16 La Cañada Flintridge Students Named as National Merit Scholar Semifinalist

LA CANADA FLINTRIDGE, CA — Sixteen students from La Cañada Flintridge were named as this year’s National Merit Scholarship semifinalists, the National Merit Scholarship Corporation announced.

They are Mateo Abascal, Ankur Jain, Dylan Z. Kwang, Michael J. Maloney, Laura E. Ratliff, Carolyn M. Shyong from Flintridge Preparatory School; Sarah S. Bhaskaran, Olivia K. Cwik, Michael Linde, Christopher Morillo, Daniel S. Oh, Jenny Wang, Jennifer Y. Yoon, Albert J. Zhai, Alexander Zhao from La Cañada High School; and Adrian F. Ballard from St. Francis High School.

The 16 are among the 16,000 chosen based on their scores on the Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test.

Of those, only about 15,000 are expected to advance to the finalist level in February, and in February they will be notified of this designation. About half will win National Merit Scholarships worth about $33 million that will be offered next spring.

The semifinalists representing less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors, includes the highest scoring entrants in each state. The number of semifinalists in a state is proportional to the state’s percentage of the national total of graduating seniors.

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