Brainy Bergen County: Teens Announced As 2025 National Merit Scholaship Semifinalists

BERGEN COUNTY, NJ — Each year, high-achieving students in each New Jersey high school look excitedly to see if they're among the semifinalists who will get to compete for a four-year college scholarship of $2,000 or more.

The National Merit Scholarship Program creates a list each fall of thousands of students nationwide who scored well on the PSAT during their junior years. After students submit grades and other information, they're narrowed down to a group of finalists who get the chance to win the no-strings-attached scholarships.

Last year, dozens of Bergen County students made the finals. (See the list of 2024 winners and their career and college goals here.)

On Sept. 11, the National Merit Scholarship Board released its new list of semifinalists.

Below are the Bergen County students who made the list.

Since they are sometimes organized by regional school or private school and not town, there may be a few missing from this Bergen County list. If we've erred, send us anemail here.

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Allendale

Xu, Kevin
Shankar, Pranav
Strauss, Matthew

Cresskill

Fischer, Ryan
Lee, Eugene

Demarest

Boncaldo, Alessandra E.
Dail, Julianna G.
Lee, Sophia S.

Dumont

Celis, John Rowan

Englewood

An, Alex
Glozman, Leonard
Mani, Nikhil R.

Fort Lee

Antich, Nikola
Kim, Noah
Oh, Aaron
Tan, Yvette

Glen Rock

Bedwell-Coll, Jeremy
He, Sophie
Tsang, Ethan

Hackensack (Bergen County Academies)

Ajesh, Anagha
Chakravorty, Sohan
Chang, Christopher
Choi, Henry
Dua, Madhav
Durden, Roark
Gilman, Daniel
Hansen, Thomas
Huo, Carolyn
Jain, Parth
Kandaswamy, Aatish
Kim, Danielle
Kim, Kai

Lee, Jeremy
Lee, Kayla
Maddali, Saketh
Mao, Marvin
Ni, Kimberley
Sasson, Aahna
Shen, Aubrey
Song, Beatrice
Srivatsa, Kyle
Thompson, Kathryn
Varghese, Shawn
Varia, Riyashi
Wan, Brendon

Mahwah

Bhamidipati, Sreesamhitha

Montville

Cao, Hong Jin
Wang, Curtis B.

Oradell/Bergen Catholic

Song, Brian
Song, Daniel

River Dell

Cook, Robert
He, Brady
Li, Angelina

Paramus, Frisch School

Fisher, Ephraim
Gordon, Sophia
Poltorak, Mussia
Urman, Shoshana
Yarsky, Gil

Park Ridge

Adel, Bennett

Ramsey, Don Bosco Prep

MacDougall, Thomas

Ramsey

Jiang, Simon Y.

Ridgewood

Jung, Yuri H.
Khalitov, Daniel
Miki, Kippei T.
Nguyen-Van-Duong, Mathias
Rajesh, Aditya
Schneider, Eitan D.
Vaynshteyn, Gina
Walsh, Henry R.

Saddle River Day School

Williamson, Faith

Tenafly

Cheng, Miranda
Jang, Ryan
Liakhovitski, Adam
Oh, Luke
Takayama, Seiichiro
Wright, Monet

Teterboro, Bergen County Technical High School

Bohan, Molly
Hwang, Aiden
Hwang, Joon

Liu, Bridget
Trigub, Max
Tsien, Sophia