Hicksville Students Named National Merit Semifinalists

Three Hicksville High School seniors have been named semifinalists in the National Merit Scholarship Program. Congratulations to Rohil Agarwal, Catherine Chen and Snehadri Das.

Catherine, Rohil and Snehadri qualified as semifinalists by scoring among the highest in the state on the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test last year, ranking among the top 1 percent nationally. The National Merit Scholarship Corporation awarded this distinction to approximately 16,000 high school students nationwide. Semifinalists will now compete for approximately 7,500 National Merit Scholarships worth more than $31 million. Finalists will be announced in February, with the winners to be named in the spring.

Three types of National Merit Scholarships will be offered this spring. Every finalist will compete for one of 2,500 scholarships of $2,500. About 1,000 corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards will be provided by approximately 230 corporations and business organizations, and roughly 180 colleges and universities are expected to finance some 4,000 college-sponsored awards for finalists who will attend their respective institutions.

Catherine plans to study microbiology in college, Rohil will study engineering and Snehadri will study math and finance. The Hicksville School District wishes them well as they move forward in the competition.

Story, Photo courtesy of Hicksville Public Schools: Hicksville High School Principal Raymond Williams and Chairperson of Guidance Efthymia Rafaelides congratulate Hicksville’s three National Merit Scholarship semifinalists (L-R) Snehadri Das, Catherine Chen and Rohil Agarwal.