Downingtown Yields Long List Of Merit Scholarship Semifinalists

West Chester PA

21 September, 2021

2:11 PM

Description

DOWNINGTOWN, PA — Four Downingtown high schools jointly had 38 National Merit Scholarship semifinalists named in September. Downingtown S.T.E.M. Academy had 23 semifinalists named. Downingtown High School West had four, Downingtown High School East had nine and Bishop Shanahan High School had two semifinalists. The semifinalist list comes after high school juniors enter the 2022 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2020 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT). The nationwide pool of semifinalists represents less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors and includes the highest-scoring entrants in each state. The number of semifinalists in a state is proportional to the state's percentage of the national total of graduating seniors. 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® or ACT® scores that confirm the student's earlier performance on the qualifying test. From the approximately 16,000 semifinalists, about 15,000 are expected to advance to the finalist level, and in February they will be notified of this designation. All National Merit Scholarship winners will be selected from this group of finalists. Merit Scholar designees are selected on the basis of their skills, accomplishments, and potential for success in rigorous college studies, without regard to gender, race, ethnic origin, or religious preference. The students who are National Merit Scholarship semifinalists, by their high schools are: Downingtown High School WestAmanda C. ClearyAnushka R. Levaku Serene M. PanJoseph D. Zahiri Downingtown S.T.E.M. Academy Irene A. AbrahamKushi AmaraSamrithaa BalakrishnanSarah R. CrawfordShreesh DassarkarArnav DhingraMohith GollapalliOlivia A. GulishNathan S. JiangAlice C. LiuAjay S. MacherlaTroy M. RamiscalNandita C. ReddySiddhant SharmaShannon ShihPranay SivarajuManuel M. ThomasMaria A. ThomasAparna VagvalaDev Vidya JijilalRohit VipperlaSophia WuBrandon Z. Ye Bishop Shanahan High School Leah M. BakerGrace E. Watson Downingtown High School East Siri C. DanduParsh GoelOwen B. HibshmanRohan J. Kyada Path PatelMahitha S. PenmetsaYash N. RajpalRishab SrinivasanDaniel Yu Make sure you know what's happening in your town. Sign up to get Patch emails and don't miss any local news: https://patch.com/subscribe.