First Posted: 10/17/2014

Sukanya Roy, of South Abington Township, a Wyoming Seminary senior, was named a semifinalist in the 2015 National Merit Scholarship competition and will continue competing for the approximately $35 million worth of Merit Scholarship awards available next spring.

National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC), which conducts the academic competition, is a privately financed, not-for-profit corporation.

More than 1.5 million students in more than 22,000 U.S. high schools entered the 2015 Merit Program when they were juniors by taking the 2013 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which served as an initial screen of program entrants. Fewer than one percent of the nation’s high school seniors were named Semifinalists on a state representational basis. The number of Semifinalists named in each state is proportional to the state’s percentage of the national total of graduating seniors.

The next step for semifinalists is to fulfill requirements to advance to finalist standing, a prerequisite to consideration for a Merit Scholarship award. To become Finalists, Semifinalists must have an outstanding high school academic record, be endorsed and recommended by their school principal, and submit SAT scores that confirm their earlier qualifying test performance.

About 90 percent, or approximately 15,000 of the Semifinalists are expected to advance to the Finalist level of the competition. Three types of Merit Scholarship awards will be offered in 2015, and every Finalist will be considered for one of 2,500 National Merit $2,500 Scholarships that will be awarded on a state representational basis.