9 Hightstown Students Named 2025 National Merit Semifinalists

EAST WINDSOR, NJ — Nine students from Peddie School in Hightstown have been named semi-finalists for the 2025 National Merit Scholarship Program.

The semi-finalists were announced on Wednesday and include around 16,000 high-school seniors from across the country, who will now compete for the scholarships that will be offered next spring.

About 95 percent of the semi-finalists will be named as finalists for the scholarship. Of those finalists, about half will win a scholarship, the National Merit Scholarship Program said.

The students named as semi-finalists are:

1. Celina Chevres
2. Arjun Chityala
3. Lue Fang
4. Ananya Hari
5. Amanda Harmon
6. Matthew Luo
7. Phineas Mattis
8. Rishi Shah
9. Evan Xu

More than 1.3 million juniors in about 21,000 high schools entered the 2025 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2023 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship QualifyingTest, which represents less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors.

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, in which they provide information about the semifinalist’s academic record, participation in school and community activities, demonstrated leadership abilities, employment, and honors and awards received.

National Merit Scholarship winners of 2025 will be announced in four nationwide news releases beginning in April and concluding in July.

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