37 Plymouth-Canton Students Named 2023 National Merit Semifinalists

PLYMOUTH-CANTON, MI — Numerous Plymouth-Canton students were named semifinalists in the 69th National Merit Scholarship Program, officials announced in September.

These high school seniors will advance to the next round of competition to share in more than 7,000 scholarships collectively worth nearly $28 million to be offered in the spring.

Students qualifying as semifinalists must fulfill several requirements to advance to the finalist level. About 95 percent of semifinals will fulfill those requirements and become finalists with about half of the finalists winning a National Merit Scholarship.

Here are the Plymouth-Canton students who were named National Merit Scholarship finalists:

Canton High School

Huey, Alexander Z.
Ong, Adam J.
Rayarapu, Charvi
Rayarapu, Krithvi
Sapre, Mihir P.
Shende, Devansh F.
Suryadevara, Sraddha S.
Zahid, Arslaan
Zhang, Jason

Plymouth High School

Balla, Shruti
Chen, Albert L.
Johnson, Nolan R.
Kiran, Gautam
Koo, Gabriel A.
Masurkar, Shlok
Merugu, Pranav R.
Rajesh, Varsha
Ramu, Vaibav V.
Syed, Zain S.
Ward, Emily J.
Xiong, Summer C.

Salem High School

Bingi, Yash S.
Choudhary, Jaya
Curtright, John T.
Grewal, Jorrawar S.
Huang, David J.
Jalali, Nabeeha
Kambhammettu, Shruva
Kolozsvary, Andrew D.
Kulkarni, Arav A.
Raghu, Abhinav
Raju, Deepak M.
Syed, Zoha F.
Torres, Giselle
Upadhyay, Aarya
Wylie, Jonathan W.
Zheng, Alan D.

The semifinalist pool represents less than one percent of all high school juniors across the country who took the 2022 Preliminary SAT (PSAT) tests. The number of semifinalists in a state is proportional to the state's percentage of the national total of graduating seniors.

To become a finalist, the semifinalist and a high school official must submit a detailed scholarship application, including information about the semifinalist's academic record, school and community activities, demonstrated leadership abilities, employment, honors and awards.

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 or ACT that are in line with the PSAT scores from the previous year.

National Merit Scholarships will be offered in the spring of 2024 in three categories — 2,500 National Merit $2,500 Scholarships, 840 corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarships from 160 corporations and business organizations nationwide and 3,800 college- and university-specific National Merit Scholarships.