Community Corner
6 Freehold Students Named National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists
The students are part of an elite cadre of semifinalists nationwide, representing less than 1 percent of high school seniors.
FREEHOLD, NJ — Six Freehold students have been named as semifinalists in the 2025 National Merit Scholarship competition.
The nationwide program has named some 16,000 semifinalists — less than 1% of the nation’s high school seniors.
Semifinalists from Freehold include:
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Biotechnology High School
- Nadia Kim
- Eric Morshed
- Neha Nimma
- Andreea Tarau
Freehold High School
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- Alexandra M. Chrostowski
Freehold Township High School
- Sophia A. Navarro-Montes
Over 1.3 million juniors across 21,000 high schools entered the National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2023 PSAT, which served as an initial screening of program applicants.
The semifinalists include the highest-scoring applicants in each state.
To become a finalist in the program, the semifinalist and high school official must submit a scholarship application that provides information on the semifinalist’s academic record, participation in school and community activities, demonstrated leadership abilities, employment, and received honors and awards.
Three types of National Merit Scholarships will be offered for Spring 2025, officials said. Each finalist will compete for one of 2,5000 National Merit $2,500 scholarships that will be awarded on a state-representational basis.
About 770 corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards will be provided by 130 corporations and business organizations for finalists who meet their specified criteria, such as children of the grantor’s employees or residents of communities where sponsor plants or offices are located.
In addition, about 150 colleges and universities are expected to finance around 3,600 college-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards for finalists who will attend their institution.
From over 16,000 semifinalists, more than 15,000 are expected to advance to the finalist level.
In February, the semifinalists will be notified of their designation.
To learn more about the National Merit Scholarship Program, you can visit their website.
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