Today officials of National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) announced the names of more than 16,000 Semifinalists in the 71st annual National Merit Scholarship Program. Among them were CCC seniors Madison Childress, Aidan Morgan, and Patrick Phy. The nationwide pool of semifinalists represent less than 1% of high school seniors and include the highest-scoring entrants in each state, based on the PSAT test taken in the Fall of 2024.
These academically talented high school seniors have an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 6,930 National Merit Scholarships worth nearly $26 million 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 95 percent of the Semifinalists are expected to attain Finalist standing, and approximately half of the Finalists will win a National Merit Scholarship, earning the Merit Scholar® title.
NMSC, a not-for-profit organization that operates without government assistance, was established in 1955. Scholarships are underwritten by NMSC with its own funds and by approximately 300 business organizations, higher education institutions, and individual donors that share NMSC’s goals of honoring the nation’s scholastic champions and encouraging the pursuit of academic excellence.
In addition to the above listed Semifinalists, two more CCC seniors had previously been announced as National Merit Qualifiers this past Spring, as they were among the 50,000 highest PSAT scores in the nation. These high-scoring Marauders are Ta'rah Regnier and Allison Fisher. They will be among those announced as National Merit Commended Students later this month.
It's no coincidence that CCC has seen a significant increase in students reaching both the Commended Student and Semifinalist benchmarks over the past several years. In 2019, CCC implemented the SARA program into its school wide curriculum. SARA™ is an award-winning, mastery-based learning platform from the experts at Ray Dass, designed to provide the highest quality PSAT, SAT, ACT, and college-readiness preparation to students at all levels. Unlike short-term test prep classes or “cram” sessions, SARA actually teaches students the content they need to learn, while providing nearly endless opportunities for practice, so that students become more comfortable with the material and questions they’ll see in school and on standardized tests! SARA curriculum is also designed to support what students are learning in the classroom, while maintaining alignment to College Board and ACT benchmarks.
The Ray Dass Merit Program is designed to take high-achieving students to new heights. Using SARA™ as the program’s foundation, the Ray Dass Merit Program utilizes proprietary curriculum to further strengthen and master the concepts and materials these students will see on the tests. In the Ray Dass Merit Program, high-achieving students are given the tools needed to put them in the best possible position to achieve National Merit, attain substantial increases in their test scores, receive top-tier college acceptances, and unlock millions of dollars in merit-based aid.
Congratulations to all the National Merit Semifinalists and Commended Students from CCC! What an inspiration you are to our underclassmen as they prepare for the upcoming PSAT in October!