Officials of National Merit Scholarship Corporation, NMSC, announced the names of approximately 16,000 semifinalists in the 62nd annual National Merit Scholarship Program. These academically talented high school seniors have an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 7,500 National Merit Scholarships worth about $33 million that will be offered next spring.

Nine Chatham High School seniors were named National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists by the National Merit Scholarship Program. Semifinalists are Stephanie Crater, Felicia Guo, Margaret Harrigan, Caroline Hoerner, Alexandra Lynch, Kate Purschke, Matt Raiola, Nishita Sinha and Yulan Zhang.

Principal Darren Groh said, “We are very proud of the time and energy our students dedicate towards their school work. This recognition is well deserved and our students should be proud of their accomplishments.”

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 about half of the finalists will win a National Merit Scholarship, earning the Merit Scholar title.

Students are selected for this honor based on their performance on the PSAT exam. Each high school student’s selective index is the sum of his writing, critical reading and mathematics scores on this exam. These students’ selective indices placed them within the top one percent of students taking the exam nationally.

Each state has its own qualifying score, and NJ has one of the highest selective indices in the country.