Students Named National Merit Semifinalists

George School is elated to announce that Shiyong (David) Xi ’21 and Ellen Zhang ’21 were named semifinalists this fall in the Sixty-Sixth National Merit Scholarship Program. Seven other seniors—Ryan Bencivengo ’21, Ziyou (Milano) Hu ’21, Siyuan (Justin) Liu ’21, Aniketh Phalcomepely ’21, Jackson Swartz ’21, Ilinca Vilceanu ’21, and Sean Whalen ’21— received National Merit Letters of Commendation. Chris Toala ’21 was selected as a National Recognition Program: Hispanic Scholar.

Of the 1.5 million students entered into the National Merit Scholarship Competition by taking the PSAT/NMSQT®, approximately 34,000 were granted Letters of Commendation on the basis of their Selection Index scores, while approximately 16,000 qualified as Semifinalists. Finalists will be chosen in February, and winners will be announced in the spring.

According to the National Merit Program’s Scholarship’s website, the winners will be chosen based on an evaluation of “the Finalist’s academic record, information about the school’s curriculum and grading system, PSAT/NMSQT Selection Index score, the high school official’s written recommendation, information about the student’s activities and leadership, and the Finalist’s own essay.”