide.
“This is an impressive achievement that represents the immense talent in AACPS,” Superintendent George Arlotto said. “I am so proud of the hard work these students have put forth to ensure their bright futures.”
Semifinalists in the competition, which is overseen by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation, were selected from about 1.6 million juniors in nearly 22,000 U.S. high schools who were top scorers on the 2015 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT).
About 90 percent of the semifinalists will advance to finalist status based on criteria such as academic record, recommendation by school principal, SAT performance, and participation and leadership in school and community activities. Finalists, who compete for coveted National Merit Scholarships, will be in announced in February.
The local semifinalists are:
Broadneck High School
Anna Morse
Chesapeake High School
Augustus Daubert
Glen Burnie High School
Robin Roper
Severna Park High School
Richa Agnihotri
Claire Bratton
Davis Cook
Tyler Smith
Abigail Widmer
South River High School
Mihailo Rancic
Tatiana Wu