Five students from three Anne Arundel County public high schools have been selected as semifinalists in the 2025 National Merit Scholarship competition.
Arundel, Severna Park, and South River high schools have students on the prestigious list which is comprised of about 16,000 student achievers nationwide.
Semifinalists in the competition, which is overseen by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation, were selected from about 1.3 million juniors in about 21,000 U.S. high schools who were top scorers on the 2023 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT).
About 90 percent of the semifinalists will advance to finalist status based on criteria such as academic record, recommendation by school principal, SAT performance, and participation and leadership in school and community activities. Finalists, who compete for 6,870 National Merit Scholarships worth nearly $26 million, will be announced in February.
AACPS 2025 semifinalists
Arundel High School
Daniel Garrett
Severna Park High School
Benjamin Elliffe
Abbie Heath
Peter Judge
South River High School
Nikita Mehta