District 214 Students Named as Semifinalists In 2014 National Merit Scholarship Program

     Sixteen Township High School District 214 students have been identified as Semifinalists in the 59th annual National Merit Scholarship Program (NMSP):

Buffalo Grove High School— Max Farbman, Peter Kotecki, David Mercker, and Kaitlin Morain

Elk Grove High School—Christopher Brand

John Hersey High School—Melanie Cohodes, Emma Mallers, Margaret Marusek, Michael Miller, and John Pham

Prospect High School— Kevin Burck, Meghan Doyle, Adrian Gunawan, Richard Hallman, Brenna Milligan, and Michael Monsen

     Approximately 1.5 million juniors in 22, 000 high schools entered the 2014 NMSP last fall by taking the 2012 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT), which served as an initial screen of program entrants. The nationwide pool of Semifinalists, which represents less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors, 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. 

     They are among the 16,000 academically talented students in the nation who will now have an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 8,300 National Merit Scholarships worth more than $32 million that will be offered next spring.

     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 Finalists will win a National Merit Scholarship, earning the Merit Scholar title. 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.

     National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC), a not-for-profit organization that operates without government assistance, was established in 1955 specifically to conduct the annual NMSP. Scholarships are underwritten by NMSC with its own funds and by approximately 440 business organizations and higher education institutions that share NMSC's goals of honoring the nation's scholastic champions and encouraging the pursuit of academic excellence.