The Meadows School Celebrates Nine National Merit Semifinalists

The National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) has announced the names of more than 16,000 semifinalists in the 71st annual National Merit Scholarship Program. More than 1.3 million juniors from approximately 20,000 high schools entered the 2026 program by taking the 2024 PSAT/NMSQT, which serves as the initial qualifying exam.

The nationwide pool of Semifinalists represents fewer than 1% of U.S. high school seniors and includes the highest-scoring students in each state. The number of Semifinalists in any given state is proportional to its percentage to the nation's graduating seniors.

The Meadows School Semifinalists

This year, The Meadows School proudly celebrates the achievement of nine seniors who earned National Merit Semifinalist status:

• Austin Blanco
• Alisa Kung
• Aidan Moses
• Caleb O'Campo
• Mujtaba Shahzad
• Aryan Singh
• Emma Sun
• Cayla Sylvain
• Steven Tian

These students collectively represent an impressive 12% of the senior class.

Next Steps in the Competition

Semifinalists now have the opportunity to comtinue in the competition for approximately 7,000 National Merit Scholarships. Three types of scholarships will be awarded in Spring 2026:

• National Merit $2,500 Scholarships: About 2,500 awards granted to finalists nationwide.
• Corporate-Sponsored Merit Scholarships: Approximately 800 scholarships funded by 150 corporations and businesses for finalists who meet specific criteria.
• College-Sponsored Merit Scholarships: Around 3,600 awards financed by 150 colleges and universities for admitted finalists.

National Merit Scholarship winners will be announced in four nationwide news releases from April through July 2026.