Two Lincoln-Way East HS Students Named National Merit 2026 Semifinalists

FRANKFORT, IL — Two Lincoln-Way East High School students were named as semifinalists in the 71st National Merit Scholarship Program on Wednesday, the National Merit Scholarship Corporation announced.

Seniors Kaitlyn Poidomani and Felix Sacks were among more than 16,000 semifinalists named nationwide. Of those students, 6,930 will be chosen to share nearly $26 million in scholarship money, which will be announced in spring 2026.

According to the news release, to be considered for a scholarship award, semifinalists must fulfill several requirements to advance to the Finalist level of the competition. Of the 16,000 semifinalists, more than 15,000 are expected to advance to the finalist level. National Merit Scholarship winners will then be selected from this group of finalists.

Over 1.3 million juniors in about 20,000 high schools entered the 2026 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2024 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which served as an initial screen of program entrants.

The nationwide pool of semifinalists represents less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors, including the highest-scoring entrants in each state, according to National Merit.

Winners will be announced in four nationwide news releases beginning in April and concluding in July. These scholarship recipients will join nearly 389,000 other distinguished young people who have earned the Merit Scholar title.