Linda Kleinfeld and Aidan Smith have been named semi-finalists for National Merit Scholarships.
The National Merit Scholarship is based on the Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test (PSAT) scores. People are nominated by scoring top percentage(s). The PSATs are administered to juniors and some sophomores.
The National Merit Scholarship was initiated in 1955 and is conducted by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC), a non-profit organization. About 50,000 educationally talented high school students are honored, but only about 16,000 are named semifinalists and compete for scholarships.
“[Winning will] make it easier to get into [and] pay for college. I’ll be more likely to go to my first choice for college and less likely to have big loans to pay off afterwards,” Smith said.
Winning this scholarship can earn a winner $2,500 in scholarship money. Many finalists also receive money on top of that from the specific college they decide to attend.
“Career-wise, I don’t think it’ll change much, though,” Smith said.
The two have to re-apply to the National Merit Corporation to try to become finalists. They will have to fill out an application then wait.