The National Merit Corporation has announced the semifinalists in its second round of the National Merit Scholarship. Students were selected based on their scores on the PSAT/NMSQT test taken in eleventh grade – this year’s cutoff was a composite score of 217.

Clark High School’s class of 2018 set a new state record this year with 23 National Merit Semifinalists, beating last year’s count of 15 by a wide margin. As National Merit Semifinalists, schools nationwide already prioritize them in admissions and scholarships. In fact, some schools including the University of Florida and the University of Alabama allocate National Merit Semifinalists full-rides, and many more offer selective financial aid packages. Congratulations to the following high-achieving Clark seniors:

“Semifinalists represent the top 2% of scores,” says Principal Pendleton. “It’s a remarkable achievement.”

Denise Castle

Davis Crouch

Gabrielle DeBelen

Jay Desai

Anish Devati

Samantha DiFulvio

Sean Golonka

Benjamin Hand

Liam Jones

Aaron Kuo

Tara McNeil

Michael Pasimio

Trevor Pearl

Casey Mae Perez

Tyler Pickett

Rathna Reddy

Matthew Shen

James Stewart

Stefan Tomov

Nikolay Tranakiev

Ammie Wang

Andrew Wang

Alisha Yi

These students will now apply to the National Merit Corporation in hopes of making it to the finalist round. If you see any of these students in the halls or around the school, make sure to congratulate them!

Good luck to this year’s class of 2019, who will be taking their National Merit-qualifying exam in October – here’s to you breaking the new record next year!