A record seven CCC juniors qualified to enter the 2022 National Merit Scholarship Program.

Among the 50,000 highest-scoring participants on the 2020 Preliminary Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT), these students were in the top 3.3% of the approximately 1.5M students who took the qualifying test last year.

CCC’s 2022 National Merit Qualifiers:

Rebecca Buete ’22
Allison Carson ’22
Riley Deputy ’22
Taylor Galloway ’22
Héctor Miranda-Plaza ’22
Derek Porcelli ’22
Mary Reimann ’22

By this October, more than two-thirds of the 50,000 high scorers will receive Letters of Commendation in recognition of their outstanding academic promise. The remaining qualifying students will continue in the competition for National Merit Scholarships as Semifinalists. Semifinalists are determined by the highest-scoring entrants in each state. Subsequently, all Semifinalist students advance as Finalists in the competition, vying for about 7,600 Merit Scholarship awards offered in 2022.

The final selection process involves evaluating substantial amounts of information about Finalists obtained from both the students and their high schools. Included are the Finalist’s academic record (course load and difficulty level, depth and breadth of subjects studied, and grades earned); PSAT/NMSQT scores; the student’s essay; demonstrated leadership and contributions to school and community activities; and a school official’s written recommendation and characterization of the Finalist.

We believe CCC’s participation in the Ray Dass SARA Program significantly contributed to this unprecedented number of qualifying students. SARA is three-year school-wide program to increase PSAT, SAT, and ACT scores not only for top students, but also improving the scores of all students in a school. This will be our first class (’22) that’s had access to SARA for their entire three years — and the results are seemingly undeniable.