43 Troy Students Named 2023 National Merit Semifinalists

TROY, MI — Numerous Troy 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 Troy students who were named National Merit Scholarship finalists:

Athens High School

Baxi, Vansh J.
Dandavolu, Rahul R.
Gajula-Ghosh, Rohan
Hartwell, Kevin A.
Kavdia, Mahee
Mendoza, Brandon G.
Nandwani, Sneha
Qamar, Ismail
Sarada, Akash
Sri Raja Kalidindi, Ananya
Subramaniam, Raghav
Wong, Eric V.
Zerilli, Nathan J.

Troy High School

Basal, Rahim
Chen, Michael
Cherukuvada, Srivaishnavi
Das, Vedant
Hong, Mark
Hong, Michael
Hung, Jeffrey
Li, Steven
Liu, Brian
Mathew, Timothy J.
Nair, Vishnu
Nguyen, Huyen
Palepu, Nishit
Parikh, Kush V.
Rajam, Ashish
Saini, Ishanya
Shah, Aanya
Shienh, Sungat S.
Shrivastava, Ashmit
Shyn, Seongjin
Singh, Kanush
Svoboda, Jack
Tonge, Janhavi G.
Veettil, Gautham A.
Wu, Claire J.
Wu, Julia
Xiao, Daniel L.
Zhang, Alan X.
Zhao, Matthew T.
Zhou, Edison T.

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.