27 Seniors Named Semifinalists in 2013 National Merit Scholarship Program
Twenty-seven seniors from Greenville County Schools have been named Semifinalists in the 58th annual National Merit Scholarship Program. These academically talented high school seniors have an opportunity to continue in the competition for 8,300 National Merit Scholarships worth more than $32 million that will be offered next spring.
Eastside High
Christopher A. Bresette
Thomas C. Guryan
Olivia L. Svacha
J.L. Mann High Academy
Daniella C. Godfrey
Emily L. Gregoire
Jacob C. Jones
Rebekah E. Sweatt
Mauldin High
Kathleen L. Cole
Brittany D. Fales
Morgan C. Rogers
Riverside High
William Allen
Nicholas W. Brown
Benjamin J. Butler
Nathan Chou
Raphael J. Turra
Kimberly Wang
Jiawei Zhang
Southside High Academy
Sai P. Bikkani
Anjali C. Carroll
Harshita Jain
Anurag Khandavalli
Aaina H. Singh
Jakob Teipen
Michael S. Wang
Brendan G. Williams
Wade Hampton High
Brandon T. Byrd
Clarice T. Randall
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 more than half of the Finalists will win a National Merit Scholarship, earning the Merit Scholar® title. 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.
Steps in the 2013 Competition
About 1.5 million juniors in more than 22,000 high schools entered the 2013 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2011 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which served as an initial screen of program entrants. The nationwide pool of Semifinalists, representing 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.
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.