Carlsbad Students Named National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists

Approximately 1.5 million high school juniors take the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT). Out of those students, 16,000 were named National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists and from those, 14 hail from Carlsbad-area schools.

Besides just having a high score, a semifinalist must have an outstanding academic record throughout high school, be endorsed and recommended by a high school official, write an essay, and earn SAT scores that confirm the student’s earlier performance on the qualifying test, according to a press release form the National Merit Scholarship Program.

The academically-talented high schoolers, who are now seniors, have an opportunity to continue in the competition for 8,300 National Merit Scholarships worth more than $32 million.

Winners will be announced beginning in April. 

Here's a list of students from Carlsbad who will advance to the next round: 

Carlsbad High School

• Dabir, Rahul A.
• Kaiser, Alexander M.
• Keeling, Carter B.
• Liu, Lawrence K.

Homeschool

• Wong, Christopher P.

La Costa Canyon High School

• Hickok, Erin L.
• Lizerbram, Noah C.
• Satoda, David Y.
• Smith, Aaron H.

Pacific Ridge School

• Ahn, Isaac F.
• Corbeil, Ciara M.
• Ryan, Alexander T.
• van der Heyde, Radmer B.
• Xu, Kevin