Juliet J., Matthew O. named National Merit Scholarship finalists
CHS seniors Juliet J. and Matthew O. have been selected as finalists for the 71st annual National Merit Scholarship Program.
The students are now among a select group of more than 15,000 high school seniors nationwide competing for one of 6,870 scholarships, which collectively represent nearly $26 million in total academic awards to be distributed.
The 2026 competition began with more than 1.3 million juniors from approximately 20,000 high schools who took the 2024 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test.
To advance to finalist standing, Juliet and Matthew were required to submit a detailed scholarship application outlining their academic records, participation in school and community activities, leadership abilities, employment, and previous honors. Additionally, both students had to write an essay, receive an endorsement from a high school official, and earn SAT or ACT scores that confirmed their earlier qualifying test performance.
The finalist pool represents less than 1% of U.S. high school seniors. The NMSC will begin announcing the designees later this spring.